The international conference "Egypt and Cyprus in Antiquity" held in Nicosia in April 2003 filled an important gap in historical knowledge about Cyprus' relations with its neighbours. While the island's links with the Aegean and the Levant have been well documented and continue to be the subject of much archaeological attention, the exchanges between Cyprus and the Nile Valley are not as well known and have not before been comprehensively reviewed. They range in date from the mid third millennium B.C. to Late Antiquity and encompass every kind of interconnection, including political union. Their novelty lies in the marked differences between the ancient civilisations of Cyprus and Egypt, the distance between them geographically, which could be bridged only by ship, and the unusual ways they influenced each other's material and spiritual cultures. The papers delivered at the conference covered every aspect of the relationship, with special emphasis on the tangible evidence for the movement of goods, people and ideas between the two countries over a 3000 year period.

Caeculus IV opens with a dedication to professor Marianne Kleibrink on the occasion of her 60th birthday, followed by a complete list of her publications. The Proceedings of the 4th Fransum Colloquium start with an article of Christopher Smith, entitled "Ritualising the Economy". He presents a theoretical base for a correlation between ritual and economy. Smith outlines some recent theories which incorporate economic activity into ritual context, actions into thought or, as one could say, matter into mind. Furthermore, he tries to relate this theoretical framework to the archaeological evidence from Latium Vetus, the region on which his own research focuses. The results from the recent Dutch excavations in Italy at Satricum seem to correspond fairly well with the discussed theories. His paper offers, therefor, a suitable foundation for the following contributions, most of which concentrate on central Italy. The second contribution by Tsjeard Hoekstra deals with the biography of bronze hoards from Italy. Albert Nijboer continues the debate with a discussion of the significant changes in hoarding in central Italy from 800 to 500 BC. The fourth paper by Demetrius Waarsenburg and Hendrieneke Maas deals with the bronzes deposited in the early sanctuary at Satricum in Lazio. Jelle Bouma discusses the same shrine as the previous authors but during the subsequent period, the 5th and 4t centuries BC. He presents a report of his excavation of the second votive deposit at the main shrine of Satricum. Peter Attema presents in his paper evidence of a recent survey in the area around Sezze, ancient Setia. The paper by Marjan Galestin discusses Roman coin hoards in the Netherlands. The last paper, not related to the central topic of this issue, is by Patricia Roncoroni who studies children's graves in Latium during the early Iron Age.