This chapter discusses the Iron Age archaeology of Cyprus, from the end of the Late Bronze Age (LBA) to the start of the Cypro-Archaic period, ca. 1200-700 BC. First, it considers how the material culture of mortuary practices was actively involved in the multiple social and spatial dynamics, including maritime connections, migrations, colonial encounters and intra-island interactions, that occurred with the collapse of larger, regional palatial societies at the end of the Late Bronze Age. The chapter mainly focuses on the mortuary landscape of Cyprus's East Coast, such as Enkomi, Salamis and Palaepaphos, during the LBA-Early Iron Age. The power of elite groups began to change as the geographical, social and political landscapes shifted; this is reflected in new, hybridised burial practices at Cypro-Geometric period I Salamis. Finally, the chapter explores how the emergence of a city-kingdom was strongly influenced by the prevailing sociopolitical environment at Salamis at the start of the IA.

This chapter traces the emergence of ritual authority in Bronze Age (BA) Cyprus against a background of increasing sectional interests and growing economic and political interaction with the wider Mediterranean world. First, it focuses on the funerary domain as an arena of social and ideological negotiation. Early Cypriot period and Middle Cypriot period burial grounds at Vounous, Lapithos and Karmi on the central north coast provide an extensive body of data from a bounded geographic region. The north coast cemeteries provide a remarkable insight into an emerging ritual iconography. Whereas, the Late Cypriot (LC) period saw a rapid institutionalisation of ritual practice and the emergence of a coercive ritual ideology. Enkomi played a major role in the negotiation of authority and compliance on Cyprus in the early stages of the LC. A clear ideological link between cult and metallurgy, however, is apparent in the iconography of the 'Ingot God', recovered from the Sanctuary of the Ingot God.