Middle/Late Chalcolithic to Early Bronze Age Cyprus: New Perspectives in Archaeological Theory and Techniques

Abstract

The paper presented at the conference serves as an introduction to a research project that has recently been started at the University of Edinburgh in regards to the operation , interactions and transformations of social structures and formations during the Late Chalcolithic to Early Bronze Age on the island . Ab initio it is observed that up to now a plethora of spatio-temporally and often times theoretically limited and frequently incongruent or even conflicting theories have been proposed regarding the form , historical trajectories and transformations of the social groups inhabiting Cyprus in the aforesaid periods . Nevertheless a comprehensive , islandwide overview of the socio-political and cultural systems of the periods in question is still lacking , while the issue of the transition from the Late Chalcolithic to the Early Bronze Age is still under heated debate . In this short presentation the aforementioned theoretical propositions are briefly presented , but not critiqued , while the research goals , methodology , working hypotheses and the philosophical-theoretical substratum of the project are more thoroughly explained . In way of summary it is mentioned that the project aspires to employ rigorous philosophical thinking in order to fuse concepts from current sociological and archaeological theory , whilst implementing novel techniques of data recording and treatment . Within this research strategy ’ s context , digital databases , spatial analysis and robust statistical techniques are utilised in order to re-examine the majority of relevant data and achieve a synthesis of data and theory in order to critically interpret the observed phenomena of socio-cultural transformations.