Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-j824f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-14T19:19:03.476Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Ceramics, trade, provenience and geology: Cyprus in the Late Bronze Age

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 January 2015

Peter Grave ,
Lisa Kealhofer ,
Ben Marsh ,
Ulf-Dietrich Schoop ,
Jürgen Seeher ,
John W. Bennett  and
Attila Stopic
Peter Grave
Affiliation:
Archaeomaterials Science Hub/Archaeology & Palaeoanthropology, University of New England, Armidale, NSW 2351, Australia
Lisa Kealhofer
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology & Department of Environmental Studies and Sciences, Santa Clara University, Santa Clara, CA 95053, USA
Ben Marsh
Affiliation:
Department of Geography & Department of Environmental Studies, Bucknell University, Lewisburg, PA 17837, USA
Ulf-Dietrich Schoop
Affiliation:
School of History, Classics & Archaeology, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH8 9AG, UK
Jürgen Seeher
Affiliation:
German Archaeological Institute, Istanbul Section, 34437 Istanbul, Turkey
John W. Bennett
Affiliation:
Neutron Activation Group, Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation, Locked Bag 2001, Kirrawee DC, NSW 2232, Australia
Attila Stopic
Affiliation:
Neutron Activation Group, Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation, Locked Bag 2001, Kirrawee DC, NSW 2232, Australia
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The island of Cyprus was a major producer of copper and stood at the heart of east Mediterranean trade networks during the Late Bronze Age. It may also have been the source of the Red Lustrous Wheelmade Ware that has been found in mortuary contexts in Egypt and the Levant, and in Hittite temple assemblages in Anatolia. Neutron Activation Analysis (NAA) has enabled the source area of this special ceramic to be located in a geologically highly localised and geochemically distinctive area of western Cyprus. This discovery offers a new perspective on the spatial organisation of Cypriot economies in the production and exchange of elite goods around the eastern Mediterranean at this time.

Keywords

CyprusLate Bronze AgeRed Lustrous Wheelmade Wareprovenienceopen access datamultivariate comparisonNeutron Activation Analysis
Type
Research
Information
Antiquity , Volume 88 , Issue 342 , December 2014 , pp. 1180 - 1200
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd. 2014

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Åström, P. 1994. “The fantastic years on Cyprus”: the Swedish Cyprus Expedition and its members. Philadelphia (PA): Coronet.Google Scholar
Åström, P. (ed.). 2008. The chronology of Base-Ring Ware and Bichrome Wheelmade Ware: proceedings of a colloquium held in the Royal Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities, Stockholm, May 18–19 2000. Stockholm: Royal Academy of Letters, History & Antiquities.Google Scholar
Barlow, J.A., Bolger, D.L. & Kling, B. (ed.). 1991. Cypriot ceramics: reading the prehistoric record. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Museum.Google Scholar
Boulanger, M. 2011. Neutron activation analysis of ceramics from Cyprus (tDAR ID: 371571). Available at: http://core.tdar.org/project/371571 (accessed 29 May 2014).Google Scholar
Budd, P. 1995. Oxhide ingots, recycling and the Mediterranean metals trade. Journal of Mediterranean Archaeology 8: 1–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cohen, D.R., Rutherford, N.F., Morisseau, E. & Zissimos, A.M.. 2012. Geochemical patterns in the soils of Cyprus. Science of the Total Environment 420: 250–62. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2012.01.036 Google Scholar
Dias, M.I. & Prudêncio, M.I.. 2008. On the importance of using scandium to normalize geochemical data preceding multivariate analysis applied to archaeometric pottery studies. Microchemical Journal 88: 136–41. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.microc.2007.11.009 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Edens, C. 1992. Dynamics of trade in the ancient Mesopotamian ‘World System’. American Anthropologist 94: 118–39.http://dx.doi.org/10.1525/aa.1992.94.1.02a00070 Google Scholar
Eriksson, K.O. 1991. Red Lustrous Wheelmade Ware: a product of Late Bronze Age Cyprus, in Barlow, J.A., Bolger, D.L. & Kling, B. (ed.) Cypriot ceramics: reading the prehistoric record: 81–96. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Museum.Google Scholar
Eriksson, K.O. 1993. Red Lustrous Wheel-Made Ware (Studies in Mediterranean Archaeology 103). Uppsala: Åström.Google Scholar
Eriksson, K.O. 2007. Using Cypriot Red Lustrous Wheelmade Ware to establish cultural and chronological synchronisms during the Late Bronze Age, in Hein, I. (ed.) The lustrous wares of Cyprus and the eastern Mediterranean: 51–60. Vienna: Austrian Academy of Sciences.Google Scholar
Gale, N.H. 1991. Copper oxhide ingots: their origin and their place in the Bronze Age metals trade in the Mediterranean, in Gale, N.H. (ed.) Bronze Age trade in the Mediterranean (Studies in Mediterranean Archaeology 90): 197–239. Uppsala: Åström.Google Scholar
Geological Survey Department. 1995. Geological map of Cyprus. Nicosia: Ministry of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Environment.Google Scholar
Glascock, M.D. & Neff, H. 2003. Neutron activation analysis and provenance research in archaeology. Measurement Science and Technology 14: 1516–26. http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/0957-0233/14/9/304 Google Scholar
Gomez, B., Neff, H., Rautman, M.L., Vaughan, S.J. & Glascock, M.D.. 2002. The source provenance of Bronze Age and Roman pottery from Cyprus. Archaeometry 44: 23–36. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1475-4754.00041 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goren, Y., Bunimovitz, S., Finkelstein, I. & Na’aman, N.. 2003. The location of Alashiya: new evidence from petrographic investigation of Alishiyan tablets from el Amarna and Ugarit. American Journal of Archaeology 107: 233–55. http://dx.doi.org/10.3764/aja.107.2.233 Google Scholar
Grave, P., Kealhofer, L., Hnila, P., Marsh, B., Aslan, C., Thumm-Doğrayan, D. & Rigter, W.. 2013. Cultural dynamics and ceramic resource use at Late Bronze Age/Early Iron Age Troy, northwestern Turkey. Journal of Archaeological Science 40: 1760–77. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2012.10.027 Google Scholar
Hein, I. (ed.). 2007. The lustrous wares of Late Bronze Age Cyprus and the eastern Mediterranean. Vienna: Austrian Academy of Sciences.Google Scholar
Hein, A., Tsolakidou, A., Iliopoulos, I., Mommsen, H., Buxeda I Garrigós, J., Montana, G. & Kilikoglou, V.. 2002. Standardisation of elemental analytical techniques applied to provenance studies of archaeological ceramics: an inter laboratory calibration study. Analyst 127: 542–53.http://dx.doi.org/10.1039/b109603f Google Scholar
Karageorghis, V. 2001. The White Slip Ware of Late Bronze Age Cyprus. Vienna: Austrian Academy of Sciences.Google Scholar
Keswani, P.S. 1993. Models of local exchange in Late Bronze Age Cyprus. Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 292: 73–83. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/1357249 Google Scholar
Keswani, P.S. 1997. Hierarchies, heterarchies, and urbanization processes: the view from Bronze Age Cyprus. Journal of Mediterranean Archaeology 9: 211–50.Google Scholar
Keswani, P.S. 2005. Death, prestige, and copper in Bronze Age Cyprus. American Journal of Archaeology 109: 341–401. http://dx.doi.org/10.3764/aja.109.3.341 Google Scholar
King, R.H., Rupp, D.W. & Sorenson, L.W.. 1986. A multivariate analysis of pottery from southwestern Cyprus using neutron activation analysis data. Journal of Archaeological Science 13: 361–74. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0305-4403(86)90054-3 Google Scholar
Knapp, A.B. 2013. The archaeology of Cyprus: from earliest prehistory through the Bronze Age. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Knapp, A.B. & Cherry, J.. 1994. Provenience studies and Bronze Age Cyprus: production, exchange and politico-economic change (Monographs in World Archaeology 21). Madison (WI): Prehistory Press.Google Scholar
Knappett, C., Kilikoglou, V., Steele, V. & Stern, B.. 2005. The circulation and consumption of Red Lustrous Wheelmade Ware: petrographic, chemical and residue analysis. Anatolian Studies 55: 25–59.Google Scholar
Kozal, E. 2003. Analysis of the distribution patterns of Red Lustrous Wheel-made Ware, Mycenaean and Cypriot pottery in Anatolia in the 15th–13th centuries B.C., in Fischer, B., Genz, H., Jean, E. & Köroğlu, K. (ed.) Identiyfing changes: the transition from Bronze to Iron Ages in Anatolia and its neighbouring regions: 65–78. Istanbul: Türk Eskiçag Bilimleri Enstitüsü.Google Scholar
Lapierre, H., Bosch, D., Narros, A., Mascle, G.H., Tardy, M. & Demant, A.. 2007. The Mamonia Complex [Southwest Cyprus] revisited: remnant of late Triassic inter-oceanic vulcanism along the Tethyan southwestern passive margin. Geology Magazine 144: 1–19. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0016756806002937 Google Scholar
Mielke, D. 2007. Red Lustrous Wheelmade Ware from Hittite contexts, in Hein, I. (ed.) The lustrous wares of Cyprus and the eastern Mediterranean: 155–68. Vienna: Austrian Academy of Sciences.Google Scholar
Millett, A. & Catling, H.. 1966. Composition and provenance: a challenge. Archaeometry 9: 92–97. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1475-4754.1966.tb00910.x Google Scholar
Moran, W.L. 1992. The Amarna Letters. Baltimore (MD): Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
Neff, H., Blomster, J., Glascock, M.D., Bishop, R.L., Blackman, M.J., Coe, M.D., Cowgill, G.L., Diehl, R.A., Houston, S. & Joyce, A.A.. 2006. Methodological issues in the provenance investigation of Early Formative Mesoamerican ceramics. Latin American Antiquity: 54–76. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/25063036 Google Scholar
Northmore, K.J., Charalambous, M. & Hobbs, P.R.N.. 1986. Engineering geology of the Kannaviou ‘Melange’ and Mamonia Complex formations: Phiti/Statos area, southwest Cyprus. Keyworth: British Geological Survey.Google Scholar
Oren, E.D. (ed.). 2000. The sea peoples and their world: a reassessment (University of Pennsylvania Monographs 108). Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania.Google Scholar
Parzinger, H. & Sanz, R.. 1992. Die Oberstadt von Hattuša. Hethitische Keramik aus dem zentralen Tempelviertel. Funde aus den Grabungen 1982–1987. Boğazköy-Hattuša XV. Berlin: Gebrüder Mann.Google Scholar
Peltenburg, E. 2012. Text meets material culture in Late Bronze Age Cyprus, in Georgiou, A. (ed.) Cyprus: an island culture: society and social relations from the Bronze Age to the Venetian period: 1–23. Oxford: Oxbow.Google Scholar
Price, T.D. & Burton, J.H.. 2011. An introduction to archaeological chemistry: 213–42. New York: Springer. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-6376-5 Google Scholar
Pulak, C. 1998. The Uluburun shipwreck: an overview. International Journal of Nautical Archaeology 27: 188. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1095-9270.1998.tb00803.x Google Scholar
Rautman, M.L. & Neff, H.. 2006. Compositional analysis of ceramics from Maroni Petrera, in Manning, S.W., Manning, A., Tomber, R., Sewell, D.A., Monks, S.J., Ponting, M.J. & Ribeiro, E.C. (ed.) The late Roman church at Maroni Petrera. Survey and salvage excavations 1990–1997, and other traces of Roman remains in the Lower Maroni Valley, Cyprus: 55–57. Nicosia: A.G. Lenvetis Foundation.Google Scholar
Rautman, M.L., H. Neff, B., Gomez, S. VAUGHAN & M.D. GLASCOCK. 1999. Amphoras and roof-tiles from late Roman Cyprus: a compositional study of calcareous ceramics from Kalvasos-Kopetra. Journal of Roman Archaeology 12: 377–91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reepmeyer, C., Spriggs, M., Anggraeni, P. LAPE., Neri, L., Ronquillo, W.P., Simanjuntak, T., Summerhayes, G., Tanudirjo, D. & Tiauzon, A.. 2011. Obsidian sources and distribution systems in Island Southeast Asia: new results and implications from geochemical research using LA-ICPMS. Journal of Archaeological Science 38: 2995–3005. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2011.06.023 Google Scholar
Schoop, U.-D. 2009. Indications of structural change in the Hittite pottery inventory at Boğazköy-Hattuša, in Daddi, F.P., Torri, G. & Corti, C. (ed.) Central-north Anatolia in the Hittite period: new perspectives in light of recent research: 145–68. Rome: Herder.Google Scholar
Seeher, J. 2001. Die Ausgrabungen in Boğazköy-Hattuša 2000. Archäologischer Anzeiger 2001: 333–62.Google Scholar
Seeher, J. 2002. Die Ausgrabungen in Boğazköy-Hattuša 2001. Archäologischer Anzeiger 2002: 59–78.Google Scholar
Sherratt, A. 1993. What would a Bronze-Age World System look like? Relations between temperate Europe and the Mediterranean in later prehistory. Journal of European Archaeology 1: 1–57. http://dx.doi.org/10.1179/096576693800719293 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sherratt, S. 1998. ‘Sea peoples’ and the economic structure of the late second millennium BC in the eastern Mediterranean, in Gitin, S., Mazar, A. & Stern, E. (ed.) Mediterranean peoples in transition: 292–313. Jerusalem: Israel Exploration Society.Google Scholar
Sherratt, S. 2000. Circulation of metals and the end of the Bronze Age in the eastern Mediterranean, in Pare, C.F.E. (ed.) Metals make the world go round: the supply and circulation of metals in Bronze Age Europe. Proceedings of a conference held at the University of Birmingham in June 1997: 82–95. Oxford: Oxbow.Google Scholar
Swarbrick, R.E. & Robertson, A.H.F.. 1980. Revised stratigraphy of the Mesozoic rocks of southern Cyprus. Geology Magazine 117: 547–63. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0016756800028892 Google Scholar
Tschegg, C., Ntaflos, T. & Hein, I.. 2009. Integrated geological, petrologic and geochemical approach to establish source material and technology of late Cypriot Bronze Age Plain White ware ceramics. Journal of Archaeological Science 36: 1103–14. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2008.12.004 Google Scholar
Vaughan, S.J. 1987. A fabric analysis of late Cypriot Base Ring Ware: studies in ceramic technology, petrology, geochemistry and mineralogy. Unpublished PhD dissertation, University College London.Google Scholar
Vaughan, S.J. 1991. Material and technical characterization of Base Ring ware: a fabric typology, in Barlow, J.A., Bolger, D.L. & Kling, B. (ed.) Cypriot ceramics: reading the prehistoric record: 119–31. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Museum.Google Scholar
Whitbread, I.K. 2003. Clays of Corinth: the study of a basic resource for ceramic production, in Williams, C.K. II & Bookidis, N. (ed.) Corinth: results of excavations conducted by the American School of Classical Studies at Athens. The centenary, 1896–1996. Volume 20: 1–13. Athens: American School of Classical Studies at Athens.Google Scholar