The Role of Aegean Pottery in the Community of Late Bronze Age Hala Sultan Tekke, Cyprus
Abstract
Hala Sultan Tekke in southeastern Cyprus was a major Late Bronze Age Mediterranean trade hub. A wide range of materials was imported from the Aegean, Anatolia, Egypt, the Levant and as well as from central Mediterranean. Imported exotic materials were means of expression of identity and display of social status among the community living in the city. The paper focuses on typological and functional analysis of the Late Helladic IIIA-B Aegean pottery imported at Hala Sultan Tekke. The presence in the settlement and in the funerary area of large amount of Aegean imported materials reflects complex processes of deliberate selection of shapes and types, adaptation of uses, and appropriation, hybridisation and imitation of a stranger ceramic tradition in the local Cypriot social context. The choices made in importing and imitating the Aegean pottery represent various dynamics of direct and indirect engagement with and between ‘strangers’ in Late Bronze Age Cyprus.
Presentato: 23 Gennaio 2025 | Accettato: 28 Gennaio 2025 | Pubblicato 24 Luglio 2025 | Lingua: en
Keywords Late Helladic • Aegean pottery • Hala Sultan Tekke • Late Cypriot • Functional analysis
Copyright © 2025 Lorenzo Mazzotta, Laerke Recht. This is an open-access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction is permitted, provided that the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. The license allows for commercial use. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
Permalink http://doi.org/10.30687/978-88-6969-917-7/003