Abstract

This volume, of 545 pages, is the full publication of 47 Early and Middle Bronze Age tombs excavated at Lapithos on the north coast of Cyprus in 1913 by L.H.D. Buxton of Oxford University under the aegis of John Myres. Prior to the project of which it is the result, it had long been assumed that no archival record existed. On the contrary, the field notebook was located and proved remarkably useful in reconstructing tomb plans and in situ assemblages. Lapithos was one of few coastal settlements on Cyprus in the prehistoric Bronze Age. It was a major consumer of metal and probably also both a production centre and a participant in the international trade networks of the Eastern Mediterranean in the early second millennium BC. Chemical analyses of over 400 artefacts suggest that it was importing tin bronze in significant quantity, along with finished metal objects and ornaments of faience, lead, silver and gold.

The volume is the second of two by the same author on tombs excavated at Lapithos in the early 20th century. It presents the full documentation of 47 tombs and over 1000 objects, with plans, drawings and colour photographs throughout. It includes an account of the history of the excavation and of the archival record, a specialist chapter on mineralised organic remains and a discussion of tomb architecture, burial practice, the ceramic and metal assemblages, imports, and chronology within the wider context of the Middle Bronze Age of Cyprus and the Eastern Mediterranean.