The hybridising tree of life: a postcolonial archaeology of the Cypriot Iron Age city kingdoms

The people of early Iron Age Cyprus worshipped at sanctuaries where a sacred tree was the focus of their rituals. The tree was closely associated with a goddess thought to inhabit the natural landscape in which the fields and settlements grew, and in which the people lived and worked. This thesis explores why the tree of life was the central symbol of Cypriot Iron Age rituals, covering the period from the end of the Bronze Age to 500 B.C. Although the tree of the goddess has been studied as an artistic motif, and ceramic material from Cyprus has been studied scientifically, material carrying the motif has never been studied within a fully contextualised archaeology that queries its prevalence in Cypriot material culture, its role within the sanctuaries and necropolises of the city kingdoms and the meanings the material carried in those places. This research project addresses the complex, abstract, iconography of the Geometric and Archaic material in a methodical and theoretical manner, and with respect to the local and regional landscape settlement contexts from which it was recovered. The study takes a fresh, postcolonial approach and follows contextualizing, multiscalar methods towards an improved understanding of cultural structures, meanings and individual events. Old concepts of race and fixed groups are discarded in favour of a more nuanced approach that sees individual identities as constantly changing and material culture as both a driver and an indicator of social hybridisation. This research also serves as a vehicle to study a controversial transitional phase in East Mediterranean history, when the ancient agricultural empires gave way to the poleis and colonial systems of the maritime networks. Although the emergence of a ‘great divide’ between east and west has been postulated for this period, the alliances and cultural exchanges that preceded this transformation have not yet been adequately explored in mainstream academic histories. This research focussing on Iron Age Cyprus illuminates regional interaction between African, Levantine and Aegean cultures, and shows that the island existed within a continuous and contiguous cultural milieu that stretched from the Nile to Athens

Signs of conciliation: the hybridised “Tree of Life” in the Iron Age City Kingdoms of Cyprus

L ’ auteur , selon une démarche contextuelle basée sur la théorie de l ’ hybridation de la culture matérielle , cherche à identifier les diverses significations du motif de l ’ «Arbre de Vie » au cours des périodes chypro-géométrique et chypro-archaïque . Certaines études de cas , qui montrent comment la culture matérielle est caractéristique de certains contextes archéologiques et environnementaux , peuvent aider à améliorer notre compréhension du symbolisme transmis par ce mobilier . Trois cas d ’ études portant sur les cités-royaumes d ’ Amathonte , d ’ Idalion et de Palaepaphos révèlent que le motif de l ’ «Arbre de Vie » faisait partie intégrante d ’ une idéologie régionale cohérente à laquelle sont intégrés des déesses de la fertilité , des montagnes sacrées , des tells , des acropoles fortifiées et des tombes . En outre , en mettant en corrélation les modifications iconographiques et les changements sociaux qui se sont produits au cours de l ’ existence de ce motif , l ’ auteur propose de voir dans ses variations une tentative de réconciliation de différentes traditions iconographiques à l ’ intérieur d ’ un nouveau système de croyances .Lightbody David Ian. Signs of conciliation: the hybridised “Tree of Life” in the Iron Age City Kingdoms of Cyprus. In: Cahiers du Centre d'Etudes Chypriotes. Volume 41, 2011. pp. 239-250