Constructing and Archaeological Narrative: The Hellenization of Cyprus

" This paper focuses on an archaeological narrative that has received plenty of criticism lately and is regarded by some scholars as a series of factoids: the Mycenaean colonization and subsequent hellenization of Cyprus during the transitional period from the latest phase of the Late Bronze to the Early Iron Age. After a brief presentation of the current version of the narrative and the methodological problems associated with it, the discussion will go back in time to the first half of the 19th century, when the earliest academic references to the colonization theory were made. By following the narrative''s gradual development until the present day, I will attempt to elucidate the reasons and circumstances, academic and other, that led historians and archaeologists to build and subsequently adopt this narrative, which besides its many problems, is still widely accepted."