Landscape and Interaction: The Troodos Archaeological and Environmental Research Project, Cyprus. Volume 2: The TAESP Landscape

The fieldwalkers and specialists of the Troodos Archaeological and Environmental Survey Project investigated a wide variety of physical and cultural landscapes on the northern edge of the Troodos Mountains in central Cyprus over six field seasons. These landscapes range from the cultivated Mesaoria Plain in the north to the forested Troodos Mountains in the south, and from the rich and fertile Karkotis Valley in the west to the drier and narrower Lagoudhera Valley in the east. Across this physical topography lie the cultural landscapes of food and fibre production, natural resource extraction, water conveyance and industry, ritual and burial, and the structures assocated with villages, farms and copper mines. Our regional perspective and time span of at least 12,000 years mean that the research issues are inevitably wide-ranging. At the core is the complex and dynamic relationship between people and their landscape, as it was played out in resource extraction, communication, settlement, social organisation, and the manipulation of soils, plants and water. This conceptual focus opens out onto a wide range of case studies, both chronologically and thematically. Our stratified sampling strategy focused on six Intensive Survey Zones, which ensured representative coverage of the diverse landscape of our 165-km2 Survey Area. Our core field method consisted of fieldwalking in individual Survey Units. From each one the field teams recorded a variety of information and collected carefully controlled samples of artefacts. Specific features or locations were recorded as Places of Special Interest (POSIs), initially with a pro forma and subsequently, if required, by a variety of more intensive techniques. All this archaeological fieldwork was carried out under strict geomorphological control, and every field team included a geomorphologist. This core analysis was complemented by a wide range of work carried out by a large team of specialists. Volume 2 presents the results of our fieldwork and research, area by area. The analysis of this material is organised geographically, thematically and chronologically, and focuses on explicit research questions: the volume is data-rich but not merely descriptive. The emphasis throughout is on the integration of the work of our field teams and interdisciplinary specialists: this integration began in the field and was carried through the analysis and into the publication