Pottery Traditions in Transition? A Technological, Compositional, and Mineralogical Study of Late Iron Age Ceramics from Nea Paphos, Cyprus.

This study examines the regional characteristics of pottery production in Paphos (southwestern Cyprus) during the Iron Age, aiming to situate this city-kingdom within the broader framework of Cypriot ceramic traditions of the Cypro-Archaic (CA) and Cypro-Classical (CC) periods, approximately spanning from the second half of the 8th century to the end of the 4th century BCE. By focusing on the Paphian ceramic production, it seeks to unravel the socio-cultural, economic, and political mechanisms that shape ceramic production in Paphos, while also addressing the uniqueness of each Cypriot city-kingdom, whose pottery reflects distinct local contexts shaped by diverse cultural, social, and environmental factors. This Master’s thesis presents the results of the first systematic analytical study of a substantial assemblage of tablewares recovered from contexts at Nea Paphos. The study aims to provide a detailed petrographic, geochemical and mineralogical characterization of the local production of CA and CC tableware in the southwestern region of Cyprus. The study employed a comprehensive suite of analytical methods to investigate the ceramic assemblage including thin- section petrography, elemental analysis using wavelength-dispersive X-ray fluorescence (WD- XRF), X-ray powder diffraction (XRPD), μ-Raman spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). A central aim is to investigate the extent of which the pottery reflects shifts in production centers, from Palaepaphos to Nea Paphos, and whether these shifts can be linked to broader socio- economic transformations. Furthermore, the study interrogates whether macroscopic and microscopic analyses can differentiate ceramics from these two locations and clarify the relationship between clay sources and production techniques. The analysis is underpinned by a ceramic ecology perspective, which situates technological choices within the broader environmental and cultural life of ancient craftspeople, enriching the interpretative framework. It seeks to provide insights not only in the local production systems and their environmental underpinnings, but also into the broader socio-cultural networks that connected Paphos to other Cypriot city-kingdoms and the wider Mediterranean world. In doing so, it offers a renewed perspective on the interplay between urban and peri-urban societies, the impact of natural resources on technological choices, and the enduring legacies of these interactions in the material culture of ancient Cyprus.