Dan IV: The Iron Age I Settlement. The Avraham Biran Excavations (1966–1999)

Abstract

cal and production-oriented analysis of the textile tools from Episkopi-Bamboula, while Artzy (Chapter 11) offers a discussion on the ceramic wares of the Middle and Late Bronze Age, concerning especially the Cypriot Bichrome ware. Chovanec and Fourentzos (Chapter 12) provide a thorough review on the study of opium poppy in the Late Bronze Age Eastern Mediterranean and new insights for the Cypriot Iron Age, while London (Chapter 13) explores the benefits of an ethnoarchaeological approach in the investigation of diverse ceramic markings coupled with the technological and social world of pithos making. Turning to the theme of regional connectivity (Section V), Bergoffen (Chapter 14) uses a fragmentary White Painted Hand-made crater from Enkomi for reviewing issues of style, cross-cultural interactions, inter-media inspirations and symbolic appropriation during the early Late Cypriot. By taking a leap of about a millennium, Kushnet (Chapter 15) uses diverse statistical techniques on coinage and ceramics for revealing patterns of connectivity, trade, economy and politics among the 6th–4th century BC Cypriot city-kingdoms. Moving further forward in time, Leonard (Chapter 16) offers a stimulating article rooted in multiple data strands (surveys, written and ethnographic sources, geographical and topographical information) for locating the island’s roman harbours and elucidating their maritime trade activity. The meticulous description of the exchange networks of the 20th century Cypriot carob industry, presented here as an analogy for the diverse roman trade networks, provokes the rethinking of the role of the Cypriot landscape in connectivity, mobility and prosperity. The last two chapters (Section VI) discuss future directions for Cypriot Archaeology within the framework of past and present research. Swantek and Weir (Chapter 17) embrace Swiny’s project at SotiraKaminoudhia and reveal their research agenda for its future, with more excavations, science-based methodologies, coupledwith ethnographic work and landscape development formaking the area attractive to locals and tourists. Lastly, Knapp (Chapter 18) concludes the volume by reviewing the trends of Cypriot prehistory over the last 40 years.Despite his rather festive acknowledgement of people and projects impacting the discipline, he highlights that much of the current research, regardless of its advance science-based nature, is still relatively under-theorized and ‘firmly grounded in the data’ (p. 237); a pattern also reflected in this volume. Overall, despite the aforementioned diversity, the editors successfully group the articles in meaningful sections, thus, offering multiple pathways for approaching similar concepts. The multiplicity of topics, periods, methodologies and datasets make this volume an asset for anyone working on Cypriot archaeology. The articles on Swiny’s legacy (1–3) indirectly enrich the history of the discipline by revealing diverse aspects of CAARI’s past, while the numerous review-based chapters (4, 6, 12, 18) consist of priceless sources of information on topics ranging from the Eastern Mediterranean palaeoenvironment, Cypriot surveys, the history of Cypriot prehistory and the study of opium poppies in the Eastern Mediterranean. Only a few chapters (11, 14) are aimed mainly at experts of Middle–Late Cypriot ceramics, while others use diverse methodologies and/or theoretical orientations for making new datasets available (Chapter 10), or for proposing new interpretative schemes linked to the Early Neolithic (Chapter 5), Archaic-Classical (Chapter 15), and Roman (Chapter 16) Cyprus. Finally, two Chapters (7, 9) are distinguished for applying relatively innovative theoretical schemes, one combines creative experiential approaches with traditional methodologies (Chapter 8), and a last one incorporates a stimulating ethnoarchaeological view (Chapter 13). The multivocality achieved by the editors, which successfully reflects both the essence of the title All things Cypriot and the work of Swiny, is unified by the initial chronological tables and maps, the exceptional editorial work in terms of citations, bibliographical entries and chapter layouts, coupled with the intelligible language and high-quality figures; making this volume a pleasant and informative read.