Ulf-Dietrich Schoop

Ceramics, trade, provenience and geology: Cyprus in the Late Bronze Age

The island of Cyprus was a major producer of copper and stood at the heart of east Mediterranean trade networks during the Late Bronze Age. It may also have been the source of the Red Lustrous Wheelmade Ware that has been found in mortuary contexts in Egypt and the Levant, and in Hittite temple assemblages in Anatolia. Neutron Activation Analysis (NAA) has enabled the source area of this special ceramic to be located in a geologically highly localised and geochemically distinctive area of western Cyprus. This discovery offers a new perspective on the spatial organisation of Cypriot economies in the production and exchange of elite goods around the eastern Mediterranean at this time.

Animal keeping in Chalcolithic north-central Anatolia: what can stable isotope analysis add?

Stable isotope analysis is an essential investigative technique, complementary to more traditional zooarchaeological approaches to elucidating animal keeping practices. Carbon (δ13C) and nitrogen (δ15N) stable isotope values of 132 domesticates (cattle, caprines and pigs) were evaluated to investigate one aspect of animal keeping, animal forage, at the Late Chalcolithic (mid-fourth millennium BC) site of Çamlıbel Tarlası, which is located in north-central Anatolia. The analyses indicated that all of the domesticates had diets based predominantly on C3 plants. Pig and caprine δ13C and δ15N values were found to be statistically indistinguishable. However, cattle exhibited distinctive stable isotope values and, therefore, differences in diet from both pigs and caprines at Çamlıbel Tarlası. This difference may relate to the distinct patterns of foraging behaviour exhibited by the domesticates. Alternatively, this diversity may result from the use of different grazing areas or from the foddering practices of the Çamlıbel Tarlası inhabitants.

Book reviews. Jean Guilaine (ed.). Le Chalcolithique et la construction des inégalités. Tome I: le continent européen . 228 pages, 113 illustrations, 2 tables. 2007. Paris: Errance; 978-2-87772-351-0 paperback €32. Tome II: Proche et Moyen-Orient, Amérique, Afrique . 136 pages, 57 illustrations, 2 tables. 2007. Paris: Errance; 978-2-87772-352-7 paperback €24.

The one major criticism of the publication is directed not at the authors, but at English Heritage, for the way in which the process of publishing this landmark publication has been handled. While the fieldwork and survey work must have cost around £1 million in today’s money – offering staggeringly good value for money – the actual publication is a meanspirited affair. Rather than produce a conventional volume, English Heritage have chosen to make the Hambledon Hill report available on a ‘print on demand’ basis, for the cost of £100. The result comes as two limp-bound (not hard-bound) volumes, printed on poor quality paper which ruins the quality of the superb aerial photographs. Furthermore, insufficient attention has been paid to the quality of line illustration reproduction: scanning has degraded many of these. There has been an over-long delay between submission of the final text and appearance of the publication; and, most shockingly of all, it appears not to be actively marketed! There has been no launch, and it took some time to appear on the English Heritage online shop. (It is now available at http://www.english-heritageshop.org.uk/mall/ productpage.cfm/EnglishHeritage/ 51319/123217/ Hambledon%20Hill% 2C%20Dorset% 2C%20 England). What on earth is going on? Surely such a landmark publication, of a site of such seminal importance for European prehistory, deserves better treatment from English Heritage, who, after having supported the project throughout, manage to fall at the last hurdle.