Our understanding of the timing and dynamics of the spread of human populations to the island of Cyprus has changed significantly in the last few decades. Ongoing research on a few sites has provided more detail not only on when the initial explorers and farming populations arrived, but also on how the unique culture of prehistoric Cyprus developed. This research explores patterns in the archaeobotanical and zooarchaeological data from prehistoric Cyprus dated from the Neolithic to the Late Bronze Age (c. 8800–1300 BC). The data provide insight into a protracted and non-linear transition to an agriculturally-focused subsistence strategy on the island, the timing of which demonstrates a deviation from the mainland trajectory. The unique transition includes a prolonged period of intermediate or mixed subsistence, which involved both a pulling back from cereal agriculture and secondary animal products and a later move, during the Bronze Age, towards perennial land use for crops that could be commodities. The results presented here suggest that, rather than any passive, demographically-driven shift to cereal agriculture, emerging social complexity and active management played key roles.

在过去的几十年里，我们对人口扩散到塞浦路斯岛的时间和动态的理解发生了重大变化。对一些地点正在进行的研究不仅提供了关于最初的探险家和农业人口到达的时间的更多细节，还提供了史前塞浦路斯独特文化如何发展的更多细节。本研究探讨了史前塞浦路斯从新石器时代到青铜时代晚期（约公元前 8800-1300 年）的考古植物学和动物考古学数据的模式。这些数据揭示了岛上向以农业为中心的生存战略的长期且非线性的转变，其时间安排表明与大陆轨迹的偏差。这种独特的转变包括长期的中间或混合生存期，其中包括从谷物农业和次要动物产品的撤退，以及后来在青铜时代的转变，转向常年使用土地种植可能成为商品的农作物。这里提出的结果表明，新兴的社会复杂性和主动管理发挥了关键作用，而不是任何被动的、人口驱动的向谷物农业的转变。