The earlier Neolithic in Cyprus: recognition and dating of a Pre-Pottery Neolithic A occupation.

Manning, Sturt W. ; McCartney, Carole ; Kromer, Bernd 等

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Introduction

Up to 20 years ago, archaeological evidence indicated that the human occupation of the island of Cyprus began in the seventh millennium cal BC (Stanley-Price 1979; Cherry 1981, 1985; Karageorghis 1982), and could be seen as a relatively late and somewhat marginal colonisation achieved by established farmers from the Levantine mainland during their final Pre Pottery Neolithic B (PPNB) period. An important challenge to this consensus occurred in the late 1980s, with the discovery of a Late Epipalaeolithic site at Akrotiri Aetakremnas on the south coast of Cyprus with dates in the eleventh to early tenth millennia cal BC (Simmons 1988, 1991, 1999; Simmons & Mandel 2007). Two other coastal sites with similar early lithic industries have also been recognised recently, possibly indicating maritime explorations and voyaging by foragers to Cyprus during the Younger Dryas into the earlier Holocene (Ammerman et al. 2006, 2007, 2008). Meanwhile, in the other direction, finds reported in the last ten years trace the Neolithic occupation of Cyprus back another two millennia from its supposed seventh-millennium BC beginnings, with the recognition of earlier PPNB (Cypro-PPNB) sites starting around or after 840018300-8200 cal BC (Peltenburg et al. 2000, 2001; Swiny 2001; Sevketoglu 2002, 2008; Peltenburg 2003; McCartney & Todd 2005; Guilaine & Briois 2006; Simmons 2007: 234-45).

A major question for current research thus became: what happened on Cyprus between about 10 000 cal BC and 8200 cal BC? Was there a hiatus in human presence on the island (cf. Guilaine & Briois 2006, but see McCartney 2010)? The answer to this question is critical to providing a framework for understanding the development of the Neolithic on Cyprus, and elsewhere in the Eastern Mediterranean, since the missing interval represents the transition from foraging to initial experimentation with cultivation (Sherratt 2007; Simmons 2007:86-118). Was there a Pre-Pottery Neolithic A (PPNA) phase on Cyprus as suggested by some researchers (Watkins 1980; Peltenburg et al. 2001: 55; McCartney et al. 2006, 2007 with references)?

New investigation strategy

Much of the coastal terrain of Cyprus available in the initial Holocene is now underwater, and many inland areas are heavily eroded or deeply buried by later alluvial deposits. However, preliminary analysis of lithics from several inland sites in central Cyprus by Stewart and McCartney indicated the possibility of a hitherto overlooked Early Neolithic phase (McCartney et al. 2006, 2007, 2008). The Elaborating Early Neolithic Cyprus (EENC) project began by investigating this area of central Cyprus in 2005, focusing on the ecological transition zone between the Troodos foothills and central plain. Targeted survey work to date has identified 23 sites with lithic materials of potentially early date, but most are highly eroded and unlikely to have any significant intact strata. One locus with early lithic material, Ayia Varvara Asprokremnos (henceforward AVA), was a clear exception (Figure 1). On the basis of survey and preliminary auger tests, it appeared to have significant potential to yield intact archaeological deposits--now substantiated by four seasons of excavation (McCartney et al. 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009) (Figure 2).

AVA (Ayia Varvara Asprokremnos): site and Early Neolithic assemblage

AVA lies on a saddle between two low hills in central Cyprus at about 318m asl. The site is bounded on the west by the Yialias river and lies in an area rich in high quality chert, volcanic and calcareous rocks suitable for ground stone manufacture and abundant ochre, material resources that probably contributed to the choice of site location. The full extent (temporal and spatial) of the site is as yet unknown. The excavations have identified at least three phases of Early Neolithic activity in separate areas of the site. Dumping episodes of primary and secondary refuse in a series of natural hollows or channels show evidence for in situ industrial activity (Figure 2). A simple semi-subterranean hollow shelter with off-centre posthole at the northern end of the site (Trench 12) is stratified below traces of later features (Figure 3).

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A diverse range of finds provides evidence of a distinct Neolithic assemblage for Cyprus, while demonstrating parallels to PPNA assemblages on the adjacent mainland. Picrolite supplies the local green stone used for simple pebble and drop pendants (ranging from about 10mm to about 50mm in length). These, along with shell beads, predominantly dentalium, illustrate an aspect of material culture well developed by the Early Neolithic in the Levant (Bar-Yosef Mayer & Porat 2008). Ground stone tools include abundant hand-held grinding stones that imply plant processing, though many such tools were utilised for grinding ochre (Figure 4). Stone vessels made at the site include flat based 'trays', hemispherical bowls and relatively crude shallow globular bowls. An exceptional finely-made example shows the use of ochre decoration (McCartney et al. 2008: fig. 3b). This painted vessel is currently unique on Cyprus, but broadly recalls the use of decorated stone bowls at Early Neolithic sites on the Euphrates that has been associated with stone vessel manufacture in south-east Anatolia (Coqueugniot 2004: 301; Yartah 2005: fig. 7).

A significant discovery of two partial ground stone shaft-straighteners provides the earliest evidence of this artefact type on Cyprus (Figure 5). While such objects appear during the Natufian period on the mainland, carefully decorated examples become more common during the Early Neolithic with examples from Jeff el Ahmar providing a parallel for the type of decoration seen on the AVA finds (Stordeur et al. 1996: 2, fig. 2; Cauvin 2000: 47-8, fig. 19). Such markings provide early evidence of signs and of some form of wider (shared) systems of symbolic representation between Cyprus and the wider Early Neolithic of the Near East (Watkins 2008:159).

[FIGURE 4 OMITTED]

One other highly significant find is a fragment of a baked clay figurine that provides (with another stone figurine found in 2009) the earliest known example, thus far, of human representation on the island (Figure 6). Not only does this object link Cyprus to the expansion of such symbolic representation during the Early Neolithic (e.g. Garfinkel 2003: 7-9), but it recalls a similar example reported from PPNA deposits at the site of Gilgal I in the southern Levant (Noy 1994: 518), again suggesting far-reaching exchange and ideational networks that are now recognised as a hallmark of the Neolithic in the Near East (Asouti 2006; Watkins 2008).

Typo-technological evidence provided by the chipped stone assemblage at AVA also suggests a relative date for the site corresponding to the late PPNA in the Levant (see below; Kuijt & Goring-Morris 2002; Coqueugniot 2004). The core technology is dominated by a well-developed unidirectional chaine operatoire exhibiting a high degree of standardisation (McCartney et al. 2007: tab. 32, fig. 4). Numerous cores show the use of a transverse dorsal or lateral crest demonstrating methods of core shaping recalling examples from the Epi-Natufian at Mureybet or the Khiamian site of Wadi Tumbaq in western Syria (Calley 1986: 166-7, figs. 133.3 & 134; Abbes 2008: fig. 5). Some cores also exhibit an opposing distal platform used to rejuvenate cores as at late PPNA Jeff el-Ahmar (Stordeur et al. 1996: 1). Though some true bidirectional cores are present, naviform core technology is absent at AVA, suggesting a degree of conservatism and/or regional variation when naviform core technology was already beginning to occur elsewhere (Coqueugniot 2004: 296, fig. 2).

Microliths, including a few geometrics, are present along with a number of bifacially backed blades. Perforating tools are prominent and include micro-perforators like those documented at Wadi Tumbaq (Abbes 1993: fig. 7). Of special significance are the numerous arrowheads (over 100 complete and broken examples are recorded to date), providing a unique abundance of a typically rare tool class on the island (Figure 7). The dominant type is made on small blades or bladelets and exhibits a short lozenge-shaped tang defined by semi-abrupt typically biracial retouch. Similar examples are documented at Mureybet phase IIIB, Cheikh Hassan or Dja'de providing a precise reference to the Late PPNA/transitional Early PPNB industries of the northern Levant (Abbes 1993: 149, fig. 8; Cauvin 1994: 287-8, fig. 6; Coqueugniot 2004: 297).

[FIGURE 5 OMITTED]

Glossed segments exhibiting inverse convex basal truncations demonstrate a further parallel to western Syria in the Early PPNB assemblage of Tell Ain El Kerkh (Tsuneki et al. 2006: 53, fig. 3.13). Despite the prolific ground stone assemblage, the number of glossed tools is low, and together with the absence to date of charred plant remains, gives little indication of early plant domestication at AVA. Pig, along with smaller amounts of bird bone and the occasional freshwater crab, dominates the faunal evidence from AVA. The prevalence of pig is a feature similarly known at PPNA Cayonu in south-east Anatolia, or more recently at the Early PPNB Tell Ain El Kerkh in western Syria (Ervynck et al. 2001; Tsuneki et al. 2006: 57). The dates for the occurrence of pigs at the AVA site (see below) lie before the current earliest dates for domesticated pigs in the Near East (around 8500-8000 cal BC; Zeder 2008). They may therefore represent the stocking/restocking of Cyprus with wild pigs by foragers (cf. Horwitz et al. 2004: 36-7; Vigne et al. 2009). These data, together with an absence, to the present, of charred plant remains, contrasts AVA with the farming 'package' associated with Cypro-PPNB sites (cf. Peltenburg et al. 2000: 845).

Radiocarbon dates from Early Neolithic Ayia Varvara Asprokremnos (Figure 8, Table 1)

A tight cluster of six [sup.14]C dates on six different charcoal samples, directly associated with the archaeological assemblage described above, provides secure absolute age estimates from the very late tenth to the mid ninth millennia cal BC. The overall range of ages at 2[sigma](95.4% confidence) is 9141-8569 cal BC (11 090-10 518 cal BP), whilst at 1[sigma] (68.2% confidence), it is 9116-8638 cal BC (11 065-10 587 cal BP). The high consistency and similarity of the dates for these samples from just one trench (06) appear to suggest that they belong to a discrete relatively short temporal horizon. Treating the dates as a Phase in OxCal, the overall range of the modelled ages is reduced to 8841-8686 cal BC (10 790-10 635 cal BP) at 95.4% probability and 8795-8733 cal BC (10 731-10 682 cal BP) at 68.2% probability. Even allowing for some in-built age for the charcoal samples involved (probably c. 0-100 years for the expected tree species), this indicates human occupation at AVA most probably (in round terms from the 68.2% range) between c. 8800-8630 cal BC (10 749-10 579 cal BP).

[FIGURE 6 OMITTED]

The dates confirm AVA as a very Early Neolithic occupation on Cyprus contemporary with the late PPNA in the Levant, though overlapping with the earliest PPNB on the Euphrates. This new evidence fills part of the previously problematic gap on Cyprus between the Late Epipalaeolithic evidence at Akrotiri Aetokremnos and the now substantial Cypro-PPNB evidence (Figure 9). The Aetokremnos, AVA and later PPNB human presence may lie on plateaux/reversals in the [sup.14]C calibration curve (Figure 10). These plateaux represent periods of reduced [sup.14]C production, and, in general terms, probably warmer and (in the early Holocene) wetter intervals. They contrast with the steep slopes in the [sup.14]C calibration curve representing production peaks and solar minima and probably cooler intervals within overall climate trends (Bjorck et al. 2001; Bond et al. 2001; Solanki et al. 2004--for a general discussion of the relationship of the radiocarbon record to climate, see Manning 2010). Thus it may be that Cyprus was periodically more attractive (or especially attractive) to early human populations during these relative warming and probable wetter climate horizons (the magenta periods indicated in Figure 10) after the cold arid Younger Dryas interval (in the generally improving early Holocene regional climate context: Bar-Matthews et al. 1997, 1999; Robinson et al. 2006; Rosen 2007), and perhaps in contrast to some of the periods with something of a return to cooler and (in the early Holocene) drier conditions (the blue periods indicated in Figure 10).

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Discussion

The evidence for very Early Neolithic human presence on Cyprus highlights that long-distance maritime voyaging was a key human adaptation in the Near East and Eastern Mediterranean beginning with the Late Epipalaeolithic (Broodbank 2006; Ammerman et al. 2008; Ammerman 2010). Several sites with similar technology from the EENC survey area in central Cyprus, like the surface finds in the south of the island (Guilaine & Briois 2006), suggest that AVA is part of a wider PPNA period on the island. The data show a hitherto unknown westerly expansion of the mainland PPNA, while adding significantly to discussions of the timing and directionality of the PPNA/PPNB transition in the wider Near East.

[FIGURE 10 OMITTED]

Cyprus thus becomes a key part of, and evidence for, extensive Early Neolithic interactions and networks, and can no longer be seen merely as a minor periphery of the far-reaching subsequent PPNB era (Asouti 2006). Although Cyprus did not participate in the earliest obsidian networks, evidence from AVA, including the arrowhead types, shaft-straighteners, clay figurine and decorated stone bowl, suggest wide-ranging interaction extending from the Euphrates to the southern Levant. The finds and their context imply a forager- not farmerled process. Rather than isolating Cyprus, we must envisage and engage with differing, but interacting, Epipalaeolithic to PPNA to PPNB trajectories in various areas of the Levant-Anatolia, allowing the extension of the mainland networks to include Cyprus, with the sea thus providing an important route of transmission and linkage, rather than a barrier. The Neolithisation of Cyprus and the development and spread of agriculture thus become interactive processes involving both a wider maritime-linked world and the local terrestrial context.

Acknowledgements

We thank the Department of Antiquities, Cyprus, and especially its former Director, Dr Pavlos Flourentzos, for permission to carry out fieldwork. We thank the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, Cornell University (College of Arts and Sciences, and the Department of Classics) and the University of Cyprus for funding. Vasiliki Kassianidou (UCY) provided critical technical and academic assistance. Susanne Lindauer, Heidelberg, carried out sample preparation and Lukas Wacker, ETH Zurich, assisted with the AMS measurements. Michael Friedrich provided advice on the attempted species identification of the fragmentary Neolithic charcoal samples, and Rowena Gale provided species identification for other charcoal samples. We thank Patti Croft for faunal work and fieldwork assistance, Stephen Monckton and Leilani Espinda for palaeobotanical work, Darby Barnett and Jay Noller for geomorphological assistance, Marianna Ktori for assistance with lithics, David Sewell for GIS and computer work, Sandra Rosendahl for survey and GIS work, and all the field team members of the EENC project (2005-2009) for their contributions. We thank Peter Brewer for IT and GIS support and for Figure 1, and Albert Ammerman, Mary Jaye Bruce, Bernard Knapp and Edgar Peltenburg for critical discussions of earlier versions of this text

Received: 25 June 2009; Accepted: 18 August 2009; Revised: 14 October 2009

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Sturt W. Manning (1), Carole McCartney (2), Bernd Kromer (3) & Sarah T. Stewart (4)

(1) Department of Classics and Malcolm and Carolyn Wiener Laboratory for Aegean and Near Eastern Dendrochronology, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853-3201, USA (Email: sm456@cornell.edu)

(2) Archaeological Research Unit, University of Cyprus, P.O. Box 20537, 1678 Nicosia, Cyprus (Email: carolemcc@cytanet.com.cy)

(3) Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften, Im Neuenheimer Feld 229, D-69120 Heidelberg, Germany (Email: bernd.kromer@iup.uni-heidelberg.de)

(4) Trent University Archaeological Research Centre, 1600 West Bank Dr., Peterborough, ON K9J 7B8, Canada (Email: salstew@gmail.com)

Table 1. [sup.14]C data from Early Neolithic late PPNA contexts at
Ayia Varvara Asprokremnos (AVA). All samples were charcoal-charred
wood. Hd = Heidelberg Radiocarbon Laboratory, samples prepared in
Heidelberg and measured at the MICADAS AMS of the ETH Zurich. The
[sup.14]C ages BP stated are [sup.14]C years Before Present (from AD
1950) (and are uncalibrated) employing the Libby half life of 5568
years. Isotopic fractionation has been corrected for employing the
[delta][sup.13]C values measured during the AMS analyses. The quoted
[delta][sup.13]C values are [+ or -] 1.5 per mil relative to VPDB. The
individual (unmodelled) calibrated calendar age ranges (cal BC and cal
BP) at 2[sigma] (95.4% confidence), and then modelled calendar ages
(cal BC and cal BP) at 95.4% probability from the analysis of the
group as a Phase as shown in Figure 8, were calculated employing OxCal
4.1.5 (Bronk Ramsey 1995, 2001, 2009) and IntCa109 (Reimer et al.
2009).

Lab ID                  Context       Sample       [[delta].sup.13] C

Boundary startAVA PPNA occupation
Hd-27170/ ETH-35142    Tr 06/105        C40            -24.7
Hd-27180/ ETH-35155    Tr 06/130        C31            -27.9
Hd-27217/ ETH-35157    Tr 06/130        C37            -31.0
Hd-27227/ ETH-35183    Tr 06/101   C27 deciduous       -24.9
Hd-27228/ ETH 35170    Tr 06/99    C29 deciduous       -25.6
Hd-27242/ ETH-35158    Tr 06/130        C38            -28.7
Approximation AVA PPNA horizon
Boundary end AVA PPNA
Span A VA PPNA phase as dated

                        [sup.14]C Age
Lab ID                      yrs BP        95.4% Probability unmodelled

                                           cal BC        cal BP
Boundary start AVA PPNA occupation
Hd-27170/ ETH-35142    9465 [+ or -] 46   9119-8624   11 068-10 573
Hd-27180/ ETH-35155    9477 [+ or -] 43   9119-8633   11 068-10 582
Hd-27217/ ETH-35157    9525 [+ or -] 49   9141-8724   11 090-10 673
Hd-27227/ ETH-35183    9452 [+ or -] 25   8807-8639   10 756-10 588
Hd-27228/ ETH 35170    9432 [+ or -] 49   9107-8569   11 056-10 518
Hd-27242/ ETH-35158    9497 [+ or -] 46   9126-8640   11 075-10 589
Approximation AVA PPNA horizon
Boundary end AVA PPNA
Span A VA PPNA phase as dated

Lab ID                           95.4% Probability modelled

                                  cal BC         cal BP
Boundary start AVA PPNA          8900-8730     10 849-10 679
Hd-27170/ ETH-35142              8821-8701     10 770-10 650
Hd-27180/ ETH-35155              8822-8706     10 771-10 655
Hd-27217/ ETH-35157              8841-8711     10 790-10 660
Hd-27227/ ETH-35183              8804-8709     10 753-10 658
Hd-27228/ ETH 35170              8815-8686     10 764-10 635
Hd-27242/ ETH-35158              8829-8710     10 778-10 659
Approximation AVA PPNA           8847-8674     10 796-10 623
Boundary end AVA PPNA            8792-8628     10 741-10 577
Span A VA PPNA phase as dated    0-159 years