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PRODUCTION, EXCHANGE, AND SOCIO‐POLITICAL COMPLEXITY ON BRONZE AGE CYPRUS 1
Author(s) -
KNAPP A. BERNARD
Publication year - 1986
Publication title -
oxford journal of archaeology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.382
H-Index - 31
eISSN - 1468-0092
pISSN - 0262-5253
DOI - 10.1111/j.1468-0092.1986.tb00129.x
Subject(s) - bronze age , archaeology , politics , archaeological evidence , ancient history , archaeological record , chiefdom , southern levant , mediterranean climate , geography , palestine , architecture , middle east , history , bronze , political science , law
Summary. During the centuries 1700–1400 BC, the archaeological record of the eastern Mediterranean island of Cyprus shows a number of significant innovations: urban centres with public and ceremonial architecture, differential burial practices, writing, an intensification of metallurgical production and export, extensive trade relations with the surrounding cultures of the eastern Mediterranean, fortifications, ‘mass’burials, and increased finds of weaponry. Documentary evidence from Egypt, the Levant, and the Aegean sheds further light on these developments. These changes represent the transformation of an isolated, village‐based culture into an international, urban‐oriented, complex society. One of the key questions to consider is why these developments in Cyprus lagged so far (400‐1200 years) behind those of the island's neighbours: Egypt, Crete, Syria‐Palestine, and Anatolia. Using concepts from development economics and political anthropology, and models developed by archaeologists working on similar problems elsewhere, this study attempts to explain the process of change and innovation apparent in the Cypriot archaeological record of 1700–1400 BC.