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

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.

Watery Entanglements in the Cypriot Hinterland

“…In this issue, Webb examines the relationship between site location, economic resources (especially copper), and their exploitation in the political economy in the island's narrow northern coastal strip: identifying Vasilia, Vounous, and Lapithos as significant nodes (or central places?) in networks linking inland copper-producing sites with international maritime networks [46].…”

The River as an Economic Asset: Settlement and Society in the Xeros Valley in Cyprus

“…For example, tombs on the south coast and the central lowlands are either relatively simple small chamber tombs or pit graves; dromoi are rarely evident and appear to have been intended simply to provide access to the chambers rather than a space for performance as in the case of the north coast. In addition, these communities living in the south coast and the central lowlands were probably largely self-sufficient in comparison to the north of the island, where they seem to have had intensive external contact ( [26] cf. Reference [27]).…”

“…While Antoine Hermary, based on the natural landscape and later textual evidence, has assigned the area east of Stavrovouni Mountain-just northeast of our survey area- (Figure 3) down to the sea, east of Mazotos, to the territory of Amathous [61] (pp. [25][26], Terence B. Mitford (again on the basis of later textual evidence) [62] (p. 1339) allocated the area lying east of the Pentaschoinos River to Kition.…”

Central Place Theory Reloaded and Revised: Political Economy and Landscape Dynamics in the Longue Durée

“…As Andrew Burghardt has noted in the past, a central place has a regular, circular or hexagonal service area, resembling "the centre of a bowl", whereas a gateway has an elongated service area, similar to "a funnel or spout" [70] (p. 270). Thus, even small remote places, such as Lapithos on the northern coast of Cyprus in the Middle Bronze Age, as persuasively argued by Jennifer Webb [71] in this volume, with small but suitable harbours and territorial control over natural communication passes (i.e., the Agirdha and Panagra Passes), were involved in supra-regional interactions as local interaction nodes and points of convergence for commodity flows. This high density of network exchange and interaction equipped such localities with a high degree of network centrality.…”