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14C-Dating of the Late Bronze Age City of Hala Sultan Tekke, Cyprus: Status Report

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 July 2019

Eva M Wild ,
Peter M Fischer ,
Peter Steier  and
Teresa Bürge
Eva M Wild*
Affiliation:
University of Vienna, Faculty of Physics, Isotope Research and Nuclear Physics, Vienna Environmental Research Accelerator, Währinger Strasse 17, AT-1090 Vienna, Austria
Peter M Fischer
Affiliation:
University of Gothenburg, Department of Historical Studies, Box 200, SE-40530 Gothenburg, Sweden
Peter Steier
Affiliation:
University of Vienna, Faculty of Physics, Isotope Research and Nuclear Physics, Vienna Environmental Research Accelerator, Währinger Strasse 17, AT-1090 Vienna, Austria
Teresa Bürge
Affiliation:
Austrian Academy of Sciences, Institute for Oriental and European Archaeology, Hollandstrasse 11-13, AT-1020 Vienna, Austria
*
*Email: [email protected].
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Abstract

Hala Sultan Tekke is a large Bronze Age city located on the southeastern littoral of Cyprus. The city flourished from approximately 1650 BC to 1150 BC according to the archaeological evidence. Since 2010, Swedish excavations have exposed four new city quarters (CQ1–4) with three occupational phases, the 14C dating of which is of highest importance also for other contemporaneous cultures. The finds demonstrate vast intercultural connections in the Mediterranean and even with southern Scandinavia. In 2014, roughly 500 m to the east of CQ1, one of the richest cemeteries on the island was discovered. According to the archaeological evidence, the finds from the city date mainly to the 13th and 12th centuries BC. However, many of the wealthy tombs and the offering pits from the cemetery are considerably older with the oldest finds dating to the 16th century BC. This raises the question where the city quarters belonging to the oldest finds from the cemetery are situated. The radiocarbon (14C) dates from Hala Sultan Tekke have much influence on the dating of related sites because of numerous imports from a vast area. We present here new 14C data obtained in the course of the current excavations, which add to sets of already existing data.

Keywords

Bronze AgeHala Sultan Tekkeradiocarbon dating
Type
Conference Paper
Information
Radiocarbon , Volume 61 , Issue 5: Radiocarbon 2018 Conference Proceedings Trondheim, Norway, June 17–22, 2018 Part 1 of 2 , October 2019 , pp. 1253 - 1264
Copyright
© 2019 by the Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of the University of Arizona 

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Footnotes

Selected Papers from the 23rd International Radiocarbon Conference, Trondheim, Norway, 17–22 June, 2018

References

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