ABSTRACT

The Aceramic Neolithic settlement at Petra tou Limniti on the northern shores of Cyprus was excavated approximately a century ago. A limited amount at obsidian artifacts found at Petra tou Limniti suggested that they might have originated from Anatolia, however this view was not taken seriously. Some other low amounts of obsidian artifacts uncovered during the Khirokitia excavations that followed this excavation have evoked the possibility that the first inhabitants of Cyprus might have come from the Levantine coast based on the similarity of the architectural remains. The excavations performed at the Aceramic Period settlements in southern Cyprus during the last 25 years prove the existence of people on the island even 1600 years earlier than previously known. As the amount of the Anatolian obsidian artifacts that were revealed alongside these assemblages was also limited, hundreds of obsidian artifacts revealed in Shillourokambos that has been excavated since 1992 still failed to rule out that possibility. On the other hand, thousands of obsidian finds uncovered at Tatlısu-Çiftlikdüzü in the north of Cyprus in 1996 have turned a new page by demonstrating the connection between Anatolia and Cyprus. Since Cyprus is an island, and never had a connection with the mainland in its geological past, and while the question from which part of the mainland these inhabitants arrived to the island remains unanswered, it seems that the Aceramic Neolithic settlement of Tatlısu- Çiftlikdüzü has the potential to provide some answers to this question. Thousands of obsidian finds originating from Anatolia revealed in excavations support it, and provide the evidence that the Neolithic Period settlers were tightly connected to the mainland through a wide seafaring network. This article also attempts to evaluate the small finds related with fishing activities as an indication of the seafaring activity capabilities of Tatlisu inhabitants during the 9th century BC in order to find out what kind of a seafaring vessel these first Cypriots might have utilized.

Konuya Git

PDF Konuya Git