Traditions and innovations during the 12th-to-11th century BC transition in Cyprus: new data from Kition-Bamboula

International audience ; The transition from the 12th to the 11th century BC in Cyprus constitutes a critical junction that marks the close of the Late Bronze Age and the inception of the Early Iron Age. This transformative phase remains poorly known and ill defined, not least because of the remarkable dearth of stratified settlement strata exposed to this day on the island.Recent investigations by the French Archaeological Mission at Kition, within the locality of Bamboula, situated on the northern part of the modern-day town of Larnaca, have brought to light a continuous stratigraphic succession of floor layers spanning from the 13th to the 11th centuries BC, thus marking an exceptional instance on an island-wide basis. The aim of this contribution is to provide a comprehensive presentation of the stratigraphic, architectural and artefactual remains exposed at Kition-Bamboula that provide crucial new data for the transitional 12th-to-11th century BC horizon. In particular, through the contextual analysis of well-stratified pottery remains, the study aims to discuss the transformations observed on the island’s ceramic repertoire and especially as regards the impact of the endorsement of wheel-made technology for the production of ceramic finewares. The study will also elucidate the extra-insular connections maintained by the cosmopolitan harbour town at Kition, based on the analysis of the plethora of Levantine maritime transport amphorae contained within the settlement’s pertinent levels. Finally, this presentation will discuss a series of idiosyncratic phenomena, such as infant jar-burials and purple-dye production, dating to the settlement’s transitional phases of the 12th and 11th centuries BC. Ultimately, our contribution aspires to shed light on the continuities and changes observed on the Cypriot material culture and the transformative capacities of the island’s communities at the dawn of the Early Iron Age. ; La transition du XIIe au XIe siècle av. J.-C. marque le passage du Bronze Récent au début de ...