It is important to bear in mind that, up until the mid-third millennium BC, Cypriotes continued to live in small villages of circular, stone and mudbrick single-room dwellings, a settlement form dating back at least to the Late Aceramic Neolithic (ca. 7000/6500-5500 BC). The transition to the Early Bronze Age (locally, Early Cypriot) ca. 2500 BC brought important cultural changes, spurred in part by the exploitation of Cyprus's rich copper resources by local emerging elites and the adoption and adaption of cultural innovations brought by immigrants from Anatolia (Knapp 2008:ch.3; Manning 1993; Steel 2004:ch.5). Emerging social inequalities were manifested most clearly in the elaboration of burial practices and deposition of wealth seen in some cemeteries (notably at Lapithos-Vrysi tou Barba and Bellapais-Vounous) in the northwestern part of the island (see Keswani 2004:42-46; Figure 6.1). Although these cemeteries are exceptional, it is clear that the funerary realm became the primary arena for display and supra-household social interaction at this time (Keswani 2005). The growing social complexity seen in the northern cemeteries is not, however, borne out in other elements of the built
Figure 6.1 Map of Cyprus showing Bronze Age sites mentioned in text. Shaded area is land greater than 300 m asl (drawn by author).
Environment. In spite of the appearance at this time of rectilinear, multiroom, agglomerative domestic architecture, there is currently no evidence for urban settlements, settlement hierarchies, or monumental architecture of any sort until the seventeenth century BC (Keswani 1996). If the evidence from Marki-Alonia, which spans most of the Early and Middle Bronze Age, is any indication, the typical house consisted of two or three covered rooms at the back of a larger courtyard, an "idealized concept" that remained in place throughout the life of the settlement (Frankel and Webb 2006:299).
The long-standing adherence to traditional "rural" architectural types can perhaps be tied to what Peltenburg (1993; 1996:27) has described as an "egalitarian ethos" and segmentary social organization that characterized pre-Bronze Age Cypriot society and largely persisted outside of the northern part of the island until the near end of the Middle Bronze Age (locally, the Middle Cypriot).
MAKING THE FIRST CITIES ON CYPRUS
Cyprus then entered a period of rapid and profound change, culminating in what some scholars see as the emergence of state-level sociopolitical organization. Whether the island was ruled as a unified political entity or as a series of independent, regional "peer" polities (or possibly vacillated between these two forms of organization) is a matter of debate (see Knapp 2008:144-159, 324-341 for a detailed discussion of these issues; cf. Peltenburg 2012). In any case, it is clear that emerging inequalities gave way to social hierarchies as elites institutionalized their power through intensified control over increasingly specialized systems of production and exchange, legitimized through ideological means (see Knapp 1986; 2008:159-172). The basis for this control extended beyond the island's boundaries as Cyprus became ever more integrated into the wider politico-economic relations of the eastern Mediterranean and Near East. At the same time, society became increasingly heterarchical as various collectivities emerged in the context of new social, political, and economic networks and opportunities (Keswani 1996; 2004:154-157). These changes took place within the context of further agricultural intensification that supported demographic growth and nucleation, seen in an increase in settlement numbers and, more importantly, size and density (Knapp 1997:47-48). At the same time, we see far-reaching changes to the island's built environment, including the rise of the island's first urban centers and the appearance of monumental buildings and new types of domestic and mortuary architecture. As I noted in the introduction, I would see the new built environments as a driving force behind the profound sociopolitical changes of the LBA, rather than as their side effect. Cities were both product and producer of these transformations through the creation and use of meaningful contexts for social interactions.
The Proto-Urban Period
The earliest urban centers on the island were founded during what I have termed a "Proto-urban" period covering roughly the Middle
Cypriot (MC) III through Late Cypriot (LC) IIB; ca. 1750-1340/15 BC. Admittedly, my use of this term speaks more to the lack of data about the formative period of Cypriot cities than any certainty about the nature of these first urban settlements. We are greatly hampered by the relatively limited exposures of nearly all sites. Generally less than 5 percent of any site has been excavated and even those exposures tend to be fragmented into discontinuous areas. It is also likely that the earliest foundations of the cities have been obscured by the more substantial remains of their fully urban successors. Even though it appears that Enkomi, Morphou-Toumba tou Skourou, Hala Sultan Tekke, and Maroni are among the first oF these Proto-urban settlements, only Enkomi provides any significant insight into its formative levels.
Excavations have revealed two important features from Protourban Enkomi: the so-called Fortress - one of the island's first monumental buildings - and a large domestic complex. Located at the northern end of the site, the Fortress is a large rectangular building, roughly 30 x 10 m in size, that contained evidence for large-scale copper working (Dikaios 1969-1971:plates 245-248; Figure 6.2). This is but one of a series of so-called forts, some twenty-one in all, which appear in the northern and eastern parts of the island during the transition from the Middle to Late Bronze Age (Fortin 1981; Peltenburg 1996). These were by far the largest structures built on the island to this point, representing an unprecedented investment in material and human resources. Peltenburg (1996) has argued that these forts were part of a strategy to secure the routes from new coastal settlements, like Enkomi, to the copper sources in the Troodos Mountains. Control of this copper production was undoubtedly one of the primary economic underpinnings of the power of emerging elites. I have argued that Enkomi's Fortress materialized both the large-scale appropriation and enclosure of space, as well as efforts to control physical and visual access to the vital copper-working facilities and their associated technologies in its west wing (Fisher 2007:199-204, figure 7.4).
If excavations in the later city center are any indication, the initial settlement that was constructed to the south of Enkomi's Fortress was fundamentally different from the agglomerative, village-based domestic architecture of the Early through Middle Bronze Age periods. It was characterized, at least in part, by large domestic complexes (see Dikaios 1969-1971:plates 267-271). The earliest complex
Figure 6.2 Schematic plan of Enkomi, c. 1200 BC (adapted by author from Courtois et al. 1986:figure 1 and Schaeffer 1971:plan IV).
Recovered beneaTh the Ashlar Building occupies an area of about 30 x 22 m and has wings of rooms arranged around a central court, open on one end. It is important to note that this structure is freestanding, separated from other possible adjacent structures by open spaces. And, in a distinct break from thousands of years of burial in extramural cemeteries, we see that these open spaces are used for burials in subterranean chamber tombs. These tombs were a vital part of the Proto-urban built environments. Their location in the open space between individual buildings (rather than collective placement in
Extramural cemeteries) and their continued reuse throughout the Proto-urban period indicates that they were the primary means of status display (Keswani 2004) and were used in the negotiation and demarcation of both physical and social boundaries between rival groups. These tombs provided a direct link to ancestors as well as a statement oF territoriality, legitimizing these groups' claims to spatial control. They were undoubtedly meant to be encountered in the course of daily practice, as seen in the two tombs built directly in front oF the Fortress's main entrance.
Keswani's (2004) important study of Cypriot mortuary practices reveals thaT this dynamic would change significantly over the course of the LBA. She notes a decreasing elaboration of ritual treatment accompanied by a decline in investment in mortuary architecture and the value of deposited grave goods. These trends point to a decline in the importance of funerary ritual. I agree with Keswani's (2004:143-144,159-160) suggestion that increasingly complex political and economic opportunities became available as the LBA progressed, creating new contexts for the accumulation of wealth and the establishment of social status. This supported the emergence of political and religious institutions with officials, dependents, and functionaries whose social status and identity were increasingly independent of their associations with the earlier (Proto-urban) kin groups. It is no coincidence that the island's first urban centers were built aT this same time.
World History
