Portrait of collective communities: The diachronic spatial configuration at the Late Bronze Age site complex of Hala Sultan Tekke, Cyprus

Description

Nearly a century since its initial discovery, the Late Bronze Age urban site complex near Hala Sultan Tekke in Cyprus has undergone extensive systematic exploration through numerous excavation campaigns. Nevertheless, the spatial dimensions of the site complex have received limited scholarly attention, predominantly manifesting as speculative approximations. Commencing in 2021, a team from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel initiated annual survey campaigns within the immediate hinterland of the site, aiming to procure evidence of human activity pertaining to the Late Bronze Age. Following two successful campaigns in 2021 and 2022, the preliminary findings from the most recent campaign in 2023 will be discussed as well. Comparative analysis of the accumulated survey data with findings from prior and concurrent excavations has yielded novel discoveries into the site's spatial configuration. Concurrently, the project endeavours to scrutinize the hinterland itself, aspiring to establish a diachronic comprehension of human-landscape interactions spanning from the Bronze Age to the Iron Age and later periods. This holistic approach delivered to furnish novel and valuable insights into the early historical trajectory of the Hala Sultan Tekke site nucleus, unveiling hitherto obscured facets of the site’s formation. Moreover, the investigation has provided relevant new insights pertinent to Iron Age chronologies and later periods, a scholarly lacuna hitherto unaddressed in the proximity of the site complex as it has conventionally been construed as abruptly abandoned at the end of the Late Bronze Age with no evidence of human activity until a much later timeframe.

Period	8 Dec 2023
Event title	The 13th Day on Belgian Archaeological Research in the Ancient Greek World
Event type	Conference
Location	Brussels, Belgium
Degree of Recognition	International