Dr Kathryn Eriksson

Cyprus: Culture, Connections, Copper and Climate Change in the Bronze Age

The first known use of copper at Cyprus, the third largest island in the Mediterranean , dates to the Chalcolithic period (4th/3rd millennium BCE). The emerging exploitation of the island’s resources was significant in shaping its society throughout the Bronze Age (ca 2500-1 100 BCE). From the beginning of the Bronze Age, there is evidence of increasing connections with surrounding cultures, but also, there is an indication of people moving from Anatolia to the north of the island. Then, throughout the Late Bronze Age, there is contact with the Minoans followed later by the Mycenaeans. This is seen in the Cypriot pottery found abroad, finds from sites like the Ulu Burun shipwreck, and letters in the Amarna archive from a king from Alasia (Cyprus). Population movement in the East Mediterranean at the end of the Bronze Age (ca 1190 BCE), which may in part have been triggered by climate change, coincides with the arrival of Greek settlers on the island . Thus, the archaeological record indicates significant changes in Cyprus during the Bronze Age.

Dr Kathryn Eriksson first visited Cyprus in 1 984 after a field season at Pella in Jordan. She has worked at the Late Bronze Age harbour site of Hala Sultan Tekke, and co-authored publications on material from Australian excavati ons at Vasilia, Ayia Paraskevi and Karmi. She is also the author of The Creative Independence of Late Bronze Age Cyprus (2007) . Most recently she has been drawing fabulous artefacts from unpublished Bronze Age tombs from Lapithos for Dr Jennifer Webb (La Trobe University).

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Hosted by the Near Eastern Archaeology Foundation (NEAF)

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