Revised version of the author's doctoral thesis.

An up-to-date, systematic depiction of Bronze Age societies of the Levant, their evolution, and their interactions and entanglements with neighboring regions.

The years c. 1250 to 1150 BC in Greece and the Aegean are often characterised as a time of crisis and collapse. A critical period in the long history of the region and its people and culture, they witnessed the end of the Mycenaean kingdoms, with their palaces and Linear B records, and, through the Postpalatial period, the transition into the Early Iron Age. But, on closer examination, it has become increasingly clear that the period as a whole, across the region, defies simple characterisation – there was success and splendour, resilience and continuity, and novelty and innovation, actively driven by the people of these lands through this transformative century. The story of the Aegean at this time has frequently been incorporated into narratives focused on the wider eastern Mediterranean, and most infamously the ‘Sea Peoples’ of the Egyptian texts. In twenty-five chapters written by 25 specialists, Collapse and Transformation instead offers a tight focus on the Aegean itself, providing an up-to date picture of the archaeology ‘before’ and ‘after’ ‘the collapse’ of c. 1200 BC. It will be essential reading for students and scholars of the Aegean and eastern Mediterranean regions, as well as providing data and a range of interpretations to those studying collapse and resilience more widely and engaging in comparative studies. Introductory chapters discuss notions of collapse, and provide overviews of the Minoan and Mycenaean collapses. These are followed by twelve chapters, which review the evidence from the major regions of the Aegean, including the Argolid, Messenia, and Boeotia, Crete, and the Aegean islands. Six chapters then address key themes: the economy, funerary practices, the Mycenaean pottery of the mainland and the wider Aegean and eastern Mediterranean region, religion, and the extent to which later Greek myth can be drawn upon as evidence or taken to reflect any historical reality. The final four chapters provide a wider context for the Aegean story, surveying the eastern Mediterranean, including Cyprus and the Levant, and the themes of subsistence and warfare.

This study examines the distribution of high-status materials in addition to archaeological evidence of their production in the settlements known as royal cities during the New Kingdom in ancient Egypt (c.1550-1069 BC). The research focuses on the site sites of Amarna, Gurob, and Malqata, but incorporates Qantir/Pi-Ramesse for comparison.

In the archaeological reconstruction of prehistoric production and exchange systems, the use of provenience techniques has assumed a high profile. The primary aim of such archaeometric work has been the objective identification of non-local materials, and the isolation or elimination of specific stone, metal or clay sources. However, the important step of specifying and examining critically the relationships between archaeological data, human action, analytical results, and cultural interpretation has seldom been taken.

This book investigates the economic organization of ancient societies from a comparative perspective. By pursuing an interdisciplinary approach, including contributions by archaeologists, historians of antiquity, economic historians as well as historians of economic thought, it studies various aspects of ancient economies, such as the material living conditions including production technologies, etc.; economic institutions such as markets and coinage; as well as the economic thinking of the time. In the process, it also explores the comparability of economic thought, economic institutions and economic systems in ancient history. Focusing on the Ancient Near East as well as the Mediterranean, including Greece and Rome, this comparative perspective makes it possible to identify historical permanencies, but also diverse forms of social and political organization and cultural systems. These institutions are then evaluated in terms of their capacity to solve economic problems, such as the efficient use of resources or political stability. The first part of the book introduces readers to the methodological context of the comparative approach, including an evaluation of the related historiographical tradition. Subsequent parts discuss a range of development models, elements of economic thinking in ancient societies, the role of trade and globalization, and the use of monetary and financial instruments, as well as political aspects.

This study considers the maritime economy of ancient Cyprus from 1450 BC to 295 BC, combining, for the first time, three distinct disciplines, that is History, Archaeology and Economic theory. The principles of New Institutional Economics are used to trace the island’s institutions and their continuity and to reconstruct its maritime history.

New Directions in Cypriot Archaeology highlights current scholarship that employs a range of new techniques, methods, and theoretical approaches to questions related to the archaeology of the prehistoric and protohistoric periods on the island of Cyprus. From revolutions in radiocarbon dating, to the compositional analysis of ceramic remains, to the digital applications used to study landscape histories at broad scales, to rethinking human-environment/climate interrelationships, the last few decades of research on Cyprus invite inquiry into the implications of these novel archaeological methods for the field and its future directions. This edited volume gathers together a new generation of scholars who offer a revealing exploration of these insights as well as challenges to big questions in Cypriot archaeology, such as the rise of social complexity, urban settlement histories, and changes in culture and identity. These enduring topics provide the foundation for investigating the benefits and challenges of twenty-first-century methods and conceptual frameworks. Divided into three main sections related to critical chronological transitions, from earliest prehistory to the development of autonomous kingdoms during the Iron Age, each contribution exposes and engages with a different advance in studies of material culture, absolute dating, paleoenvironmental analysis, and spatial studies using geographic information systems. From rethinking the chronological transitions of the Early Bronze Age, to exploring regional craft production regimes of the Middle and Late Bronze Ages, to locating Iron Age cemeteries through archival topographic maps, these exciting and pioneering authors provide innovative ways of thinking about Cypriot archaeology and its relationship to the wider discipline. List of Contributors: Georgia M. Andreou, Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Classics, Cornell University Stella Diakou, Postdoctoral Fellow, Archaeological Research Unit, University of Cyprus Maria Dikomitou-Eliadou, Postdoctoral Fellow, Archaeological Research Unit, University of Cyprus David Frankel, Professor Emeritus of Archaeology and History, La Trobe University Artemis Georgiou, Marie Curie Research Fellow, Archaeological Research Unit, University of Cyprus Catherine Kearns, Assistant Professor of Classics, University of Chicago Sturt W. Manning, Goldwin Smith Professor of Classical Archaeology, Cornell University Eilis Monahan, PhD Candidate, Department of Near Eastern Studies, Cornell University Charalambos Paraskeva, Postdoctoral Researcher, Department of History and Archaeology, University of Cyprus Anna Satraki, Director of Larnaka District Museum, Department of Antiquities of Cyprus Matthew Spigelman, ACME Heritage Consultants, Partner

This dissertation explores trade and economic interaction between polities during the Late Bronze Age within the Eastern Mediterranean. This study reconstructs the trade systems extant during this period through a network analysis of Cypriot and Mycenaean pottery distributed throughout Cyprus, Egypt, and the Levant. The network data compiled for this analysis includes over 23,000 sherds and vessels recovered from 269 different sites that date from the terminal Middle Bronze Age to the end of the Late Helladic IIIB period. There are three primary goals of this dissertation. The first is to assess the structure of Late Bronze Age exchange systems through the distribution and consumption of ceramic imports across the three regions of study. The second is to quantitatively test the hypothesized intermediary role of Cypriot agents as suppliers of Aegean pottery to neighbouring regions of the Mediterranean. The final analytical goal of is to evaluate the efficacy of network analysis as a method for the quantitative assessment of trade systems, particularly with the aim of exploring broader questions surrounding the structural nature of trade systems and their associated political institutions. The network analyses of Cypriot and Mycenaean ceramics demonstrate a high degree of variability in consumption and import distribution systems across Cyprus, Egypt, and the Levant. Network centralization and density measures indicate diverging mechanisms for import circulation, suggesting the existence of contrasting political economies. A significant result of this study was the demonstration of competing political institutions in Cyprus, suggesting the absence of a centralized state with a governing core (i.e. a 'Kingdom of Alashiya' centered on Enkomi). The high overall network density, the diffusion of Late Helladic shapes across sites and contexts of differing scale, and the high network centrality measures of multiple competing polities refute the presence of a governing system core. The pervasion of Mycenaean vessels on Cyprus and the correlation between the circulation of Cypriot and Aegean vessels, as evidenced by the high affiliation frequency of vessel groups across ware types, support the hypothesis that Cypriot agents were active in the distribution of Mycenaean imports through a shared primary trade network.