 Cyprus is the third largest island in the Mediterranean, located at the easternmost part of the region. And what is most significant about it as an island is that for at least the last six million years or so has not been connected to the surrounding mainland with any form of land bridge or even stepping stones. This has led researchers to the theory that it was a marginal part of the Mediterranean world, isolated from the developments in the broader area, until the development of the technological and cognitive skills that enabled humans to navigate not only the sea, but also the harsh and inhospitable, presumably, insular environment. So the material record on Cyprus for the time period we are interested in goes as far back as 12,000 years ago. At the very end of the Pleistocene we have limited evidence for short-term visits, and it's not until the beginning of the Holocene that we see the first permanent settlement that's a very, very, very brief overview of what's happening. During that time we also document the presence and circulation of items made of exotic raw materials. And this could suggest, I will argue that it does, contact with the rest of the Mediterranean world. So arguing, in fact, that Cyprus was not as isolated as usually postulated. So we have stone tools made of obsidian, we have ornaments made of carnelian. Both materials are of exotic origin, so they have come to Cyprus from elsewhere. The top maps saw the distribution of archaeological sites using carnelian and obsidian on Cyprus throughout the early Holocene, and the two bottom large scale maps indicate geological occurrences of these raw materials, respectively. Another thing to keep in mind is that not all Neolithic sites on Cyprus utilize exotic raw materials. I don't know if you can see these little yellow dots are more or less contemporary sites with the blue dots, but they don't have any evidence for the exploitation of exotic raw materials. So we wanted to interest it to try and reconstruct, if I may say, the social landscape of Cyprus during the early Holocene by trying to define the number of exotic sources being represented in our assemblages. And the way we went about doing that was using non-destructive portable X-ray fluorescence spectrometry to analyze complete obsidian and carnelian assemblages from early Holocene Cypriot sites. We analyzed about a little over 600 artifacts, the vast majority of which is obsidian, from eight different early Holocene sites. Now to summarize the results of this long-time elemental characterization, I put these two graphs up here. Starting with carnelian, the elemental composition of the artifacts suggests that we have at least two different geological sources of carnelian represented in our assemblage. Now, small parentheses, PXRF and carnelian may not work super well together, but this is just a starting point. Another interesting result that we got is that these two artifacts here that were previously misidentified as carnelian were in fact made of calcite that was stained orange. Now calcite is quite a common material, but it could also be exotic, may not, we don't know yet. Hopefully in the future we will be able to fingerprint it if we get the money to do some very detailed analysis. With regards to obsidian, we were able to use the elemental signatures to get three to four different sources. Obsidian and PXRF work really well together, so we analyzed some geological samples from known sources in Anatolia and we were able to provenance the vast majority of our artifacts to the central Anatolian sources of predominantly Goludag, where the star is on the map, and to a lesser extent, Nenezidag. There remains, however, a number of artifacts, 15 to 20 artifacts that do not tightly cluster with any of our geological source material data. This could suggest additional sources and I think that based on the similarity of the elemental composition, these sources should be also in Anatolia. We'll run some additional analysis once we get some more geological samples and I believe we will be able to pinpoint the exact sources. So to put all this information into a more social context, the presence of exotic raw materials and items made of exotic raw materials on Cyprus suggests that we have multiple communication pathways between Cyprus and the mainland during the early Holocene. Of course, this communication and exchange of items, among other things, requires seafaring. I see two potential routes for this communication, these networks. A direct one from Anatolia reaching the northern coast of Cyprus and a southern one from the Levantine coast reaching Cyprus to the south. We know that during that time obsidian circulates widely in the Levant, so it is not unlikely that some of that Anatolian obsidian actually circulated in the Levant and reached Cyprus that way rather than directly. Once on the island there are exotics circulate following coastal routes, this is the map here, coastal routes predominantly or rivers. And this may be the explanation as to why our more inland Neolithic sites don't actually appear to participate in those networks of exchange. I now wanted to open another small parenthesis and actually repeat more or less what Carol was saying. We have established the import of exotics to Cyprus from the mainland, but it doesn't seem, it doesn't have to be that the directionality of movement is one way. And I wanted to give just one example to think about this issue with the green stones that Carol already mentioned. So Cyprus has excellent quality of a very rare resource, the Picrolite, it's a very nice soft green raw material that occurs on the southwestern part of the island, and it is used for ornaments. We have documented a use of green stone ornaments all along the Levant, and it is very likely that some of that material is actually Cypriot Picrolite. All we have to do is get the permits and run the analysis. So just something to think about. The next question I wanted to ask was why did these early Cypriot communities undertake all these efforts to acquire just a few pieces of rock? The quantities we're talking about are very small. And also with regards to obsidian, which is used exclusively for stone tools, we have excellent quality charts on Cyprus. Carol already discussed that. I mean there is a lot of it and it's very, very good for napping. We don't need to get on a boat, get contacts to Anatolia or anywhere else in the Levant to get just a few pieces of obsidian. So I think the answer to this question is linked to the aesthetic attributes of these raw materials. Their color, which is quite distinctive, but also their brilliance and their transparency. These are all visual attributes that from an anthropological perspective attract the human brain in a way that artifacts, objects and materials that don't share these qualities cannot do. And so I would suggest that the exotics that we see on Cyprus during the early Holocene were in fact items of special social value. There were symbols that were linking humans on the island with maybe specific places or specific populations or even individuals in the mainland that were significant to these early Cypriots on an emotional or social degree. And this ability to maintain a strong bond at great distances and without the need for face-to-face interactions, what is called symbols of relatedness is an excellent, I think, a very smart survival strategy, especially when you're navigating, when you're exploring a new and potentially unknown territory. So just to sum up, Cyprus is traditionally perceived as a marginal, isolated part of the eastern Mediterranean world on the basis of it being an island. The presence of exotic items from multiple sources suggests that in fact the early Holocene Cypriot communities were linked to their mainland counterparts with communication and exchange networks that may not have been very intensive, but I believe they were continuous. And objects made of carnelian and obsidian being very aesthetically pleasing and distinctive items I think helped them to maintain this strong bond. That's it. Thank you.