Mortuary Ritual and Society in Bronze Age Cyprus
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Mortuary Ritual and Society in Bronze Age Cyprus is a ground-breaking investigation of burial practices and social transformations in the era when Cypriot agricultural communities moved from village to urban life and became major players in the eastern Mediterranean copper trade.
Confronting the many interpretive challenges posed by tombs used for multiple interments, the author develops an innovative theoretical and methodological approach that enables her to define and elucidate the shifting spatial relationships between tombs and habitation areas, the elaboration of rituals involving secondary treatment and collective burial, and changing patterns of mortuary expenditure and symbolism throughout the Bronze Age.
Keswani proposes that during the Early-Middle Bronze periods, the growing elaboration of mortuary festivities and their crucial importance in negotiating status hierarchies contributed to the intensification of Cypriot copper production and the expansion of interregional exchange relations. This helped set the stage for the rise of urban polities early in the Late Bronze Age, when the presence of hereditary elites first becomes apparent in the Cypriot archaeological record. Subsequent changes in mortuary practice suggest that the importance of collective burial rites and traditional modes of ritual display diminished over the course of the Late Bronze Age, as urban institutions multiplied and the bases of social prestige were transformed.
Published: Aug 1, 2004
Series
| Section | Chapter | Authors |
|---|---|---|
| Prelims | ||
| Contents | Priscilla Keswani | |
| List of Figures | Priscilla Keswani | |
| List of Tables | Priscilla Keswani | |
| Preface and Acknowledgments | Priscilla Keswani | |
| 1 | ||
| Introduction | Priscilla Keswani | |
| 2 | ||
| Mortuary Ritual and Society: Some Theoretical Considerations | Priscilla Keswani | |
| 3 | ||
| The Archaeological Record of Mortuary Practice in Cyprus: Formation Processes, Sampling Issues, and a Methodology for Interpretation | Priscilla Keswani | |
| 4 | ||
| The Early and Middle Bronze Age | Priscilla Keswani | |
| 5 | ||
| The Late Bronze Age | Priscilla Keswani | |
| 6 | ||
| Mortuary Ritual, Social Structure, and Macro-Processual Change in the Cypriot Bronze Age | Priscilla Keswani | |
| End Matter | ||
| Bibliography | Priscilla Keswani | |
| Tables | Priscilla Keswani | |
| Index | Priscilla Keswani | |
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Reviews
The book is an indispensable tool for anyone attempting to come to terms with the extremely complex and highly variable resolution of the Cypriot mortuary record. ...Keswani presents a compelling case for moving beyond interpretation of prestige goods towards a more holistic approach incorporating the actions of the living in reconstructing society from mortuary practices.
Antiquity
This is a well-structured book on a complicated yet intriguing matter: The reconstruction of social structure and meanings from funerary rituals handed down via archaeological investigations.
American Journal of Archaeology-Online Book Reviews
This is a significant contribution to mortuary studies in general and the Mediterranean Bronze Age in particular.
Bibliotheca Orientalis LXIII
Setting the burials within a social context or, vice versa, reconstructing social changes against the background of observable mortuary changes has resulted in a fascinating account of pre-historic Cyprus, the like of which one rarely encounters.
John G. Younger, University of Kansas, Journal of Near Eastern Studies
Mortuary Ritual and Society in Bronze Age Cyprus is an important work that advances our understanding of the social transformations that reshaped the Cypriot cultural landscape over two critical millennia of the islands history.
Through archaeological analysis, anthropologically-informed interpretation, and comparative theorizing, Keswani demonstrates that Cypriot Bronze Age mortuary practices were not only structured by the prevailing social order, but were in fact dynamic arenas for the negotiation of social identities and power relations that both reflected the conditions of socioeconomic and political change throughout the Bronze Age.
With its well-constructed arguments, and thoughtful considerations of the potentials and challenges of mortuary studies, this book should serve an essential reference to future research on the mortuary archaeology of Bronze Age Cyprus.
Ancient Cyprus