Disaggregation and Regeneration of Socio-Political Complexity on Cyprus in the Early Iron Age
[Thesis]
Webb, Philip Alexander
Davis, Thomas W.
Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary
2019
352
Ph.D.
Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary
2019
This dissertation argues Cyprus underwent a process of disaggregation of socio-political complexity during the transition from the Bronze Age to the Iron Age (ca. 1100 BCE). In the centuries after a gradual regeneration of complexity began. The first chapter introduces the overall layout of the dissertation and its organization. Chapter 2 provides an overview of the previous research regarding the Bronze Age to Iron Age transition across the Eastern Mediterranean. It concludes with a review of the various models of the nature of that transition, and the Early Iron Age on Cyprus. Chapter 3 introduces a new theoretical model of socio-political collapse. It draws from concepts native to both Complexity Theory and Network Theory. Chapter 4 demonstrates how such a model applies broadly within the study of collapse and to particular case studies. It is then applied in broad strokes to the archaeology of Cyprus. Chapters 5, 6, and 7 review the extant archaeological data from a limited geographical area and during a set period of time; from the Late Cypriot II to the CyproArchaic I. The final chapter concludes this dissertation with summarizing statements and affirms the validity of the model of disaggregation of complexity for Cyprus. An appendix provides a predictive model of where Early Iron Age activity is likely to be located given a model of disaggregation of complexity.