On the occasion of the International Day of Forests on the 21^st of March, the Centre of Natural and Cultural Heritage, organizes an internet lecture with the title “A Handkerchief of Leaves: Polygons of place and occupation in a forest environment”, on Tuesday 6 of April 2021, at 7.30 pm – 8.20 pm (discussion will follow).

Lecturer is Dr. Julia Ellis-Burnet, Professor of Forest History and Ecology | Macquarie University, Sydney | China University of Geoscience |University of Nova Gorica, Slovenia

The application form is submitted ONLY electronically.

The lecture will be done online via Zoom and the participation is free.

Synopsis

In the 1990’s there was a myth circulating among archaeologists working in Cyprus that there was no occupational evidence to be found in the forests above 400m asl.

Of the 49 sites recorded in the Makheras and Adelphi Forests 5% lay between 400m and 600m in the Makheras Forest and 59% between the same altitudes in the Adelphi Forest.  In the Makheras, 85% were located above 600m compared with 41% in the Adelphi Forest.  Sherd scatters occurring above 600m were located in both forests.

The forest is not, nor has it been, a stop over place, but rather a site-specific combination of presences and absences, a particular interaction of physical resources, a specific conjunction of human artefacts and elements of the natural world that facilitate and focus the interactions or activities which have occurred within its boundaries.

An important aspect of the forest as a social or cultural landscape is the artefact assemblages, both modern and ancient, that present a range of anthropogenic evidence on which an interpretative archaeology can be based. A total of 20 archaeological sites were located in the Makheras Forest and an additional 30 in the Panagia Bridge Division of the Adelphi Forest.

Bioresources derived from these forest environments include timber for export construction or mine props, resin and pitch, olives and oil products, myrtle berries, terebinth galls, cistus for enbalming and perfume, lavender for oil and medicinal purposes and many ground cover and sub-strata species were collected for their medicinal properties.

Site patterning suggests a complex series of economies or settlement processes which developed at different periods in response to shifting relationships between mining and agricultural or arboreal dominated cultures.  The importance of foreign trade relationships specifically linked to forest bioresource utilisation requires assessment within a socio-economic context

Archaeological sites located within the forest must be viewed as palaeohabitat islands where segments of the past ecosystem processes are preserved.  Alternatively, they may be areas of intense human activity in which elements of past ecosystems were artificially and selectively concentrated, or where new and unique habitats were created which some elements of the local flora and fauna were open to exploitation.

CV Profile

Julia Ellis Burnet was born in rural New South Wales in 1948. After an isolated childhood she stayed with her grandparents in order to start school which was completed in 1965. After twenty years working as a librarian, journalist and goat farmer she enrolled as a mature aged student at the Australian National University graduating with a double major in philosophy, field major in Chinese Studies and a high distinction in one “for fun” unit in archaeology. Encouraged to undertake a post-graduate degree in Prehistory & Archaeology she undertook field training in Bass Strait and a scientific survey in Samarkand for her thesis. Subsequent research looked at the environmental context of archaeological sites and their impact on environmental resources. This shift in focus broadened her concepts as she worked with several international archaeological teams largely within Cyprus. Awarded an Australian Post Graduate Scholarship in 1995 she worked recording 181 30m square quadrats along 19 north-south transect lines in the eastern Cyprus forests with the able help of Dr Michael Given. On graduating she worked for seven years as a government land manager before accepting a teaching position at the China University of Geoscience followed by an appointment with the University of Nova Gorica to teach Environmental Science. She retired in 2014 but lives in Slovenia.