Early Occupants of Cyprus: Coastal Arrivals and Inland Explorations

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Ancient Seashore Sites and Environments in Geoarchaeology" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Epipalaeolithic (c. 10-20 kya) hunters-gatherers in Southwest Asia experimented with plant and animal management and developed long-ranging, complex networks of exchange and movement, but little remains known of this period in Cyprus. The Ancient Seafaring Explorers of Cyprus Project (ASEC) extends the broader understanding of Epipalaeolithic wayfinding, placemaking, and technological use among the earliest occupants of the island. Geoarchaeological and palaeoenvironmental evidence suggests that both coastal and inland locations were extensively used by these hunter-gatherer groups, although much remains elusive about the earliest arrivals and movements between these regions. Taking a landscape learning approach, we present new Epipalaeolithic occupations in Cyprus, contextualized within an ever-growing inventory of hunter-gatherer sites and palaeo-coastline data, that contribute to our broader understanding of landscape use and movement of these groups during the initial phases of occupation and exploration of Cyprus.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 90th Annual Meeting, Denver, CO (2025)   •
• Ancient Seashore Sites and Environments in Geoarchaeology

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 51897