Copper boosted development of most important trade hub of Late Bronze Age

Excavations led by researchers from the University of Gothenburg show that copper and a sheltered location turned the Cypriot village of Hala Sultan Tekke into one of the most important trade hubs of the Late Bronze Age.

In a paper published in the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, the archaeologists say that their findings confirm the importance of the Bronze Age city in the first period of international trade in the Mediterranean.

“We have found huge quantities of imported pottery in Hala Sultan Tekke, but also luxury goods made of gold, silver, ivory and semi-precious gemstones, which show that the city’s production of copper was a trading commodity in high demand,” Peter Fischer, leader of the excavations, said in a media statement.

The Swedish Cyprus Expedition is a research project that began in 1927 and the most recent expedition started in 2010. The excavations have shown that the city covered at least 25 hectares, 14 of which comprised its center, surrounded by a city wall.

“Our investigations and excavations show that Hala Sultan Tekke was larger than was previously thought, covering an area of some 25 to 50 hectares, which is a big city by that period’s standards,” Fischer said.

The researcher explained that during the Bronze Age, Cyprus was the largest copper producer around the Mediterranean. This metal alloyed with tin formed the basis for making bronze which was then used for casting tools, weapons and jewelry before iron started being used.

“Remains in the city show extensive copper production in the form of smelting furnaces, cast moulds and slag. The ore from which the copper was extracted was brought into the city from mines in the nearby Troodos Mountains,” Fischer said. “The workshops produced a lot of soot and were placed in the north of the city so that the winds mainly from the south would blow the soot and the stench away from the city. Today, this type of production would be impossible, since the production process generates waste products such as arsenic, lead and cadmium, but at that time people did not know how dangerous the process was.”

The central location of Cyprus in the eastern Mediterranean and a well-protected harbour created extremely favourable conditions for lively trade in Hala Sultan Tekke. Large quantities of imported goods in the form of pottery, jewelry and other luxury goods from neighbouring regions such as modern-day Greece, Türkiye, the Middle East and Egypt, as well as longer-distance imports from Sardinia, the Baltic Sea region, Afghanistan and India, have been found.

These finds show that the city was one of the largest trade hubs in the period 1500–1150 BC and was of great importance during the initial period of international trade in the area.

In addition to copper, highly sought-after purple-dyed textiles were produced. The city also manufactured and exported pottery with characteristic painted motifs of humans, animals and plants.

Trade flourished in the city for almost 500 years, but like several other sophisticated Bronze Age civilizations around the Mediterranean, Hala Sultan Tekke collapsed just after 1200 BC. The prevailing hypothesis was that the “Sea Peoples” invaded the eastern Mediterranean around this time, destroying its cities and bringing the Bronze Age civilizations to an end.

“In the past, it was thought that the ‘Sea Peoples’ were the sole explanation. Our research in recent years has given more nuance to this explanation. For example, there are now new interpretations of written sources from this period in Anatolia (modern-day Türkiye), Syria and Egypt, which tell of epidemics, famine, revolutions and acts of war by invading peoples,” Fischer said.

“In addition, our investigations indicate that a deterioration in the climate was a contributing factor. All of this may have had a domino effect, that people in search of better living conditions moved from the central Mediterranean towards the southeast, thus coming into conflict with the cultures in modern-day Greece, on Cyprus and in Egypt.”