Spring Semester, Optional module, 10 ECTS

Instructors: Prof. em. Eleni Mantzourani, Giorgos Vavouranakis & Ioannis Voskos

Summary

This course focuses on the understanding of important social, economic and cultural phenomena of the past through the study of archaeological finds. It explores alternative related approaches that archaeology has developed during its disciplinary development. How is the passage from foraging to agropastoralism documented and understood? What were the social processes that allowed people to shift from a domestic to an urban way of life? Is it possible to trace events of population or ethnic identity changes? Prehistoric Cyprus makes an ideal case study for all the above questions. Being at the crossroads between the Aegean and the east Mediterranean, the island saw periods of both insularity and extensive connectivity with its environs, from the earliest Prehistory (11.000 BC) to the end of the Bronze Age (c. 1100 BC). Interestingly, prehistoric Cypriot communities were always able to retain their distinct cultural characteristics and yet stay connected with Epipalaeolithic foragers, to host Early Bronze Anatolian immigrants, to retain Mycenaean, Hittite, Levantine and Egyptian connections or to get through the Sea People’s turmoil that swept the east Mediterranean. The course includes in-class discussions and museum visits.   

Learning outcomes

By the end of the course students should be able to

• understand and deal with different problems of archaeological information.
• exercise a productive critique on various interpretative approaches of the material record.
• participate in an open dialogue expressing their own views on key-issues of the prehistory of Cyprus.
• study and work individually and in groups.
• know the basic information about the main prehistoric sites of Cyprus.
• know the basic information about different classes of prehistoric material evidence from Cyprus.

Syllabus

• Introduction: Geography and history of archaeology
• From Epipaleolithic foraging to Neolithic farming
• Idiosyncratic ways of life in prehistoric Cyprus
• Domestic life and the emergence of complexity in prehistoric Cyprus
• Pottery production and consumption in prehistoric Cyprus
• Copper production and divine protection in prehistoric Cyprus
• Immigration vs acculturation: The Philia facies and the beginning of the Bronze Age in Cyprus
• New lifeways and their representation on art: Early and Middle Bronze Age in Cyprus
• Urbanism and social power in the Late Bronze Age
• A cosmopolitan way of life: trade connections in the Late Bronze Age
• Ethnicity matters: The end of the Late Bronze Age in Cyprus
• Museum visit
• Concluding lesson

Assessment

*Essay: 70%

Oral presentation: 20%

Written work: 10%

*Essay (3.500-5.000 words). A list of indicative topics is provided within the course but students are strongly encouraged to discuss and personalize the essay topic with the course instructor.

Student's study hours

Lectures: 16

Educational visits: 2

Interactive teaching: 8

Study and analysis of bibliography: 80

Cooperation with the instructor: 34

Tutorials: 4

Independent study (incl. project): 26

Essay writing: 80

Course total: 250

Recommended bibliography

Karageorghis, V. 2002. Early Cyprus: Crossroads of the Mediterranean. Los Angeles.

Karageorghis, V. 2006. Aspects of Everyday Life in Ancient Cyprus: Iconographic Representations. Nicosia.

Kearns, C. and Manning, S. W.  (eds.) 2019. New Directions in Cypriot Archaeology. Ithaca.

Knapp, A.B. 2008. Prehistoric and Protohistoric Cyprus. Identity, Insularity, and Connectivity. Oxford.

Knapp, A.B. 2013. The Archaeology of Cyprus. Cambridge.

Mantzourani E., 2001 (2006 2nd edition). The Archaeology of Prehistoric Cyprus, Athens. (in Greek)

Steel, L. 2004. Cyprus before History. London.