Current views of Cyprus during the Middle Bronze Age (or Middle Cypriot period) depict an island largely isolated from the wider eastern Mediterranean world and comprised largely if not exclusively of “egalitarian,” agropastoral communities. In this respect, its economy stands at odds with those of polities in other, nearby regions such as the Levant, or Crete in the Aegean. The publication of new excavations and new readings of legacy data necessitate modification of earlier views about Cyprus’s political economy during the Middle Bronze Age, prompting this review. We discuss at some length the island’s settlement and mortuary records, materials related to internal production, external exchange and connectivities, and the earliest of the much discussed but still enigmatic fortifications. We suggest that Middle Bronze Age communities are likely to have been significantly more complex, mobile, and interconnected than once envisaged and that the changes that mark the closing years of this period and the transition to the internationalism of Late Bronze Age Cyprus represent the culmination of an evolving series of internal developments and external interactions.

当前对中世纪青铜时代（或中塞浦路斯时期）塞浦路斯的看法描绘了一个基本上与更广阔的东地中海世界隔绝的岛屿，并且主要由“平等主义”农牧社区组成。在这方面，其经济与黎凡特或爱琴海克里特岛等其他附近地区的政治体格格不入。新的发掘和对遗留数据的新解读的发布需要修改早期关于塞浦路斯中期青铜时代政治经济的观点，从而促使了这次审查。我们详细讨论了岛上的定居和停尸记录、与内部生产、外部交换和连通性有关的材料，以及最早的被广泛讨论但仍然神秘的防御工事。我们认为，青铜时代中期的社区可能比以前想象的更加复杂、流动和相互联系，标志着这一时期最后几年的变化以及塞浦路斯青铜时代晚期向国际主义的过渡代表了一系列不断演变的内部发展和外部互动。