Ancient CyprusAncient Cyprus

Archaeologist · Scholar · Excavator

A. Bernard Knapp

fl. 1979–2024

Archaeologist who instigated the Sydney Cyprus Survey Project in the copper foothills of the Troodos, co-excavated the smelting site Politiko-Phorades and co-directed TAESP.

A. Bernard Knapp

Biography

The Sydney Cyprus Survey Project (SCSP), the intensive survey of the copper-bearing foothills around Politiko and Mitsero in north-central Cyprus, had A. Bernard Knapp as its instigator, according to Thomas Kiely1. The project was based at first at Macquarie University under him and moved with him to the University of Glasgow1. Kiely dates it 1992 to 1998; Archaeology in Cyprus says work began in 19911,3.

Surveying the copper foothills

The survey area measured 14 by 4 kilometres, between Politiko and Mitsero, where copper ore lies next to an agricultural plain. By 1993 it had identified 17 likely sites, among them the Late Bronze Age settlement of Aredhiou-Vouppes3. Preliminary reports appeared in the Report of the Department of Antiquities, Cyprus: the first season (1992) by Knapp, S. Held, E. Zangger and I. Johnson6, and the third (1995) by Knapp and Michael Given, in a report running from page 295 to 3667. A summary of the project, with Given, Vasiliki Kassianidou, Jay Noller and others, was published in the Journal of Field Archaeology in 19995.

Politiko-Phorades

Smelting debris turned up at Politiko-Phorades during the survey. The caption of a Knapp et al. article gives 1995 as the year of discovery, while Archaeology in Cyprus says the site was identified in 19962,9. In 1997 Knapp and Kassianidou, of the University of Cyprus, directed the first excavation season, after a geomagnetic survey. The excavators dug a slag heap lying in an old channel of the Kouphos River and recovered more than 2000 kg of slag and about 20 nearly complete tuyeres, and they read the site as a primary smelting centre2. A second season followed in 1998, and a third was planned for 20008. The field directors were Mike Donnelly and Paul Duffy, and the project was a joint undertaking of Glasgow and the University of Cyprus10. The first radiocarbon readings pointed to the twelfth to tenth centuries BC; later study dated the workshop to Late Cypriot I, around 1600 BCE, the earliest primary smelting workshop excavated on the island2,9.

Later projects and writing

From 2000 to 2005 Knapp was one of four directors of the Troodos Archaeological and Environmental Survey Project (TAESP), with Given, Kassianidou and Noller4. Its results were published in 2013 as Landscape and Interaction4.

Kiely describes his output as textbooks, co-editing of the Journal of Mediterranean Archaeology and the series Monographs in Mediterranean Archaeology, and the supervision of many students working on Cypriot subjects. He names his interests as connectivity, materiality and hybridity, and later maritime aspects and transport containers1. His 1990 article in Current Anthropology, "Production, Location, and Integration in Bronze Age Cyprus", is listed in the Cyprus bibliography of the Oxford Encyclopedia of Archaeology in the Near East13,15. With John F. Cherry he wrote Provenience Studies and Bronze Age Cyprus (1994)16, and The Archaeology of Cyprus: From Earliest Prehistory through the Bronze Age appeared with Cambridge University Press in 201314. With Sophia Antoniadou he contributed "Archaeology, politics and the cultural heritage of Cyprus" to Lynn Meskell's Archaeology under fire (1998)17. In 2013 he also co-edited, with J. M. Webb and A. McCarthy, a volume on J. R. B. Stewart in the Studies in Mediterranean Archaeology series12. With Peter van Dommelen he edited The Cambridge Prehistory of the Bronze and Iron Age Mediterranean (2014), where he is described as Emeritus Professor of Mediterranean Archaeology at Glasgow and Honorary Research Fellow of the Cyprus American Archaeological Research Institute, with earlier appointments at Sydney, Cambridge and Macquarie11.

Life and work

  1. 1992–1998
    Sydney Cyprus Survey Project (SCSP), the intensive survey of the copper-rich north-central Troodos foothills around Politiko and Mitsero, under Knapp's direction; instigator per Kiely, who dates it 1992-98 (another source reviewing the monograph says five seasons 1992-97; Archaeology in Cyprus 1994-95 says work began 1991). Reports: first season 1992 (RDAC 1992, Knapp, Held, Zangger, Johnson), second season 1993 (RDAC 1994, Knapp, Held, Johnson, Keswani), third season 1995 (RDAC 1996, Knapp and Given). Based first at Macquarie then Glasgow.

    Politiko-MitseroSteel 1997-1998, p. 4Herscher 1995, p. 6Kiely 2017Knapp et al. 1992, p. 21Knapp & Given 1996, pp. 295-366

  2. 1995
    Smelting debris at Phorades discovered; the photo caption in Knapp et al. calls it 'the site at the time of its discovery in 1995', while Archaeology in Cyprus says it was identified in survey in 1996 and a Glasgow source says Jay Noller detected the debris accidentally in 1996.

    PolitikoKnapp et al. 2001, p. 3Steel 1997-1998, p. 4

  3. 1997
    First excavation season at Politiko-Phorades, a primary copper-smelting site, directed with V. Kassianidou (University of Cyprus) after a geomagnetic survey; three areas excavated, a slag heap in an old channel of the Kouphos River; over 2000 kg slag, ~20 near-complete tuyeres; AMS charcoal dates 12th-10th c. BC at first reading, finds MC III-LC I. 1998 was the second of three planned seasons (last planned 2000); field directors Mike Donnelly and Paul Duffy; later dated to LC I (16th-15th c. BC), the earliest primary smelting workshop excavated on Cyprus. Joint University of Glasgow-University of Cyprus project.

    PolitikoSteel 1997-1998, p. 4Knapp et al. 1999, p. 2Knapp et al. 2001, p. 3Politiko Phorades and LC…, p. 115

  4. 1998
    With Sophia Antoniadou: 'Archaeology, politics and the cultural heritage of Cyprus', in L. Meskell (ed.), Archaeology under fire (Routledge), pp. 13-43; cited in other works on heritage protection and looting of Cyprus after 1974 (content not read).

    Given 2025, p. 47

  5. 2000–2005
    TAESP: Knapp one of four directors (with Given, Kassianidou, Noller); pilot season 2000, field seasons 2001-03, study seasons 2004-05; funded mainly by the UK AHRC; monographs 2013.

    TroodosGiven et al. 2013, p. 20

  6. 2013
    The Archaeology of Cyprus: From Earliest Prehistory through the Bronze Age (Cambridge University Press), his most recent book as of the Cambridge Prehistory (2014).

    Knapp & Dommelen 2014, p. 1Given 2025, p. 47

  7. 2013
    Co-editor (with J. M. Webb and A. McCarthy) of 'J. R. B. Stewart: An Archaeological Legacy' (SIMA 139, Åström, Uppsala), a volume on the Australian archaeologist and Nicholson Museum Cyprus collection.

    Given 2025, p. 24

In the field

10 records

Where they worked in the field

  • Ground above 200, 500, 1,000 m

Sites

  1. 1Politiko-Phorades (approx.)
Modern coastline (OpenStreetMap) and relief (Copernicus DEM). Tap or hover a site for what the sources record there.

Cyprus

1992–1998

Politiko and Mitsero

1992

  • Surveyed · 1992Bernard Knapp directed an intensive survey of the copper-rich Troodos foothills around Politiko and Mitsero.

    Steel 1997-1998, p. 139

Politiko-Phorades

1997–2000

Phorades

  • ExcavatedA. Bernard Knapp and the other authors recovered archaeological material at Phorades over three field seasons.

    more than twenty thousand pieces of slag, large fragments of furnace lining, tuyères, and gossanKnapp et al. 2001, p. 206

Fieldwork

Connections

21 people
Michael GivenVassiliki KassianidouSturt W. ManningIoannis VoskosAndrew McCarthySteve HeldJay Stratton NollerPriscilla Schuster KeswaniL. H. SollarsTimothy E. GregoryMara T. HorowitzJoanita VroomSophia AntoniadouMichael DonnellyAnne MerchantJohn F. CherryNathan MeyerTracy IrelandMaria Rosaria BelgiornoReinhard JungRobert SchonA. Bernard Knapp
FieldworkScholarshipColleagues

Fieldwork & employment

Scholarship

Show 3 more

Colleagues & contacts

Recording and study

10 records
Studied4

  • ManuscriptsA. Bernard Knapp translated the first section of the text.

    Ugaritic text KTU 2.42 +2.43No. KTU 2.42 +2.43Knapp 1983, p. 38

  • A. Bernard Knapp presented a preliminary reconstruction of the industrial landscape around Politiko Phorades.

    Knapp 2000, p. 41

  • A. B. Knapp examined archaeological, documentary and iconographic evidence for Bronze Age seafaring.

    archaeological, documentary and iconographic evidence on Bronze Age seafaringeastern MediterraneanKnapp 2018, p. 22

  • Knapp analyzed the site and identified evidence for metallurgical activity in three sanctuary rooms.

    rooms 15, 16, and 17 and evidence for metallurgical activityMyrtou PigadhesLupack 2008, p. 40

Employed by6

Discussed in documents

Also named in

On Ancient Cyprus

38 pages

Sources

  1. 1.T. Kiely (2017). “Britain and the archaeology of Cyprus II: 1914 to the present day”. Cahiers du Centre d'Études Chypriotes 47, 253-310. Online
  2. 2.Louise Steel (1997-1998). “Archaeology in Cyprus 1987-1997”. Archaeological Reports 44, 137-149.
  3. 3.Ellen Herscher (1995). “Archaeology in Cyprus”. American Journal of Archaeology 99, 257-294.
  4. 4.Michael Given, A. Bernard Knapp, Jay Noller, Luke Sollars et al. (2013). Landscape and Interaction: The Troodos Archaeological and Environmental Survey Project, Cyprus. Volume 1: Methodology, Analysis and Interpretation. Oxford and Oakville, Council for British Research in the Levant and Oxbow Books.
  5. 5.Michael Given, A. Bernard Knapp, Nathan Meyer, Timothy E. Gregory et al. (1999). “The Sydney Cyprus Survey Project: An Interdisciplinary Investigation of Long-Term Change in the North Central Troodos, Cyprus”. Journal of Field Archaeology 26, 19-39.
  6. 6.A. B. Knapp, S. O. Held, E. Zangger, I. Johnson (1992). “The Sydney Cyprus Survey Project (SCSP): first preliminary season (1992)”. Report of the Department of Antiquities, Cyprus, 319-336.
  7. 7.A. B. Knapp, M. Given (1996). “The Sydney Cyprus Survey Project (SCSP) - Third Season (1995)”. Report of the Department of Antiquities, Cyprus, 295-366.
  8. 8.A. B. Knapp, Vasiliki Kassianidou, Michael Donnelly (1999). “Excavations at Politiko-Phorades 1998”. Report of the Department of Antiquities, Cyprus, 125-146.
  9. 9.A. B. Knapp, V. Kassianidou, M. Donnelly (2001). “Copper smelting in Late Bronze Age Cyprus: The excavations at Politiko Phorades”. Near Eastern Archaeology 64. Online
  10. 10.“Politiko Phorades and LC I smelting technology (section in 'Eastern Mediterranean Metallurgy in the Second Millennium BC', eds V. Kassianidou, G. Papasavvas)”. p. 115.
  11. 11.A. Bernard Knapp (ed.), Peter van Dommelen (ed.) (2014). The Cambridge Prehistory of the Bronze and Iron Age Mediterranean. Cambridge University Press.
  12. 12.Michael Given (2025). “Over the landscape, in the landscape? Knowledge and agency in Cypriot archaeology, 1870-1910”. Empire & Excavation: Critical perspectives on archaeology in British-period Cyprus, 1878-1960. Leiden, Sidestone Press.
  13. 13.Eric M. Meyers (ed.) (1997). The Oxford Encyclopedia of Archaeology in the Near East. New York, Oxford University Press.
  14. 14.A. B. Knapp (2013). The archaeology of Cyprus: From earliest prehistory through the Bronze Age. Cambridge University Press.
  15. 15.A. Bernard Knapp (1990). “Production, Location, and Integration in Bronze Age Cyprus”. Current Anthropology 31, 147-176.
  16. 16.A. Bernard Knapp, John F. Cherry (1994). Provenience Studies and Bronze Age Cyprus: Production, Exchange, and Politico-Economic Change. Madison, Wis., Prehistory Press.
  17. 17.A. B. Knapp, S. Antoniadou (1998). “Archaeology, politics and the cultural heritage of Cyprus”. Archaeology under fire: Nationalism, politics and heritage in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Middle East, 13-43. London and New York, Routledge.
  18. 18.A. B. Knapp (1985). “Review: Alashiya, Caphtor/Keftiu, and Eastern Mediterranean Trade: Recent Studies in Cypriote Archaeology and History”. Journal of Field Archaeology 12, 231-250.
  19. 19.Ellen Herscher (1998). “Archaeology in Cyprus”. American Journal of Archaeology 102, 309-354. Online
  20. 20.Vasiliki Kassianidou (2004). “"And at Tamassos there are important mines of copper..." (Strabo, Geography, 14.6.5)”. Cahiers du Centre d'Études Chypriotes 34.
  21. 21.V. Kassianidou (2013). “The Exploitation of the Landscape: Metal Resources and the Copper Trade during the Age of the Cypriot City-Kingdoms”. Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 370, 49-82.
  22. 22.Panayiotis Panayides (ed.), Ine Jacobs (ed.) (2023). Cyprus in the Long Late Antiquity: History and Archaeology Between the Sixth and the Eighth Centuries. Oxford and Philadelphia, Oxbow Books.
  23. 23.Bethany J. Walker (2008). “"Twixt Cross and Crescent": Caari and the Cultural History of Crusader and Islamic Cyprus”. Near Eastern Archaeology 71, 104-110.
  24. 24.Ioannis Voskos, A. Bernard Knapp (2008). “Cyprus at the End of the Late Bronze Age: Crisis and Colonization or Continuity and Hybridization?”. American Journal of Archaeology 112, 659-684. Online
  25. 25.P. P. Betancourt (ed.), S. C. Ferrence (ed.) (2011). Metallurgy: Understanding How, Learning WhY: Studies in Honor of James D. Muhly. INSTAP Academic Press.
  26. 26.Michael Given (2013). “Commotion, Collaboration, Conviviality: Mediterranean Survey and the Interpretation of Landscape”. Journal of Mediterranean Archaeology 26, 3-26.
  27. 27.S. Rogge (ed.), M. Grünbart (ed.) (2015). Medieval Cyprus. A Place of Cultural Encounter. Münster.
  28. 28.A. Bernard Knapp (2000). “Archaeology, Science-Based Archaeology and the Mediterranean Bronze Age Metals Trade”. European Journal of Archaeology 3, 32-56.
  29. 29.A. B. Knapp (2021). Migration Myths and the End of the Bronze Age in the Eastern Mediterranean. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. Online
  30. 30.A. B. Knapp, S. Demesticha (2017). Mediterranean Connections: Maritime Transport Containers and Seaborne Trade in the Bronze and Early Iron Ages. Routledge. Online
  31. 31.A. B. Knapp, N. Meyer (2023). “Merchants and Mercantile Society on Late Bronze Age Cyprus”. American Journal of Archaeology 127.
  32. 32.Louise Steel (2003). “Archaeology in Cyprus 1997-2002”. Archaeological Reports 50, 93-. Online
  33. 33.A. Hein, V. Kilikoglou, V. Kassianidou (2007). “Chemical and mineralogical examination of metallurgical ceramics from a Late Bronze Age copper smelting site in Cyprus”. Journal of Archaeological Science 34, 141-154. Online
  34. 34.P. S. Keswani, A. B. Knapp (2003). “Bronze Age boundaries and social exchange in north-west Cyprus”. Oxford Journal of Archaeology 22, 213-223.
  35. 35.A. Bernard Knapp (1983). “An Alashiy an Merchant at Ugarit”. Tel Aviv 10, 38-45.
  36. 36.A. B. Knapp (2018). Seafaring and Seafarers in the Bronze Age Eastern Mediterranean. Sidestone Press.
  37. 37.S. M. Lupack (2008). The role of the religious sector in the economy of Late Bronze Age Mycenaean Greece. Archaeopress.