ABSTRACT
Cyprus has long been seen as a ‘crossroads’ of multiple, complex interactions, acting as a stepping-stone between east and west. Accordingly, the island has played a central role in studies of trade and exchange – long-distance and local, entrepreneurial and centralised – and of the movement and transfer of ideas, material culture and traditions across the Mediterranean. It is unsurprising, therefore, that Cyprus was deeply affected by the upheavals at the end of the thirteenth century , when the major states of the Late Bronze Age Mediterranean, including Mycenaean palatial systems and Levantine centres such as Ras Ibn Hani and Ugarit, seem to have undergone a major social and economic collapse (Iacovou 1998: 334-5; 1999b: 4-5; 2001:
86; 2006a: 33-5; Karageorghis 1987: 117; 1992: 81; Rupp 1987: 147), leaving the Mediterranean effectively free from outside interference by other states from the twelfth to the eighth centuries (Iacovou 1999a: 141-2; 2002: 84; 2005b: 21; 2006a: 33-4; Mazar 1994: 39). ˆe impact of these Mediterranean-wide upheavals on Cyprus is reflected in the archaeological record by a series of abandonments and destructions at several Late Bronze Age sites across the island. ˆe disruption to the island, however, was relatively short-lived, and old urban and state structures seem to have been replaced rather soon by the emergence of a new socio-political landscape – the Archaic city-kingdoms (Iacovou 1999a: 145-6; 2005b: 20-1). Despite the upheavals of the thirteenth century , the complex cultural mix that
constituted Late Bronze Age Cyprus continued to diversify throughout the Iron Age, facilitated by increased Mediterranean-wide mobility and movements. New and established connections, both within and beyond the island, significantly impacted on its socio-political trajectory. ˆe emerging social, political and cultural landscapes of the Cypriot Iron Age, however, have traditionally been explained in terms of external stimuli alone, with a particular focus on the influence of both displaced Aegean peoples and incoming Phoenicians on Cypriot culture and society during the eleventh to ninth centuries . ˆis one-dimensional approach simplifies the mechanics of social and cultural interaction and underplays the complexity of the island’s socio-political development. ˆe dynamic changes underway on the island in the Early Iron Age were the result of multiple social and spatial dynamics, including internal island interactions and cross-island connections. ˆis chapter seeks to develop a more holistic approach, examining the materiality of all complex social and cultural encounters on the island at that time – both within it and beyond it – exploring how these connectivities impacted on the renegotiation of social and political identities.
