Submitted by coldrum ---
Archaeologists in Cyprus found evidence that inhabitants of the Mediterranean island may have abandoned a nomadic lifestyle for agriculture-based settlements earlier than previously believed.
The excavations at the Politiko-Troullia site, near the capital Nicosia, unearthed a series of households around a communal courtyard, and proof of intensive animal husbandry and crop-processing, according to a statement today on the Web site of the Cypriot Interior Ministry’s Public Information Office.
The dig revealed copper metallurgy and sophisticated ceramic technology during the middle part of the Bronze Age, or between 4,000 and 3,500 years ago, the statement said. Archaeologists had previously believed that such settlements, which went on to evolve into cities, only began developing toward the end of the middle Bronze Age.
The fieldwork reveals extensive evidence of the Bronze Age community that was the predecessor to the ancient city of Tamassos, founded in the subsequent Iron Age, according to the statement.
For more, see http://www.bloomberg.com.
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