The Making of 1St Millennium Bce Polities on Cyprus
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UNRULY LANDSCAPES: THE MAKING OF 1ST MILLENNIUM BCE POLITIES ON CYPRUS A Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School Of Cornell University In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements of the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy By Catherine Mary Kearns May 2015 Copyright © 2015 Catherine Mary Kearns ABSTRACT UNRULY LANDSCAPES: THE MAKING OF 1st MILLENNIUM BCE POLITIES ON CYPRUS Catherine Mary Kearns, PhD Cornell University 2015 This dissertation is an examination of emerging landscape practices in one region of Cyprus during the early 1st millennium BCE (ca. 1100-700 BCE). The work argues that shifting environmental contexts and social practices co-constituted a re-investment in this region, the Vasilikos and Maroni Valleys of south-central Cyprus, after a period of dislocation at the end of the Bronze Age. This re-investment involved the creation of places for social gatherings, such as cemeteries and ritual spaces, as well as renewed activity in metallurgy, agriculture and water management, and trade. I conclude that the landscape practices that emerged across the island in the 9th-8th c. BCE, while contingent to local contexts, contributed to a shift in the island’s political development. The region of focus is both underexplored in the history of archaeology of 1st millennium BCE Cyprus, as well as demarcated as a supposed productive hinterland for two historic kingdoms. This research moves away from understandings of the period that privilege the city and the textual identity of the king (Gr. basileus). I focus instead, through a critical review of our evidence for the mechanics of the Cypriot polity, on the making of settlements and landscapes outside the city and their participation in the formation of diverse forms of social and political organization. I document a shift in the permanence of settlements, the formation of social boundaries, and the engineering of the landscape in the 9th-8th c. BCE, at a time when paleoclimatic proxies (including a new stable isotope analysis of charcoal undertaken in this dissertation) indicate a shift to wetter and increasingly warmer conditions. I employ a relational approach to landscapes in order to examine the intersections of changing climate and developing structures. This study employs an interdisciplinary methodology that integrates spatial analyses of archaeological survey evidence (both archived and surveyed material) and paleoclimatic studies, and moves between the scales of community, region, island, and eastern Mediterranean. The analysis ends with a survey of ancient representations of Cyprus in Greek, Roman, and Near Eastern thought, arguing that certain tropes have affected scholarly interpretations that emphasize the singularity of the Cypriot basileus. iii BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH Catherine Kearns received her B.A. in Archaeology, with a minor in Classics, from The George Washington University in 2006. While at GWU, she interned at the Smithsonian Institute and excavated in Italy. In 2008 she received her M.A. in Classical Archaeology from the University of Arizona, writing a thesis on the designed landscapes of elite residences in the Roman province of Gallia Narbonensis, and interning at the Arizona State Museum. She began her doctorate at Cornell in 2008, using her summers to participate in field and survey projects in Italy, Jordan, Armenia, and Cyprus. In 2012-2013 she was the Fulbright student at the Cyprus American Archaeological Research Institute. iv To my parents, Joe and Mary, for their unconditional support, And to my pilot, Alex. Enclosed by a low wall of odd-shaped stones which age sinks into the scabious, At each corner lifted to the sky by the black jets of arborescent plants: Trajectories of frozen slag, columns of ink with mimosa fringes, The cypresses filters of the wind’s most edgy song. Who plows these hallowed grounds? Who changes the grass rectangles into slabs, And every day takes back a human surface from the flowers? Who long ago near the villages circumscribed the assigned area for pawning the dead? Who barks when the invisible dog barks? Beyond, the azure grindstone sharpens the roof ridges And the tapered slate glistens. “The cemetery,” Michel Deguy (Fragments du cadastre, 1960; trans. C. Eshleman 1984) v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS How does the saying go – it takes a village to raise a child? The many-faceted nature of this project, stretching its fingers into the halls of classics, anthropology, geochemistry, historiography, geography, and even materials science, has required something like a village of collaborators, advisors, technicians, friends, and family to see it through to some hope of completion. So many, that in the 11th hour as I write these acknowledgements of heartfelt gratitude, the list continues to grow. Before beginning, I must at the start give my deepest thanks to Alex Lovallo, without whose charming wit and companionship, and always-enlightening discussions of climate, technology, and Greeks, I (and this dissertation) would have been lost. I should likewise thank at the outset the community of faculty, advisors, and friends at Cornell where this dissertation took its shape. Sturt Manning has been an incredibly resilient advisor, one whose eagerness to explore techniques and methods outside of the confines of a traditional classics project has greatly influenced my work. Sturt’s willingness to drive around the Vasilikos Valley on his one afternoon off during a conference weekend in March 2013 is only one example of his unlimited support and enthusiasm, of which I am immeasurably grateful; his ability to talk across disciplinary lines – from a chart on isotopic values to the cultural context of the Odyssey – has profoundly impacted my own understandings of classical archaeology. Lori Khatchadourian invited me to work with her in Armenia in 2010 and my ways of thinking theoretically have never been the same. She has been a most brilliant mentor, and her erudite skills with language have saved this project from much more grisly iterations. Adam T. Smith has likewise been a tremendous guide for working through the difficult archaeology of landscapes and polities, and his non-Mediterranean approach has, several times, rescued this dissertation from falling into the tunnels of classical myopia. I am incredibly grateful to Adam vi and Lori for their hospitality in Aparan and for their willingness to advise this unruly project. And I thank Kathy Gleason, whose warmth and generosity first attracted me to working on ancient landscapes at Cornell, and who has never wavered in her support of my research. Kathy has from the beginning treated me as an upcoming scholar, rather than a student, and I owe much of my interest in the eastern Mediterranean and its semiarid environments to her. Other faculty within the Classics department at Cornell have been equally supportive, most especially Charles Brittain, Eric Rebillard, Michael Fontaine, Courtney Roby, and Caitie Barrett: many thanks to them for the willingness to fund some of my summer adventures, or for listening to my concerns and apprehensions about academic problems. I also thank Hayden Pelliccia, with whom I shared many interesting conversations on space in Greek literature, and whose field exam question provided the most fun I’ve had with the Odyssey. Being a graduate student at Cornell in Classics certainly could not happen without the friendly aid of Katrina Neff and Linda Brown, whose ability to keep me on track all these years (and to make sure forms were in on time) kept me above water, with a smile. Despite needing the aforementioned advising and administrative help, I can say with complete honesty that this project would not be half what it became without the support of the graduate student community at Cornell who listened to countless talks, read and edited numerous drafts, and lifted up my spirits more times than I can count. Jeff Leon has been a great interlocutor, and I cannot thank him enough for his ability to keep me in check. And, for teaching me how to drive manual on the cobbled streets of Kalavasos: you have saved me too many times to count. My other Musketeer, Perri Gerard-Little, has equally been a rock, a roommate, and a delightful ear to vent my frustrations to on hot nights in Cyprus or cold nights in Ithaca; her intellect is wide-ranging and intimidating. The dissertation writing groups that I vii participated in with Jake Nabel, Katie Jarriel, Carrie Fulton, Dave Blome, Sam Kurland and Erica Bexley were insightful, entertaining, and definitely made this project stronger. I must also thank John Gorczyk, Conner Wiktorowicz, Jenny Carrington, Kathryn Weber, Eilis Monahan, Goran Vidovic, Sam Sanft, Erik Kenyon, Liana Brent, Sarah Linn, Jason Bauer, Elizabeth Fagan, Kate Franklin, and Hannah Chazin for eye-opening conversations and conspiratorial bonding in the field and in the classroom. This project received generous funding from a number of venues. The Cornell Classics department has provided, over the years, support for summer travel, training funds, and research grants that have made fieldwork, lab work, and networking possible. The Society for the Humanities at Cornell has also facilitated this research through its Research Grant and Sustainability Grant, which allowed me to fund much of the charcoal analysis. The US State Department and the Cyprus Fulbright Commission awarded me a Fulbright student grant to work on Cyprus in 2012-2013, which not only provided the funds for continuous library and field research, but further supported my analyses back home. The American Schools of Oriental Research also funded trips for fieldwork, and the Graduate School at Cornell equally helped me travel to important conferences where I could share this on-going research. At Cornell, my interdisciplinary work was greatly supported by the help of several specialists. Brita Lorentzen and Carol Griggs in the Malcom Wiener Dendrochronology lab at Cornell provided unconditional support for the analysis and identification of charcoal, and their good humor made the experience of endless grinding of charcoal in the basement lab so enjoyable.