Characterizing the Philia Facies: Material Culture, Chronology, and the Origin of the Bronze Age in Cyprus

Abstract

Major changes mark the transition from the Chalcolithic to the Bronze Age in mid-third millennium Cyprus. Philia material has long been recognized as a crucial element in this transition, but analysis has been hampered by patchy discovery and reporting and the lack of stratified deposits. Pottery and other finds from recent excavations at Marki-Alonia provide the basis for a substantial reassessment of the Philia facies and its chronological and cultural relationship to both Chalcolithic and Bronze Age material. An explanatory model is developed incorporating an initial intrusion into Cyprus of autonomous groups from Anatolia; the development of a distinct, identifiable Philia cultural system; the acculturation of both migrant and indigenous populations; and the subsequent evolution of the widespread culture of the Early Cypriot Bronze Age.