Monday, 12th May 2008
Dr Joanne Clarke (University of East Anglia)
CYPRUS AND THE LEVANT IN THE NEOLITHIC: NEW THEORIES, NEW INSIGHTS, NEW DATA
It is generally accepted that by the end of the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B, interaction between the Levant and Cyprus had ceased, leaving behind a culturally fragmented mainland and an isolated island populated by insular, early agricultural communities. This view has contributed to the exclusion of Cyprus from studies of later Levantine prehistory and in turn, has perpetuated a perception of regional fragmentation from the beginning of the 7th millennium BC onwards. Recently, new data and new approaches to old data have begun to deconstruct misconceptions about the relationship between the Levant and Cyprus in the later Neolithic period. Research and analyses on chipped and ground stone, on pottery, on settlement organisation and on economies and environment, have illustrated that connections between the Levant and Cyprus continued, albeit on a different footing from that of the PPNB. This lecture will be the first time that these results have been presented publicly and will include new research not yet published.
Joanne Clarke is lecturer in archaeology and material culture studies in the School of World Art Studies at the University of East Anglia. Joanne is currently director of excavations at Kalavasos-Kokkinoyia in Cyprus and previously directed excavations at the site el-Moghraqa in Gaza. She has published numerous articles on the prehistory of the Levant. Her book, On the Margins of Southwest Asia: Cyprus during the 6th to 4th Millennia BC, was published by Oxbow in September 2007.
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