“These were pretty sophisticated people. Certainly if they could figure out how to navigate the Mediterranean, even at a small distance, they knew what they were doing.”
Right. I hold to the theory that they used Cyprus as a breeding farm for pygmy hippos, much in the way that Tyson raises gazillions of chickens.
Then the owners of the factory or even retail customerscould come to the island and pick up their meat requirements either on the hoof or packaged into cuts of meat of their choice.
Certainly the storage of large numbers of bones gives credence to the hippo factory theory.
The crossing isn’t that short, but an aceramic culture crossed over about 8000 years ago, bringing their semi-domesticated mainland animal species with them.