A reassessment of the prehistory of Cyprus is long overdue when you consider the pace at which new information and new finds are being revealed through recent excavations and survey projects. This well-illustrated histroy of the island begins by reviewing the evidence for the first colonisation of the island by faunal and human species, and addresses the issue of isolation and the effects of insularity. Other fundamental questions in Cypriot archaeology such as dating, figurative art, social complexity and contacts with extra-island politics, are then explored in relation to the earliest farming communities, Copper and Bronze Age society, and the increasingly complex societies of the late Bronze Age, case studies, examples, maps, plans and drawings accompany the text throughout.