‘Creto-Cypriot’ and ‘Cypro-Phoenician’ complexities in the archaeology of interaction between Crete and Cyprus

This paper engages with many of the complexities involved in drawing socio-economic inferences on the basis of the dissemination of ceramic style. Discussion is centered on the importation and imitation of Cypriot pottery in Crete of the Early Iron Age. Nicolas Coldstream’s meticulous discussion of this pottery is revisited and qualified in the light of recent work on the archaeology of Crete and new approaches to stylistic dissemination. Emphasis is placed on the terms used to designate the imitations of Cypriot pottery produced in Crete and the criteria for distinguishing between Cypriot imports and Cretan imitations. I further review the distribution of the two classes within Crete, establish major centres of production and assess the modes of interaction through which the Cretan copies came to be produced.