Regional variation in the ceramics of Neolithic Cyprus : implications for the socio-economic and cultural dynamics of a prehistoric island society

• Main Author: Clarke, Joanne Trudie
• Published: University of Edinburgh 1999
• Subjects: 930.1
• Online Access: http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.643235

The Ceramic Neolithic (SCU) period in Cyprus is unusual because of the island-wide uniformity observable in the material culture remains. It is only in the ceramic repertoire that regional variation can be detected, and this is most clearly evident in the surface decoration on the painted pottery. Regional variation is common in prehistoric societies, where external elements can act upon social and economic structures and thereby contribute to diversity. In Cyprus, where there were no external influences, factors that contributed to diversity were internally circumscribed. The predominant forces acting upon SCU Cyprus were economic. Subsistence strategies governed the ways in which early populations conducted their daily lives and interacted with others. The undertaking of seasonally related subsistence tasks would have directed the types of interaction that occurred between village groups and regions. Looking specifically at the material culture of the SCU phase, and in particular the distribution of variation in the pottery, the socio-economic processes that contributed to regional diversity are defined. Ceramic variation in SCU Cyprus is predominantly stylistic, and style can appear in many guises. Moreover, it is stylistic variation that is the extant measurable element of social interaction. This thesis argues that economic factors directed the types of social interactive processes that occurred during the SCU phase, and that this is reflected as stylistic variation in the ceramics. Measuring variety against the backdrop of economic and subsistence models aids the identification of the types of relationships which existed.