23 Contextualising Neolithic Cyrpus: Preliminary

23 CONTEXTUALISING NEOLITHIC CYRPUS: PRELIMINARY INVESTIGATIONS INTO CONNECTIONS BETWEEN CYPRUS AND THE NEAR EAST IN THE LATER NEOLITHIC Joanne Clarke Introduction that was both internally homogeneous and lacking in any It is widely held that connections between Cyprus and the clear evidence of links with contemporary mainland cultures Levant ceased around 7000 BC when the expansive world (Clarke 2003, 212). My view then was that “the absence of the Pre-pottery Neolithic B (PPNB) contracted and of any evidence for external influences [in the Ceramic dislocated into a number of smaller ‘worlds’ during the later Neolithic period] appears to have been socially prescribed Neolithic period (all dates referred to in this paper are cal rather than any real absence of contact” (Clarke 2003, 215). BC). In northern Syria and upper Mesopotamia, a dynamic As circumstantial evidence for contact between Cyprus and and continuously changing, east/west sphere of influence the mainland subsequent to the PPNB continues to accrue can be documented through the post-PPNB/ Halaf /Ubaid (Clarke 2007; see also Erikh-Rose 2004; McCartney 2007) traditions of the 7th to 5th millennia. Likewise, in the south it seems appropriate to return to the question of how Cyprus a largely disconnected, east/west sphere of influence existed, negotiated its relationships with the outside world and beginning with the Yarmoukian around 6200 BC and con- whether human agency, in the form of social identity, was tinuing into the Wadi Rabah and Chalcolithic traditions of the only factor shaping interaction. the 6th and 5th millennia. Between these two geographically delineated spheres of influence is the less well documented region of the central Levant, comprising the Syrian and Connections: What Connections? Lebanese coastal zone, the Ansariyah, Zawiyah, Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon mountains, the Homs Gap and the Beqa’a In order for connections between Cyprus and the Levant valley (Fig. 23.1). Archaeological research at the site of to have continued beyond the PPNB expansionist period, Arjoune (Parr 2003) and more recently at Tell Ezou and Tell there needs to have been a perceived benefit to one or both al-Marj (Haïdar-Boustani et al. 2003–2004; 2005–2006) and participants. Current evidence suggests that influence was Shir (Bartl, Haider and Nieuwenhuyse 2006; Bartl, Hijazi unidirectional (in that Cyprus shows evidence of connec- and Haider 2006) is beginning to provide new insights into tions with the mainland, whereas to date the mainland shows this poorly understood region. In addition, two sites further no evidence of connections with Cyprus). to the north, Tell Kurdu (Özbal and Gerritsen 2004) and Tell One way in which connections or contact with the ‘Ain el-Kerkh (Tsuneki et al. 1998; 1999; 2000; Iwasaki mainland may have taken place, but would have resulted and Tsuneki 2003) are supplementing and widening our in very low archaeological visibility, is in the form of understanding of the western Levant more generally. occasional sojourns to the mainland by Cypriots looking My own examination of the disappearance of evidence to replenish resources that might have, from time to time, for connections between Cyprus and the mainland in the become scarce on the island. This idea is based loosely on aftermath of the PPNB resulted in a paper in 2003 in which a model described by Horwitz, Tchernov and Hongo (2004) I suggested that Cypriot social relations were structured by for the restocking of animals following initial colonisation a general community-wide anomalousness, which in turn during the PPNB. Horwitz et al. (2004, 40) argue that was manifested as a particular material culture repertoire following the first introduction of domestic animals to 200 Joanne Clarke Fig. 23.1 Map of Syria and Cyprus showing 7th to 5th millennia BC sites mentioned in the text. 23. Contextualising Neolithic Cyrpus: preliminary investigations 201 Cyprus in the PPNB, there may have been frequent trips inevitable conclusion should be that links with the mainland to the mainland to restock depleted faunal populations in ceased with the demise of the Khirokitian, not to be renewed order to maintain founder herds. until the 3rd millennium BC. Yet the corollary of this is that At present there is no evidence for replenishment of the emergence of pottery on the island in the 5th millennium depleted stocks of plants and animals after the PPNB, but it BC happened completely independently of the mainland, a is unlikely that there would be if only existing species were conclusion that this writer is not yet reconciled with. involved. There is a degree of logic in this line of thinking if environmental conditions on the island are taken into consideration. Although population levels on Cyprus would have remained low throughout prehistory, which would Direct Evidence for Continued Contact following inevitably have lessened pressure on resources, Cyprus lacks the Pre-pottery Neolithic B standing bodies of water and deep aquifers and therefore Probably the most convincing evidence in support of would have been completely reliant upon adequate, regular connections between Cyprus and the mainland following rainfall (while there is ample evidence for well digging in the end of the PPNB is the presence, in quantity, of incised the 8th millennium BC at Parekklisha-Shillourokambos flat and conical stones on both the mainland and in Cyprus and at Kissonerga-Mylouthkia, no later wells are known (Fig. 23.2). Variations of these are found widely throughout on the island). As happens today, if there are extended the Levant, but the most common are those with incised periods of drought then vegetation dies off quickly and even vertical and horizontal lines, cross hatching, cruciform hardier trees, such as the olive, can suffer. Herds in these designs, chevrons and radiating lines (see Erikh-Rose 2004 conditions would have been difficult to maintain as food for a comprehensive review). In Cyprus incised stones occur would have become scarce. Broodbank states that “longer- at three sites: Kholetria-Ortos (Fox 1988, fig. 6.2; Simmons range sea faring seems to correspond to hard, rather than and Corona 1993, fig. 7; Simmons 1996, fig. 2); Khirokitia- halcyon times, and suggests that the perceived risks, both Vounoi (Dikaios 1953, pl. 138; Cluzan 1984, figs 97–99; direct and indirect….long outweighed the benefits under all Le Brun 1984); and as a surface find at the 5th millennium but the harshest circumstances” (2006, 218). Thus, when site of Kalavasos-Kokkinoyia (Clarke 2004, 59, fig. 3.3; environmental conditions were harsh (and recent climatic research indicates that the mid-Holocene was not as benign as originally believed with at least two, and possibly three short arid intervals; see Brooks 2006), Cypriot communities may have assumed a greater degree of risk, including long-range sea crossings, in order to replenish resources. Therefore, although not reliant on the mainland, it is not hard to imagine instances when Cypriot communities made forays beyond their own borders. Bolger (forthcoming) has considered the evidence for interaction between Cyprus and south-western Anatolia in the 3rd millennium BC, prior to the generally accepted appearance of external influences during the Philia Culture phase. Bolger argues that the limited nature of this interaction had less to do with isolation than with the island’s reception of foreign cultural elements. This argument is persuasive for the Late Chalcolithic period, when it was possible that ‘pioneering’ forays to Cyprus from the southern Anatolian coast could have begun many hundreds of years prior to full enculturation during the Philia Culture phase. However, the context for connections during the 5th millennium BC is clearly different from that of the Late Chalcolithic period as there is no evidence of increased interaction either prior to or following the Ceramic Neolithic period. Connections during the 5th millennium must be considered in light of the 1,000 year hiatus in the archaeological record that directly preceded it and the subsequent Early and Middle Chalcolithic periods, during which evidence for interaction Fig. 23.2 Incised cross-hatched stone from Kalavasos- with the mainland reaches an all time low. On this basis, the Kokkinoyia. 202 Joanne Clarke McCartney 2007, 78, fig. 6c). Incised stones from Cyprus intensification and specialisation were by this time features share with the mainland many of the design preferences of both the northern and southern Levant, reflected in the listed above. Erikh-Rose argues that they were an early way in which built space was organised, in the manufacture coding system, as no two are alike in design and execution and use of pottery and stone tools, and in economic practices, (2004, 159). They are often found in graves and so have a on Cyprus, where pressures driving cultural change were personal association, and they are partly contemporary with largely absent, an early Neolithic way of life persisted. and go out of use not long after the introduction of true In light of this it is important to examine how pottery seals (2004, 159). Whether or not these stones were part might have emerged on Cyprus. Sherds of low-fired and of an early system of coding, or, as has been previously unfired clay were discovered, along with an unbaked clay suggested, models of bread loaves (Dikaios 1953, 291), figurine, in the 7th millennium BC levels at Khirokitia-Vounoi stamps (Cauvin 1972, 91), animal brands (Bar-Yosef and (Dikaios

Load more