Mortuary ritual and social hierarchy in Bronze Age Cyprus. (Volumes I and II).

Abstract

This thesis examines the archaeological evidence for developments in mortuary ritual and social hierarchy in the context of the urban transformation which occurred in Cyprus during the second millennium B.C. It begins with an examination of the linkages between social organization, mortuary ritual, and the formation of the mortuary record. The particular analytical problems posed by the use of collective burial facilities characteristic of Bronze Age Cyprus are then considered. Account of ethnographically-documented societies known to have practiced forms of communal burial are reviewed in order to develop a better underst and ing of the systems of mortuary ritual through which collective burial units may be produced and the relationship between tomb groups and social groups in the living society. A methodology for the analysis of collective tombs and associated mortuary features is then devised and applied to mortuary complexes from Middle and Late Bronze Age Cyprus. This study reveals considerable complexity in Bronze Age mortuary practice, sometimes involving multi-phase ritual processing and large-scale mortuary celebrations. Important changes in diachronic patterns of tomb use and the demographic composition of tomb groups probably associated with the development of lineage organization during the Late Cypriote period (ca. 1650-1050 B.C.) are also discerned, along with probable changes in the role of mortuary ritual in society towards the end of the second millennium. Discussion turns next to the study of social hierarchy within and between sites based on the variability observed in assemblages of grave goods. Particular attention is devoted to the exceptionally large sample of tombs from Enkomi, the analysis of which attests to the emergence of extremely rich elite groups employing distinctive complements of prestige symbolism by early in the Late Cypriote period. The presence of similar groups of comparable status is discerned at other centers along the south coast, but notable disparities in the distribution of valuables between coastal and inl and areas are apparent, probably indicative of the development of hierarchical relations between interacting regions.