Jennifer M. Webb

Characterizing the Philia facies : material culture, chronology, and the origin of the Bronze Age in Cyprus

Major changes mark the transition from the Chalcolithic to the Bronze Age in mid-third millennium Cyprus. Philia material has long been recognized as a crucial element in this transition, but analysis has been hampered by patchy discovery and reporting and the lack of stratified deposits. Pottery and other finds from recent excavations at Marki-Alonia provide the basis for a substantial reassessment of the Philia facies and its chronological and cultural relationships to both Chalcolithic and Bronze Age material. An explanatory model is developed incorporating an initial intrusion into Cyprus of autonomous groups from Anatolia ; the development of a distinct, identifiable Philia cultural system ; the acculturation of both migrant and indigenous populations ; and the subsequent evolution of the widespread culture of the Early Cypriot Bronze Age.

Population, Households, and Ceramic Consumption in a Prehistoric Cypriot Village

Abstract Evidence from excavations at the Early and Middle Bronze Age site of Marki-Alonia (ca. 2400–1900 B.C.) in central Cyprus provides the base for estimates of evolving population size, community structure, and the scale of ceramic consumption in a prehistoric village. We explore factors such as the regions carrying capacity, tombs associated with the site, average household size, and domestic and funerary ceramic discard. Despite the unavoidable crudeness of any such measures, acceptable order-of magnitude figures can be developed with significant implications for understanding the size and structure of households, kinship relationships, and social reproduction, as well as the degree of craft specialization and the context of skills acquisition and learning.

Lithic technology and discard at Marki, Cyprus : consumer behaviour and site formation in the prehistoric Bronze Age

Lithic studies all too often ignore the material of later prehistory. Here an exploration of ideas of curation and expediency offers a new insight into material from Bronze Age Cyprus.

Exploiting a damaged and diminishing resource: survey, sampling and society at a Bronze Age cemetery complex in Cyprus

Is a cemetery that has been robbed and pillaged for generations worthy of systematic research? It certainly is, given the application of a well conceived and executed project design. The authors show that the precise investigation of tomb architecture and identification of residual pottery can allow the detailed mapping of funerary practice over large areas of space and periods of time. Here they develop a narrative of increasing population and funerary investment through the Bronze Age in central north Cyprus. And having recorded 1286 pillaged tombs they call attention to the value of what still remains and the dangers that such monuments still face. The fact that a cemetery has been damaged is no reason to sacrifice it to the bulldozer.

New evidence for the origins of textile production in Bronze Age Cyprus

A complete metal spindle in the Zintilis Collection sheds light on the type of spinning practised in the Early to Middle Cypriot Bronze Age. It also indicates the appearance of such spindles and the mounting of the whorls.

Seasonality and Site Function in Chalcolithic Cyprus

Excavations at the small Chalcolithic site of Politiko-Kokkinorotsos in central Cyprus show that it was occupied around 2880–2670 cal bc. Fallow deer (Dama mesopotamica) form the major component of the substantial faunal assemblage. The structure of the animal population suggests a seasonal hunting site, an interpretation consistent with the lack of formal architecture and the range of stone tools. In this study, independent odontochronological analyses of deer and caprine are used to test and confirm the model of seasonal culling in spring and summer based on more general indicators. The results suggest a pattern of varied, specialized site-types and activities in different parts of the island and in different ecological zones, and add considerably to our understanding of cultural systems on the island in the early third millennium bc.

An Early Bronze Age shell pendant from Cyprus

This brief article takes as a starting point a carved shell pendant characteristic of the Philia facies of the Early Bronze Age in Cyprus. A discussion of this class of object leads on to a consideration of broader issues surrounding the nature and extent of Philia settlement. These pendants appear to have played a significant role in proclaiming and maintaining Philia identity and demonstrate an aspect of bidirectional interaction between Philia and Late Chalcolithic communities.

A Non-Destructive Investigation of two Cypriot Bronze Age Knife Blades using Neutron Diffraction Residual Stress Analysis

This paper presents the results of a residual stress analysis that is part of a wider study of Cypriot Bronze Age knife and other weapon blades from a corpus of artefacts held by a number of institutions in Australia. The current focus is on knives from Early/Middle Bronze Age burial sites at Bellapais Vounous, Cyprus; a significant number of the blades were found on excavation to be bent. The aim of the study was to provide, by means of non-destructive neutron residual stress analysis, likely insights into fabrication methodologies of the knives and determine the stage in the life of each knife blade at which bending occurred. Two Vounous knives from the Australian Institute of Archaeology collection, one measurably bent and the other severely bent and broken, were studied using neutron diffractometer KOWARI to establish the residual stress profiles through the thickness of the knives at several locations. Since the knives were 1 2 mm thick at their thinnest sections, a very high through-thickness spatial resolution of 0.1 mm was used to resolve the residual stress profiles. The experimental data from the knives suggested forging/hammering as a possible method of fabrication of functional (hard edge) knife blade. Most significantly, however, the post fabrication bending of both knives at ambient temperature was established. The residual stress data for the two knives were considered in the context of reported metallurgical studies and the archaeological information from Cypriot Bronze Age sites. Introduction The work reported in this paper brings together some aspects of the physical metallurgy of a specific corpus of artefacts from the well-documented burial site Bellapais Vounous, Fig. 1, an Early/Middle Bronze Age site in Cyprus (c 2450-1700 BCE). The site is a cemetery of over 160 tombs that were excavated by a number of archaeologists; notably Dikaios [3] and Stewart and Stewart [4]. Post excavation, the metallic artefacts, (including spearhead, knives and razors) and others of pottery were distributed to a small number of museums in England and Australia. Many of the Vounous artefacts available for study in Australia are provenanced to specific tombs at the site; and thus can be used to Fig. 1. Map of Cyprus showing the location of Bellapais Vounous and other Early/Middle Bronze Age sites (after [1, 2]). Residual Stresses 2016: ICRS-10 Materials Research Forum LLC Materials Research Proceedings 2 (2016) 515-520 doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.21741/9781945291173-87 516 provide insights into origins of raw material, use of the material, fabrication methods and treatment of the artefacts when used as burial items. These objects belong to early phase metallurgy in Cyprus and therefore offer insight into the nature and origins of its ancient copper industry. One particular feature of the Early/Middle Cypriot Bronze Age burials is that a significant number of knife and spear blades from this, and other, Bronze Age sites were found, on excavation, to be bent. Many scholars have noted the deliberate destruction or disabling of metal weapons in burial contexts (e.g. [2, 5-7]). Often referred to as ‘ritual killing’, the act of disabling is believed to have taken place at the burial site and assumed to have been intended to enable the weapons to accompany the dead and perhaps ensure that they could not be used as weapons after burial. Any insights into the fabrication route of the knives and determining the stage in the life of each knife blade at which bending occurred are highly desirable. There have been limited metallurgical studies of Vounous metallic artefacts and much of the work to date has provided elemental analyses [1, 8], Pb isotope analysis [1] and metallography [9]. Through the metallographic analysis [9], there is a notion that the blades/weapons had been cold worked from original states, most likely cast blanks, annealed and then additionally cold worked to their final form. Since residual stresses are intrinsically linked to each these processes, there is a potential to provide new and corroborating information about the fabrication and treatment or handling of the Early/Middle Bonze Age bronze artefacts from fabrication and post-fabrication perspectives and possibly to support the view of ritual bending practices at some ancient Cypriot burials. Although application of neutron diffraction to study ancient bronzes has been reported [10], there are currently limited data and, to the authors’ knowledge, no studies of residual stresses or textures within the corpus of Vounous artefacts. The current paper reports the results of the application of non-destructive neutron diffraction methods to two Bronze Age knife blades from Vounous. Samples Two knives from the Australian Institute of Archaeology, AIA, Vounous artefacts IA 2.525 and 2.268 (Fig. 2), were submitted for neutron diffraction residual stress study and chemical analysis at the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation, ANSTO. Both knives were found bent in situ. Artefact IA 2.525 was bent through 180° and was found fractured. Artefact IA 2.268, was bent to approximately 40° at the mid-section of the blade. Fig. 2. Two knife blades, IA 2.525 (left) and IA 2.268 (right), from the Stewart excavations at Bellapais Vounous [4]. For IA 2.525, only the section illustrated within the red boundary was available for study while the severely bent section of the blade was lost some time after photographic recording for reference 4. Residual Stresses 2016: ICRS-10 Materials Research Forum LLC Materials Research Proceedings 2 (2016) 515-520 doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.21741/9781945291173-87 517 Elemental characterization of IA 2.525 and IA 2.268 The chemical compositions of the two Vounous knives were determined by combined Proton Induced X-Ray Emission spectroscopy (PIXE) and Proton Induced Gamma-ray Spectroscopy (PIGE) using 2.5 MeV proton beam at the ANSTO Centre for Accelerator Science. The chemical analyses of other Vounous artefacts studied in work of Webb et al. [1] and Craddock [8] demonstrated that the majority of blades analyzed were essentially Cu-As alloys with, usually, 2.5-5 wt.% As. The two Vounous blades studied in this work were significantly different alloys, with As < 0.5 wt%.; IA 2.525 contained 1.30 wt% Zn and only a trace of Sn and IA 2.268 contained 0.56 wt % Zn and 0.66 wt% Sn. The absence As suggests that the knifes were struck from a low As indigenous copper ore. With the arsenic content of IA 2.525 and IA 2.268 at < 0.5 wt%, much lower than threshold of 2.0 wt%, which some archaeologists believe is an indicator of deliberate alloying with this element, the ability to develop a hardened cutting edge would have been limited. As modern chemical analyses have shown, for copper blades from Cypriot Early/Middle Bronze Age sites, including Vounous, As was most likely added as an ore in the smelting process the result of which aided casting and increased propensity for work hardening [11]. The presence of Zn in IA 2.525 confirms an earlier analysis reported in Stewart and Stewart [4]. Balthazar [9] and other researchers have noted the presence of Zn in some Early/Middle Bronze Age artefacts but no conclusions about its presence have been drawn, other than questioning some earlier analytical methods. Further chemical analyses of Cypriot artefacts in Australian institutions are proposed and these may provide additional insights regarding Zn and other elements as alloying elements. Neutron residual stress measurements The residual stresses within the two Vounous knives were determined using the ANSTO KOWARI neutron stress diffractometer. [12]. Neutron diffraction stress measurements were undertaken at three gauge locations (L1, L2 and L3) on IA 2.268 (Fig. 3) and at one location (L1) on IA 2.525 (Fig. 4), to determine the stress profiles through each of the blades. With thickness of the blades varying from 1 to 2 mm, through-thickness stresses were measured with a relatively high spatial resolution of 0.1 mm in through-thickness dimension. The strongest Cu(311) reflection was used for the residual stress measurements at wavelength of 1.55 Å. A gauge volume of 0.1×0.1×10 mm was used for the measurements in the three principal directions (longitudinal, normal and transverse) at the central line of the blades, at L1 and L2, however for measurements in the thinnest section of IA 2.268 the gauge volume, at L3, was reduced to 0.1×0.1×7 mm. To fully resolve the stress state, a zero normal stress condition was used to calculate stresses with high accuracy at the same time making possible non-destructive determination of each lattice parameter d0 of the alloy. A large number of measurement points through thickness, 9-13, with 0.1 mm steps, was considered necessary to determine several possible contributions to the total residual profile (hot forging, cold hammering, bending, etc.) which were resolved and separated. With measurement time of only 10-20 minutes per through-thickness position, a strain accuracy of 50 μstrains was routinely achieved. Fig. 3. Approximate locations of the three positions used for residual stress measurements of IA 2.268. Fig. 4. Approximate locations of the position used for residual stress measurements of IA 2.525 Residual Stresses 2016: ICRS-10 Materials Research Forum LLC Materials Research Proceedings 2 (2016) 515-520 doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.21741/9781945291173-87 518 Results and discussion The results of the residual stress measurements at the gauge locations L1, L2 and L3 for IA 2.268 are shown in Fig. 5 a,b,c and for gauge location L1 for IA 2.525 in Fig. 6. The through-thickness residual stress profiles of the transverse direction are similar for both blades and all locations. However, the transverse component of the thicker knife IA 2.525 at position L1 seems to incorporate also a bending stress component (slope) that is superimposed by the surrounding parts of the blade other than the location of measur

Identifying stone tools used in mining, smelting, and casting in Middle Bronze Age Cyprus

Abstract Metallurgical production sites are often difficult to identify in the archaeological record because ore beneficiation and slag processing in the past involved the use of ground stone tools that were similar to those used in other contexts to prepare cereals and foods. Analysis of the ground stone assemblage from a Middle Bronze Age copper mining and production site at Ambelikou Aletri in Cyprus provided an opportunity to distinguish industrial and domestic ground stone tools and to identify the types of tools used in different stages of metal production. A comparison of tool morphologies, raw materials, and wear and breakage patterns from Ambelikou Aletri with those from contemporary domestic contexts, suggests that distinctions in the nature and structure of industrial and domestic tool kits do exist and those distinctions have an important role to play in identifying mining, smelting, and casting sites in the future.

A potter's workshop from Middle Bronze Age Cyprus: new light on production context, scale and variability

When fire swept through a workshop at Ambelikou Aletri on Cyprus in the nineteenth or twentieth century BC it brought a sudden halt to pottery production, leaving the latest batch of recently fired vessels. The remains of the kiln and its immediate surroundings provide a rare opportunity to gain direct insight into the technology and organisation of a Middle Bronze Age pottery workshop in the eastern Mediterranean. Analysis of the batch of cutaway-mouthed jugs adjacent to the kiln reveals a level of standardisation focused more on vessel shape than capacity, and shows that at a detailed level, no two jugs were alike. This pottery production site provides vital background for the study of contemporary pottery assemblages on Cyprus and elsewhere in the broader region.