One city to rule them all? The production of copper in Enkomi, Cyprus: the evidence from the metallurgical ceramic assemblage

Abstract

The socio-political organisation of Cyprus during the Late Bronze Age (LBA) is still an active field of scholarly debate. In the second half of the 2nd mil. BCE, the prevailing interpretations favour either a unified or a decentralised administration model on the island. Enkomi is listed as one of the most important Late Cypriot (LC) sites in both models. The rise of this urban centre can be largely attributed to the control of copper production during the LC period. The results of the chemical and microstructural analysis of the archaeometallurgical ceramic assemblage from the copper workshops in Area III at Enkomi are presented here. Our research revealed that the ceramics were exclusively used for copper-based secondary metallurgical activities. This ground-breaking project, the first in Cypriot archaeometallurgy to focus solely on technical ceramics, adds significant new knowledge to the reconstruction of the copper production organisation and Enkomi’s standing among the LC polities. Furthermore, these new findings pave the way for the development of a comparative analysis of the various stages of the copper production sequence in Cyprus as reflected in metallurgical ceramic assemblages.