Shifting Centres: Site Location and Resource Procurement on the North Coast of Cyprus over the Longue Durée of the Prehistoric Bronze Age

Jennifer Webb

doi:10.3390/land7020064

Abstract

This paper examines the relationship between site location, resource procurement, and political economy in the context of three localised centres of settlement—Vasilia, Vounous, and Lapithos—which succeeded each other in the narrow, naturally bounded north coastal strip of Cyprus during the approximately 750 years of the Early and Middle Bronze Age (ca. 2450–1700 BC). Cyprus is home to abundant copper sulphide ores and was linked to the international metal trade in the first phase of the Early Bronze Age and again in the Middle Bronze Age. In both cases, this was conducted largely, if not exclusively, via outlets on the north coast which lie close to the southern coast of Anatolia and contemporary shipping lanes but some 35–40 km distant from the nearest ore bodies in the foothills of the Troodos Mountains. Mechanisms which allowed north coast sites to overcome internal distance deterrents in order to exploit geostrategic advantages in relation to external trade include a favourable natural environment (rainfall, soils, and harbours), technological advantage, probably coercion (physical and ideological), and an ability to achieve high levels of centrality within communication and transport networks with fluctuating levels of integration and hierarchy.

Highlights

This paper aims to examine the relationship between site location, resource procurement, and political economy in the context of three localised centres of settlement—Vasilia, Vounous, and Lapithos—in the narrow, naturally bounded north coastal strip of Cyprus during the approximately
The focus here has been on two primary topological properties of distribution/connectivity networks—integration and hierarchy
The loss of an external market led to the demise of this network and the emergence in the Early Bronze Age (EBA) of Vounous as a singular settlement with a highly idiosyncratic material culture, few traces of which are evident elsewhere even within its micro-region

Summary

Introduction

This paper aims to examine the relationship between site location, resource procurement, and political economy in the context of three localised centres of settlement—Vasilia, Vounous, and Lapithos—in the narrow, naturally bounded north coastal strip of Cyprus during the approximately750 years of the Early and Middle Bronze Age (ca. 2450–1700 BC) (Figure 1). Both are critical to understanding the north coast of Cyprus, especially in relation to the first and third of our settlements. The north coast played a major role in the development of Bronze Age society in Cyprus. What happened in this region, was as much a case of overcoming locational disadvantage, as of exploiting advantages to create central places in an uncentral landscape that achieved considerable success within and beyond their micro-region. The ultimate demise of this evolutionary trajectory appears to reflect shifts in market demand in the wider eastern Mediterranean, emphasising the critical importance of off-island and inter-regional connectivity to the economic success of these settlements

Objectives

Results

Conclusion