Living apart Together. Diachronic spatial analysis on the hinterland of Hala Sultan Tekke, Cyprus

Description

Almost 100 years after its initial discovery, the Late Bronze Age site complex of Hala Sultan Tekke (Cyprus) has been explored through a multitude of excavation campaigns, yet the spatial extent of the LBA site complex has never received much attention. During the autumn of 2021, a first archaeological fieldwalking survey campaign took place near the site with the primary aim to establish a spatial analysis on the direct hinterland of the Late Bronze Age urban complex by means of mapping out the distribution patterns of pottery sherds and other dateable material in GIS. Since no reliable information on the site’s spatial extent is available, the first aim of the campaign was to establish whether or not traces of human activity (sites) during the Middle to Late Bronze Age were present within the urban site’s immediate hinterland. By comparing the survey data and spatial analysis with the results of recent excavations, the suggestion rises for the Late Bronze Age Urban complex at Hala Sultan Tekke having been an ‘open urban townscape’, rather than a dense and compact urban centre. The second aim of the project was to obtain a diachronic perspective on human-landscape interactions from pre-Middle Bronze Age to post-Late bronze Age for the broader hinterland of the site. This, in turn, would bring new valuable information regarding the early site history of Hala Sultan Tekke and could provide new insights on how the site came to be. After the major success of the 2021 campaign, a next campaign had been organised in the autumn of 2022, the (preliminary) results of which will also be discussed.

Periode	30 nov 2022
Evenementstitel	The 12th Day on Belgian Archaeological Research in the Ancient Greek World
Evenementstype	Conference
Locatie	Brussels, Belgium
Mate van erkenning	International