PREHISTORIC & PROTOHISTORIC CYPRUS Phần 5 ppsx

Figure 35: Multiple Protohistoric Bronze Age tomb types as represented at Enkomi. a. Cypriot Tomb 21; b. Swedish Tomb 2; c. French Tomb 10 (1934); d. French Tomb 12 (1934); e. Swedish Tomb 8; f. Cypriot Tomb 19; g. French Tomb 2; h. Swedish Tomb 18; i. French Tomb 1851; j. Swedish Tholos Tomb 21; k. British Ashlar Tomb 66. 188 ProBA Cyprus there are also four or Wve tholos tombs (Pr oBA 1–2 in date—Gjerstad et al. 1934: 570–573; Johnstone 1971;C ourtois etal .1986:49–50),Wv e r ectangularashlar -built tombs (partlyc orbelled,allPr oBA2indate—Courtois et al.1986:24–6), pit grav es, infant burials in pots, and shaft grav es (Pr oBA 3 only) (Keswani 2004: 93). The only ashlar-built tomb found intact (Enkomi British Tomb 66 ¼ French Tomb 1322) contained a wealth of gold, bronze, faience, and other exotic items, whilst fragmentary Wnds from the remaining ashlar tombs suggest that they too contained exceptional contents. All of the tholos tombs had been looted before excavation, but fragmentary gold Wnds from two of them (Enkomi Swedish Tomb 21, British Tomb 71) hint that they too may have held people of high status. Whereas the tholos tombs resemble the famous tholoi from Mycenae and elsewhere in the Aegean (e.g. Darcque 1987; Cavanagh and Laxton 1988), they are smaller in size and more irregular in construction than their Aegean counterparts. They represent either a distinctive Cypriot adaptation of Aegean (or even Levantine) prototypes (Keswani 2004: 115) or, more likely, a variat- ion on the standard Cypriot rock-cut chamber tomb. These tholoi were situated in various parts of the town at Enkomi, and thus are unlikely to represent the burials of any speciWc residential, kin, or other social group. The ashlar-built tombs, by contrast, were all constructed in Quartiers 3E and 4E in association with well-built residential structures, leading Keswani (2004: 115) to suggest that they may have belonged to a single elite group that lived in this area. These burial constructions are often associated with the elaborate ashlar tombs found beneath elite households in Ugarit (Salles 1995), but once again the Enkomi examples are somewhat smaller and of less elaborate con- struction than their fully corbelled Syrian counterparts (SchaeVer 1939: 91; Karageorghis 1966: 344). Both the tholos and ashlar-built tombs may have been inspired by the mortuary constructions of foreign elites (Keswani 2004: 115). Even if that were the case, it seems clear that these tombs were adapted to Cypriot social concerns and locational constraints. Moreover, various rock-cut chambers tombs in other parts of Enkomi—French Tomb 2 (SchaeVer 1952: 111–35), British Tombs 19, 67, and 93 (Murray et al. 1900) and Swedish Tomb 8 (Gjerstad et al. 1934)—have comparable or even wealthier material assemblages than their foreign counterparts, making it clear that neither the tholos nor the ashlar-built tombs were the exclusive choice of the elite(s). Perhaps the most crucial change in the ProBA mortuary record, and the one that distinguishes it most clearly from that of the PreBA, is the occurrence of intramural tombs in diverse residential, administrative, or even workshop contexts in most excavated settlements (Keswani 2004: 85, 87–8). For example, at Alassa Pa no M andilares (Hadjisavvas 1989: 35, 39–40; 1991: 73–6 and Wg. 17.3), Enkomi (Dikaios 1969: 418–34) and Episkopi Bamboula (Benson 1972: 3–4, 9), several tombs were located either in domestic courtyards or beneath ProBA Cyprus 189 streets. The four elite tombs at Kalavasos Ayios Dhimitrios—nos. 11, 14, 13, and 21—were situated beneath a N/S running street, just west of an elaborate public structure, Building X (South 1997: 161; 2000: 348). These burial constructions were oriented to the south, and arranged more or less in a line, from Tomb 11 in the north to Tomb 13 in the south (Figure 36). Although they date, variously, from LC IIA–B, whilst Building X’s latest and best preserved level dates to LC IIC, excavations have shown a continuous stratigraphic and architectural se- quence throughout LC II (A–C): this suggests that the alignment of elite tombs and the elite public structure was a planned operation. Bolger (2003: 172) suggests that the regular (N/S) orientation of these tombs, the Mycenaean kraters found in them (Tombs 11, 13, and 14) and the segregation of male and female burials (infants might be buried with either) point to a ‘common burial program of a distinct and spatially diVerentiated group of elites’. Figure 36: Elite tombs at Kalavasos Ayios Dhimitrios situated beneath a N/S running street to the west of monumental Building X. 190 ProBA Cyprus The mortuary practices of the ProBA may have been linked to the social circumstances involved in the founding of new population centres (Keswani 1996: 236–7; 2004: 87–8). Thus frontier coastal towns like Enkomi, Toumba tou Skourou, and perhaps Kition would have been settled by kin groups from diVerent ‘ancestral’ villages who ‘may have lacked the sense of corporate identity associated with communal, extramural burial grounds’ (Keswani 2004: 87). Such heterogeneous descent groups, Keswani suggests, established their burial grounds in close proximity to their own houses or workshops, thus setting themselves apart from other, unrelated groups in the new com- munity. In some inland towns, situated in areas with continuous sequences of prior occupation, residents either built new ashlar structures directly above earlier tombs (Maroni Vournes, Kalavasos Ayios Dhimitrios), or else con- structed new tombs in streets and open areas in everyday use (Episkopi Bamboula, Alassa Pano Mandilares). Keswani (2004: 88) suggests that this practice may be associated with ‘widespread ‘‘privatization’’ of the ancestors in the context of increasing inter-familial, as opposed to inter-community competition’, thus stressing and validating rights of ownership or control over land and production facilities. In both cases, these groups seem to have fostered a strong sense of their own social identity, as the tombs of their elite ancestors—testaments to their hereditary legitimacy—would have been encountered on a daily basis. One of the most striking examples of such tombs, and certainly one of the richest tombs ever uncovered on Cyprus, is Tomb 11 at Ayios Dhimitrios (Goring 1989; Moyer 1989; South 1997: 159–61, 2000: 349–53). Bolger (2003: 172) emphasizes a recurring pattern of sexual segregation in the mortuary deposits of Ayios Dhimitrios, and states that Tomb 11 in particular ‘can justiWably be regarded as the most prestigious female mortuary facility known from prehistoric Cyprus.’ In it were interred three young women (respectively 17, 19–20, 21–24 years old), the bones of a 3-year-old child, and three new-born infants, the last burials deposited in the tomb (South 2000: 352). The women’s remains had been placed on two bed-sized benches cut into the rock on either side of the entrance to the tomb chamber; the bones of the child and infants were placed on the Xoor, near the benches. The 19- to 20-year-old female rested on the wider (western) bench, her skeleton fully articulated and bedecked with gold, silver and glass jewellery of the most luxurious type. The skeletons of the other two women were disarticulated and incomplete, but they too had been adorned with jewellery, ivory and other precious goods. A small oval chamber of less than 1 m sq (Tomb 9), near the entrance to the tomb, contained a nearly complete infant’s skeleton and a few ivory fragments. A niche on the eastern side of the dromos to Tomb 11 contained the very incomplete skeletal remains of a 2- to 24-month-old infant ProBA Cyprus 191 and 17- to 25-year-old adult, along with a large bronze ring and a single Base-ring I juglet (South 2000: 352). The conWguration and preservation of all these remains clearly indicate secondary burial practices. In Tomb 11, the most recent interment was placed on the wider (western) bench, at which point earlier remains were removed to the narrower (eastern) bench. The bones of the new-born infants, however, were the latest to enter the tomb: they had been placed atop a layer of silt that covered the chamber Xoor and the grave goods of the earlier burials, and were found in a cluster, perhaps indicating their original placement in a basket or other organic container that has since disintegrated. Most likely some sort of ceremony accompanied the moving of an individual’s bones to a new resting place. At the very least, the secondary treatment of these skeletal remains involved the purposeful and preferential transferral of the skull and long bones (Goring 1989: 100; Steel 2004a: 174). One can only speculate whether the infants were the oVspring of one or more of the women. If they were, they had been kept elsewhere for some time, after which their bones were collected together and mixed up together with some bird and Wsh bones before being placed in Tomb 9 (South 2000: 352). There they lay in close proximity to the women but on the Xoor rather than on the benches. The spatial conWguration seen in Tomb 11 also indicates special treatment of these infants. Elsewhere, in Enkomi for example, infants were typically buried in (imported, ‘Syro- Palestinian’) jars or amphorae beneath Xoors in various rooms (Dikaios 1969: 109, 115–16), although at least one infant and one child were interred in two diVerent (LC IIIA) shaft graves (Dikaios 1971: 518). The grave goods found in Tomb 11 (Figure 37), the only intact and sealed tomb group found at Ayios Dhimitrios (South 2000: 353), are exceptional and have been singled out for comment by everyone who writes about this site (e.g. Goring 1989; South 2000: 352–3; Bolger 2003: 172–3; Steel 2004a: 174). Amongst the 177 registered items were such exotica as: ‘sets’ (of 2) Mycenaean kraters and piriform jars, pedastalled Base-ring bowls, almost identical Base- ring bull-shaped vessels, Egy ptian glass jars, ivory duck-shaped vessels, and a set of 3 very similar WS II bowls; at least 17 Red Lustrous spindle bottles and Wve lentoid Xasks; 12 gold earrings (six each found with the women on the two benches), two gold Wnger rings with Cypro-Minoan signs and other motifs on bezels, two silver toe rings, four gold spirals, and a double-sided stone stamp seal. In studying the gold jewellery, Goring (1989: 103–4) noted that the 12 gold earrings were nearly standardized in weight (10.8 grams) and thus might have served as some sort of ‘convertible currency’, perhaps even as part of the women’s dowries. The women buried in Tomb 11 were accom- panied by some of the most sumptuous grave goods known from prehistoric Cyprus. The fact that much of the gold dewellery showed signs of prior use 192 ProBA Cyprus indicates they may have worn these items in life as well as in death, perhaps to highlight their status and to signal their elite identities. Tomb 11 at Ayios Dhimitrios is not the only exceptional and luxurious female burial of the ProBA. Swedish Tomb 18 at Enkomi, for example, another rock-cut chamber tomb, contained the skeletal remains of a 36-year-old female interred with an array of gold jewellery (earrings, necklace, Wnger and toe rings, a diadem, and mouthpiece), a bronze mirror and some bronze vessels, several fragments of an ivory box and an ivory comb (Fischer 1986: 36–7; Bolger 2003: 170; Keswani 2004: 126). At Morphou Toumba tou Skourou, the latest chamber in a multiple-chamber tomb of ProBA date contained a single, 25-year-old female (Vermeule and Wolsky 1990: 247–8) whose remains were found in context with gold beads, fragments of ivory boxes, a lapis lazuli cylinder seal with gold foil caps and Mycenaean pottery. The remains of earlier burials in this tomb had been cleared to make way for this burial, the most sumptuous one uncovered at the site. Despite the quantity and diversity of luxury goods found in ProBA tombs, Keswani (2004: 85–6) believes that ProBA burial practices reXect new urban Figure 37: Grave goods (miscellaneous gold objects) accompanying burials in Tomb 11, Kalavasos Ayios Dhimitrios. ProBA Cyprus 193 attitudes to mortuary rituals, where ‘status diVerentials were no longer primarily created through periodic, ritualized exhibitions among competitive kin groups but were instead increasingly based upon diVerential access to copper, trade goods, and positions attained within a variety of court and temple institutions’. In this light, it is worth noting that a recent contextual analysis of goods imported into ProBA Cyprus found the fall-oV in the amount of gold in LC IIC–IIIA mortuary contexts at Enkomi (Keswani 1989c: 66) to be oVset by an increase in gold items in settlement, and speciWcally in ceremonial contexts in Area I (¼Level IIIB) (Antoniadou 2004: 174 and tables 156, 160). Mortuary rituals, in other words, remained crucial for expressing social identity and reproducing status diVerentials, but the actual mortuary practices ceased to be the only way, or the prime venue, for such expressions. Based on his work at Maroni Vournes and Tsaroukkas, Manning (1998b; also Manning and Monks 1998) sees this process unfolding rather diVerently. He argues that as new production, craft, and storage facilities developed at the larger Maroni settlement complex during LC IIC, several tombs that had been used by one or more elite lineages throughout LC IIA–B were emptied, destroyed, or built over by new structures (e.g. Buildings 1 and 2 at Tsaroukkas Figure 38: Protohistoric Bronze Age 2 (LC IIA-B) Tomb 13, built over by new structures (Building 1) at Maroni Tsaroukkas. 194 ProBA Cyprus and the ‘Ashlar Building’ at Vournes) (Figure 38). Manning (1998b: 48–53) interprets these changes as the deliberate erasure of earlier memories by those who constructed these new buildings, a strategic appropriation of ancestral authority and the deliberate suppression of the prevailing, and competing, modes of prestige display. Webb (1999: 287–8) interprets the maintenance or destruction of ancestral burial plots such as those at Vournes or Tsaroukkas,and the ‘conspicuous consumption’ that such a process entails, as reXecting the interplay of domination and resistance between competing elites striving to establish political legitimacy. In Manning’s (1998b: 51–4) scenario, one suc- cessful lineage group or its head may already have been asserting a ‘chieXy’ identity during LC IIA–B, but with the new LC IIC constructions over earlier tombs and buildings, the social authority and salient identity linked with various ancestral groups now came under the control of a single ruling family headed by a ‘key individual in Cypriot prehistory’. He suggests that individual may have been the king of Alashiya mentioned in diverse, contemporar y (14th–13th centuries bc) cuneiform documents. Bolger’s (2003: 165–82) perspective on the multiplicity of ProBA mortuary practices follows the original research of Keswani (1989a), and highlights various gendered patterns and practices associated with burials (Keswani 2004: 26, 31, 132, 141). Bolger maintains that men’s and women’s roles became much more sharply diVerentiated during the ProBA than in any previous period. Below, in Chapter 7, I consider the overall impact of gen- dered mortuary practices on social identity in ProBA Cyprus. Here I simply summarize the points Bolger raised: . Some ProBA tomb groups (Ayios Iakovos Melia, Kourion Bamboula, Enkomi Ayios Iakovos) reveal a disproportionate, 2:1 ratio (nearly 4:1 at Ayios Iakovos) of male to female osteological remains (based on Keswani 1989a; see also Keswani 2004: 31, 220 table 5.3; Fischer 1986: 12). . The practice of post-bregmatic cranial deformation, which Bolger (2003: 140–4, 151–2) sees as related to social status, was rarely applied to females (except at Enkomi) (Keswani 2004: 26 notes such practice only as a preoccupation of most previous mortuary analyses). . The spatial segregation of males and females into diVerent tomb groups (Akhera C¸iXik Paradisi, Morphou Toumba tou Skourou, Kalavasos Ayios Dhimitrios). . The contrast between certain sumptuous, high-status, female burials (espe- cially at Ayios Dhimitrios, Enkomi, and Toumba tou Skourou) and the apparent lack of lower-status female bur ials. . The possible existence of Wve or six third gender or ‘transgendered’ burials at Hala Sultan Tekke (Tomb 23), Enkomi (Swedish Tomb 17), Ayios ProBA Cyprus 195 Iakovos (Tomb 13), Ayios Dhimitrios (Tomb 14), and Lapithos (Swedish Tomb 29). The multiplicity of burial practices and the rituals and beliefs associated with them clearly became more diverse as the communities of ProBA Cyprus opened up to wider regional and external horizons, and in so doing became more heterogeneous and socially complex (Keswani 2004: 103–4). As a further and perhaps related development, primary inhumations (during ProBA 3) in shaft graves became more common, emphasizing the role and status of certain individuals within or beyond their communities. It is by no means certain that shaft graves became the normative type of mortuary practice during ProBA 3. Although they required less eVort to build than chamber tombs, the shaft graves were not destined exclusively for lower status burials, nor were they the result of hasty, less attentive burial practices (Niklasson-So ¨ nnerby 1987). Some shaft graves—e.g. Enkomi French Tombs 13, 15, and 16—contained gold jewellery and were most likely used by groups and individuals of varying wealth and social stature (SchaeVer 1936: 141–2; Keswani 2004: 97). The prominence of other luxury goods, imported or locally made, in ProBA burials the island around indicates that mortuary practices and rituals indeed continued to serve an important function for establishing social hierarchies, consolidating individual or group identity, and maintaining the memory and power of ancestral groups. From lavish arrays of gold jeweller y (earring, hair-rings, Wnger rings, necklaces, diadems, etc.—Goring 1989), to the proliferation of Mycenaean pottery vessels holding scented oils (Leonard 1981; Steel 1998: 294–6), to the myriad examples of metal goods (bronze spatulae and mirrors, silver bowls) and ivory, glass, faience, and ostrich egg containers, we can understand how bodily ornamentation, dress, and serving paraphernalia may have enhanced elite images within society and served as an important means to construct elite identity. Although some jewellery may have been made exclusively for funerary consumption (e.g. Lagarce and Lagarce 1986: 117–22), most examples show indicators of long term use, even if only at festive or ceremonial events (Keswani 2004: 138). Less striking but equally prominent sets or single occurrences of balance weights—found in ProBA 1–2 tombs at Enkomi, Maroni, Toumba tou Skourou and Ayia Irini Paleokastro (and in Building III at Ayios Dhimitr ios)—suggest some associ- ation with metallurgical production. Moreover, because these weights belong to Levantine, Anatolian, and even Babylonian measurement systems (Cour- tois 1983, 1986; Petruso 1984), they may well demonstrate some links to the interregional trade in metals. The elaborately decorated Mycenaean chariot kraters found in high status tombs may have formed part of elite drinking sets (Steel 1998). A scene on 196 ProBA Cyprus one of these kraters (from Tomb 13 at Ayios Dhimitrios—Figure 39) shows a woman standing in a building and looking upon a chariot group, horses, and Wsh Xanking a structure (a ‘shrine’) topped by Wve pairs of ‘horns of conse- cration’ (Steel 1994). From Kourion Bamboula comes a very similar krater on which a group of women also peer through a window to gaze upon another chariot scene (Karageorghis 1957). Another Mycenaean krater (from Tomb 21 at Ayios Dhimitrios) unusually depicts women only, and was found in context with ivories, Wve gold diadems (or mouthpieces?), and some local pottery (South 2000: 362). Other imported Mycenaean alabastra or stirrup jars, as well as local Red Lustrous ware spindle bottles or arm-shaped vessels fre- quently found in mortuary contexts, may all be linked to various rituals that involved anointing the body or the pouring of libations (Steel 1998: 294–6, 2003: 175; cf. Webb 1992b: 89). Vaughan (1991: 124) has also suggested that Base-ring jugs and carinated cups—both common in mortuary and ritual contexts—could have been used in libation ceremonies. When this array of kraters (prominently featuring women in various settings), stirrup jars, jugs, cups, and specialized vessels are taken into account alongside the faunal remains found in tombs at Ayios Dhimitrios (South 2000: 361) and Toumba tou Skourou (Vermeule and Wolsky 1990: 169, 245), there is little doubt that ceremonial feasting and libations played a prominent role in ProBA mortuary rituals (Steel 2004a: 174), and that women were intimately associated with such activities. Another key component of elite prestige symbolism and competitive dis- play may be seen in the array of exotic vessels (Base-ring bull rhyta, faience Figure 39: Protohistoric Bronze Age 2 krater from Tomb 13 at Ayios Dhimitrios, showing a woman looking from a building. ProBA Cyprus 197 [...]... 1971: 720, no 253 , pl 170.3; Webb 1999: 214, Wg 75. 4) From a shallow pit in Room 11 came a small (5. 5 cm high), double-sided bronze statuette depicting a nude female with hands held to her breasts (the ‘double goddess’) (Dikaios 1971: 721, no 271, pl 171 :52 ; Webb 1999: 233, Wg 80.4) Elsewhere in Room 11 various small bronze objects and a piece of a golden leaf were recovered ProBA Cyprus 223 The two... ‘palaces’ and ‘urban temples’ in ProBA Cyprus, and at one point (p 278) even suggests that there were no ‘non-religious public buildings’ on Late Bronze Age Cyprus Yon (2006), although steeped in the same tradition, Wnds no evidence for palaces on Late Bronze Age or Early Iron Age Cyprus, despite expectations of such based on documentary evidence Webb (1999: 157 – 258 ) provides the most comprehensive analysis,... in protohistoric Cyprus Such distinctions often contain, intentionally or unintentionally, an oppositional bias that privileges one side of the equation at the expense of the other In prehistoric and pre-industrial societies, not unlike any other human context, multiple variations of public/private and cultic/ceremonial could have existed Accordingly, and particularly in the case of protohistoric Cyprus, ... in the northwest corner of Building X (A 176— South 1997: 154 ) The approximately 50 large, highly standardized storage jars from the ‘Pithos Hall’ (A 152 ), together with some smaller examples from another storage area at the northern end of building, had a total capacity estimated at 50 ,000 litres (South 1996: 42; Keswani 1993: 76 estimates 33 ,50 0 litres for the Pithos Hall alone) Gas chromatography... helped them to make sense of their world The Case for Cyprus There is no dearth of published work on the monumental architecture of prehistoric Cyprus (e.g Dikaios 1960; Wright 1992a; Webb 1999; Steel 2004a: 1 75 81, 201–6) In addition, an unpublished doctoral thesis has been devoted to Cypriot military architecture (Fortin 1981; also Fortin 1983, 19 95) None of these treatises, however, oVers a speciWcally... 18–34; Courtois 1982: 155 –8; Courtois et al 1986: 8–13) Various other indicators of metallurgical activity—crucibles, slag, a small hollow in the rock lined with ‘cement’—were found in Quartier 5E, in association with the Sanctuary of the Ingot God Quartiers 5E (Sanctuary of Ingot God) and 4W (Sanctuaries of the Horned God and Double Goddess), it may be noted, are situated only about 50 m from each other,... monumental structures is actively mediated through them and expressed in several possible dimensions, such as public/private, access/segregation, or identity/diVerence (Dovey 1999: 1, 15 16; Fisher 2006: 124 5) Given (2004: 1 05 15) has asked what eVect massive construction projects such as the Giza pyramids of Old Kingdom Egypt or the Nazi building programmes in Berlin and Nuremberg had on the labourers who... Building III, a large ( 25 16 sq m) structure with 1.1 m thick walls, lay directly east of Building II and appears to have been in direct contact with it This structure was built on terraces into the hill behind it, and each of the three, large rooms excavated lay ProBA Cyprus 2 15 Figure 41a, b: Plan and isometric reconstruction of Alassa Paleotaverna Building II 216 ProBA Cyprus on a diVerent level... above) Centrally situated in Quartier 5E, the Sanctuary of the Ingot God was erected during ProBA 3 (the exact date is again a matter of debate—see Webb 1999: 102; 2001: 77–80) above an earlier building of equally substantial construction, perhaps also devoted to ceremonial use and practice (Courtois 1971, 1973; Courtois et al 1986: 32–7; SchaeVer 1971b: 50 6–10, 52 5–33) During the main phase that concerns... on Webb’s (1999: 53 –8, 84–91) detailed discussion and presentation of those particular sites Still other sites, like the enclosure at Ayios Iakovos Dhima, have been treated elsewhere in this study (above, pp 149 50 ) In addition, various features of these sites have been discussed in some detail above (Settlement Trends, Socio-political Organization, Production and Exchange) ProBA Cyprus 211 Because . i. French Tomb 1 851 ; j. Swedish Tholos Tomb 21; k. British Ashlar Tomb 66. 188 ProBA Cyprus there are also four or Wve tholos tombs (Pr oBA 1–2 in date—Gjerstad et al. 1934: 57 0 57 3; Johnstone. public/private, access/segregation, or identity/diVerence (Dovey 1999: 1, 15 16; Fisher 2006: 124 5) . Given (2004: 1 05 15) has asked what eVect massive construction projects such as the Giza pyramids. world. The Case for Cyprus There is no dearth of published work on the monumental architecture of prehistoric Cyprus (e.g. Dikaios 1960; Wright 1992a; Webb 1999; Steel 2004a: 1 75 81, 201–6). In