ABSTRACT
Mould-cast copper-base artefacts are one of the defining features of the prehistoric Bronze Age in Cyprus. Almost 3000 provenanced artefacts include weapons, tools, items used for personal grooming, clothing or shroud fasteners, and ornaments, the great majority of which have been recovered in mortuary contexts. This chapter attempts to understand the organisation of the metal industry in Early and Middle Bronze Age Cyprus in the light of a newly emerging picture of more complex and interconnected communities and of a craft economy that, by the Middle Bronze Age if not before, included the production of goods in formal workspaces. The primary evidence for metalworking is briefly examined but the main focus is on the artefacts themselves and networks involved in the distribution of finished objects.
