This paper explores social practices and the material world at Aredhiou Vouppes, a Late Bronze Age rural community in the Cypriot hinterland. In-depth analysis of the excavation results demonstrates that this site was more complex than current typologies of inland production centers, based mainly on survey data, would suggest. Instead it was multi-functional and played an important economic role within the wider Cypriot landscape. This paper explores the evidence for initial occupation at Aredhiou during MC III-LC I, but the main focus is on the substantial LC IIC remains. Through a detailed contextual analysis, and the identification of a multiplicity of activities practiced at the site, it examines social practice, gender relations and ritual performance within a small farming community.*

Deconstructing Context: A Critical Approach to Archaeological Practice, 2006

Archaeological investigation, analysis and publication involve two fundamentally different kinds of data: stratigraphic observations and contextual relationships, which are visible only during excavation and never again; and the finds which are retained and which may be examined and re-examined (Frankel 1998, 243). The former present particular problems of recognition and definition in the field and are highly mediated by scales of analysis, systems of recording and skills and techniques of observation. They then go through a further process of analytical abstraction to reach their authoritative form in the final excavation report. The finds, on the other hand, may be re-examined at any time and are subject to independent processes of analysis and evaluation (Carver 1989, 669).

Sh~dics of multi-storied houscs from Bronze Age settlements on Crcte arc scverely limited by thc poor preservation of thc upper stories of thcsc dwellings. In allnost every case scholars are left to intcrpret household activities from the ground floor plan and artifacts and the small number of objccts found in the collapsed debris of thc rooms upstairs. A clear picturc of what has been lost is available in the remains of LC I houses at Akrotiri where the architecture and contents of upper stories werc preserved during thc volcanic cruption that destroyed thc sitc. Michaildou's carchl study of these houses has rcvealed important distinctions in the organization of activities on the ground floor and upper stories of houses at Akrotiri.

BASOR, 2008

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Spatial Analysis and Social Spaces: Interdisciplinary Approaches to the Interpretation of Historic and Prehistoric Built Environments. E. Paliou, U. Lieberwirth and S. Polla (eds.). Open Access: http://www.degruyter.com/view/product/177443 , 2014

The Late Bronze Age on Cyprus (c. 1650–1100 BCE) saw the appearance of monumental buildings that came to play an important role in changing patterns of social interaction and reproduction. Although these buildings often shared similarities in overall plan and the use of common design elements, I argue that the process of placemaking resulted in considerable variation in both their spatial configuration and the design of contexts for particular social interactions. Through its design and use in daily practice and social occasions, each monumental building developed its own biography and sense of place, ensuring that the experiences of its occupants and visitors were, in many ways, unique. I investigate this through a comparative study of two court-centred buildings, Building X from Kalavasos-Ayios Dhimitrios and Building II from Alassa-Paliotaverna. I apply an integrative approach that acknowledges the agency of both builder and building, combining access analysis with an examination of how built environments encode and nonverbally communicate meanings to those who used them.

The main premise of this paper is that building construction is a socially informed process and the choice of building materials is a meaningful act mediated by cultural understandings. One common assumption is that the incorporation of seemingly mundane objects such as grinding tools in walls reflects practical considerations. Yet, as I argue here, this cultural phenomenon needs to be approached as a practice embedded in a wider frame of social meanings. Grinding activities were among the daily embodied practices that acted as mechanisms of socialization of members of social groups. Ground stone tools were among the key elements that defined household identity, as seen in their spatial distribution within particular settlements, and also in the inclusion of grinding tools in contemporary clay house models. Through their incorporation in the fabric of buildings, they became ‘history objects’ and played an important role in the expression of household identity and the construction of social memory. These issues will be explored through analysis of Aegean and Anatolian Neolithic case-studies. A close reading of construction techniques (e.g., mudbrick vs. stone walls) and recycling practices will allow us to unravel the biography of both objects and buildings and approach them as an entangled practice.

European Journal of Archaeology, 2014

This paper focuses on how the human body, and the dead body in particular, was used to create social categories and identities in prehistoric Cyprus. Specifically, it explores how a particular condition, such as death, was integrated into social processes, and how the treatment of dead bodies both created and reinforced social categories and identities. The material the paper focuses on is the mortuary evidence from Chalcolithic Cyprus (3800–2300 BC). In particular, it argues that the extensive, intentional manipulation of dead bodies and human remains visible in Cypriot Chalcolithic cemeteries was aimed at integrating the individual to communal, collective wholes on the occasion of death and during the time period that followed.