SARDINIA AND CYPRUS: AN ALTERNATIVE VIEW ON CYPRIOTES IN THE CENTRAL MEDITERRANEAN

2017 ◽  
Vol 85 ◽  
pp. 1-35 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anthony Russell ◽  
A. Bernard Knapp
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Current Literature ◽  
Eastern Mediterranean ◽  
Alternative View ◽  
Late Bronze Age ◽  
Tyrrhenian Sea ◽  
Cultural Impact ◽  
Central Mediterranean ◽  
Foreign Objects ◽  
Trading Network

Recent research reveals what we term a ‘discourse of certainty’ regarding an assumed predominant socio-economic and cultural impact of Late Bronze Age Cypriotes or Mycenaeans on the local peoples of Sardinia and/or Sicily and Italy, not least in terms of a systematic, seaborne trading network extending from the Cyprus to the Tyrrhenian Sea. ‘Minimalist’ approaches to such a phenomenon have a long and venerable but more limited pedigree. In this study, we question why minimalist views have been so summarily dismissed in much current literature that seeks to evaluate an eastern Mediterranean presence or influence in the central Mediterranean. We focus on Sardinia, and on the range of Cypriot or ‘Cypriot-type’ materials found there. We consider the nature of the Cypriot–Sardinian relationship, and suggest that we should decouple foreign objects from foreign agents. We question several of the perceived Cypriot influences on Sardinian artefacts, and consider possible alternative mechanisms and routes of exchange between the east and central Mediterranean. We outline and discuss the array of presumed or actual Cypriot artefacts found on Sardinia, and argue that these do not add up to a ‘significant’ corpus of Late Cypriot materials and connections.

Ethnicity, Entrepreneurship, and Exchange: Mediterranean Inter-island Relations in the Late Bronze Age

1990 ◽  
Vol 85 ◽  
pp. 115-153 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Bernard Knapp
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Eastern Mediterranean ◽  
Copper Production ◽  
Late Bronze Age ◽  
Central Mediterranean ◽  
Mediterranean World ◽  
Production Distribution ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Bronze Age ◽  
Metals Production

New data on Late Bronze Age Cypriot and Aegean material found in the eastern, southern, and central Mediterranean significantly alter timeworn concepts about the scope and extent of Mediterranean trade systems. Recent geochemical and statistical analyses highlight the pivotal role played by the production, distribution, and consumption of copper oxhide ingots in the Bronze Age economies of the wider Mediterranean world. As a consequence, it is possible to propose some basic hypotheses on metallurgical origins, and on the possible orientation of Mediterranean Bronze Age trade and traders.Two basic issues are involved: 1) did increased trade with the eastern Mediterranean stimulate production and intensify exchange mechanisms in the central Mediterranean? 2) or did eastern Mediterranean traders simply plug into an existing politico-economic system that somehow monitored metals' production and exchange further west?This paper also evaluates the impact of new archaeological and metallurgical data on traditional interpretations of Cypriot copper production and exchange in its Late Bronze Age Mediterranean context. Whilst Cypriot copper production remained important to the economy of the Bronze Age Mediterranean, it also made key tactical and commercial adjustments to the coming Age of Iron. Mechanisms of Mediterranean trade are still difficult to pin down, and it is unrealistic to do more than propose basic models of entrepreneurship, ethnicity, and exchange.

3.2 ka BP Megadrought and the Late Bronze Age Collapse

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Kaniewski ◽  
Elise Van Campo
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Prime Factor ◽  
Eastern Mediterranean ◽  
Late Bronze Age ◽  
Southwest Asia ◽  
Aegean Region ◽  
Climate Shift ◽  
Dark Ages ◽  
Political Unrest ◽  
Mediterranean Archaeology

The collapse of Bronze Age civilizations in the Aegean, southwest Asia, and the eastern Mediterranean 3200 years ago remains a persistent riddle in Eastern Mediterranean archaeology, as both archaeologists and historians believe the event was violent, sudden, and culturally disruptive. In the first phase of this period, many cities between Pylos and Gaza were destroyed violently and often left unoccupied thereafter. The palace economy of the Aegean Region and Anatolia that characterized the Late Bronze Age was replaced by the isolated village cultures of the Dark Ages. Earthquakes, attacks of the Sea Peoples, and socio-political unrest are among the most frequently suggested causes for this phenomenon. However, while climate change has long been considered a potential prime factor in this crisis, only recent studies have pinpointed the megadrought behind the collapse. An abrupt climate shift seems to have caused, or hastened, the fall of the Late Bronze Age world by sparking political and economic turmoil, migrations, and famines. The entirety of the megadrought’s effects terminated the Late Bronze Age in the eastern Mediterranean.

scholarly journals Mortuary Landscapes Revisited: Dynamics of Insularity and Connectivity in Mortuary Ritual, Feasting, and Commemoration in Late Bronze Age Cyprus

Religions ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (10) ◽  
pp. 877
Author(s):  
Teresa Bürge
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Eastern Mediterranean ◽  
Mortuary Practices ◽  
Late Bronze Age ◽  
Faunal Remains ◽  
Mortuary Ritual ◽  
Sacred Landscapes ◽  
External Objects

The aim of the paper is to discuss mortuary contexts and possible related ritual features as parts of sacred landscapes in Late Bronze Age Cyprus. Since the island was an important node in the Eastern Mediterranean economic network, it will be explored whether and how connectivity and insularity may be reflected in ritual and mortuary practices. The article concentrates on the extra-urban cemetery of Area A at the harbour city of Hala Sultan Tekke, where numerous pits and other shafts with peculiar deposits of complete and broken objects as well as faunal remains have been found. These will be evaluated and set in relation to the contexts of the nearby tombs to reconstruct ritual activities in connection with funerals and possible rituals of commemoration or ancestral rites. The evidence from Hala Sultan Tekke and other selected Late Cypriot sites demonstrates that these practices were highly dynamic in integrating and adopting external objects, symbols, and concepts, while, nevertheless, definite island-specific characteristics remain visible.

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