Not Set in Stone: Understanding Communities in Prehistoric Cyprus (3500-1600BC) through Ground Stone Tool Biographies

Abstract

The Middle Chalcolithic to early Late Bronze Age (3500-1600BC) in Cyprus is a transformative period, over which copper is first used as a medium for tool production and copper-working industries develop greatly. To elucidate this time frame, this thesis explores an artefact class that is intricately bound up in a range of technical processes, but which has not been thoroughly linked to key developments over this period, or adequately situated in the Prehistoric Cypriot social world: ground stone tools. Notably, it has been proposed that ground stone edge tools are replaced by those of copper (Peltenburg 1998a: 188), indicating analysis of ground stone tools as fruitful in elucidating early copper use in Cyprus. This study presents a multi-scalar life history analysis of ground stone tools, theoretically and analytically aligned with chaîne opératoire and object itinerary research. The social and material relationality of ground stone tools is traced through the material memories they hold of past processes at different scales of analysis. It was hoped that this would encourage a more nuanced understanding of developments over the period under analysis, which both promotes the agency of indigenous cultures and illuminates materials. It is shown that ground stone tools are far from static and mundane. Rather, they are intricately tied to key social and technological developments over this period and help to further elucidate shifting ways of life in prehistoric Cyprus, including the first use of copper and developments in copper-working.

Date of Award	31 Dec 2023
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	The University of Manchester
Supervisor	Stuart Campbell (Supervisor)