Building and applying ‘Insularity Theory’: Review of Knapp’s Prehistoric and Protohistoric Cyprus, 2008

Abstract

Prehistoric and Protohistoric Cyprus by A. Bernard Knapp involves us in a highly creative reading. This is due mainly to the fact that the author engages in a holistic synthesis of Cyprus in the Bronze Age, not by emphasizing the events and descriptions of the material remains, but by concentrating upon the difficult question of the identity of the islanders of this period and the processes by which it was formed. The author’s teaching of Mediterranean prehistory at the University of Glasgow fully accounts for his need to produce a comprehensive theoretical work of this kind: the basic questions asked by students give rise to theoretical concerns for any teacher aiming to ‘distil’ the essential synthesis that forms the starting point for any further detailed archaeological description. This essential answer seems to have troubled Knapp for some time, judging by the long list of his writings seeking to synthesize aspects of Cypriot economy, cult and society; the present book is thus the highly interesting outcome of the mature thinking of an experienced fieldworker as much as a theoretical archaeologist and teacher.