The Rural Landscapes of Archaic Cyprus
An Archaeology of Environmental and Social Change

Examines the archaeology of landscapes, environments, and rural communities that constituted the transformative Archaic period on Cyprus.

Catherine Kearns (Author)

9781316513125, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 15 December 2022

320 pages, 29 colour illus. 20 maps
25.1 x 17.6 x 2.7 cm, 0.82 kg

The ninth to the fifth centuries BCE saw a series of significant historical transformations across Cyprus, especially in the growth of towns and in developments in the countryside. In this book, Catherine Kearns argues that changing patterns of urban and rural sedentism drove social changes as diverse communities cultivated new landscape practices. Climatic changes fostered uneven relationships between people, resources like land, copper, and wood, and increasingly important places like rural sanctuaries and cemeteries. Bringing together a range of archaeological, textual, and scientific evidence, the book examines landscapes, environmental history, and rural practices to argue for their collective instrumentality in the processes driving Iron Age political formations. It suggests how rural households managed the countryside, interacted with the remains of earlier generations, and created gathering spaces alongside the development of urban authorities. Offering new insights into landscape archaeologies, Dr Kearns contributes to current debates about society's relationships with changing environments.

Preface. Chapter 1: Introduction. Part I. Chapter 2: Re-assessing the “Land-” of Landscape: Environments, Climates, Weathering. Chapter 3: Unruly Landscapes: Rural Resources, Territory, Time. Part II Chapter 4: Pulses in an Electromagnetic Field: First-Millennium BCE Environmental and Social Change. Chapter 5: Beyond Amathus: South-Central Cyprus in Context. Chapter 6: Gypsum, Copper, Soil: Archaic Countrysides. Chapter 7: Conclusions: Becoming Rural. Appendix I.

Subject Areas: Society & culture: general [JF], Environmental archaeology [HDP], Landscape archaeology [HDL], Social & cultural history [HBTB], History of other lands [HBJQ]