Cyprus

Abstract

The artificial division between the Late Bronze Age (LBA) and the Early Iron Age (EIA) came under attack in Cypriot studies earlier than in the rest of the Mediterranean. This chapter divides Cyprus' polity configuration and the changing pattern of its material culture during the 800 years (1400‐600 BC) under consideration into three parts. The three parts correspond to three economic cycles, which were marked by two major turning points. The first, towards the end of the 13th century, was the collapse of the "Age of Internationalism". The second, in the 8th century, saw the end of the power vacuum when, under the pressure exercised by the Assyrian empire, entrepreneurial activities gave way to the development of formal commercial networks and stronger political alliances in the Mediterranean. Hence, as of the 8th century, the local dynasties of Cyprus become visible in the textual and the material record.