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Cypriots In The Mycenaean Aegean, Nicolle Hirschfeld

Nicolle E Hirshfeld

Many different types of evidence provide clues to the nature of commercial exchange among the regions of the Late Bronze Age eastern Mediterranean. I approach this topic through the study of marks which were incised or painted on pottery traded between the Near East and the Aegean. Thanks to the kindness of many excavators and museum officials in Cyprus and Greece, I have been able to examine firsthand much of the marked pottery found in those regions.

Die Zyprische Keramik Aus Dem Schiffswrack Von Uluburun, Nicolle Hirschfeld

Nicolle E Hirshfeld

Mehr als 150 zyprische Gefäße Öllampen und Vorratsbehälter (Pithoi) wurden aus dem Schiff herausgeschleudert und auf dem Meeresgrund zerschmettert, als dieses Schiff in der Spätbronzezeit bei Uluburun unterging. Zyprische Keramik zählt zu den bekannten Exportprodukten der Spätbronzezeit. Sie wurde in zahlreichen Siedlungen des östlichen Mittelmeerraums angetroffen, einschließlich Sardiniens als westlichstem Punkt. Jedoch gibt die Entdeckung dieser Keramik in entlegenen Siedlungen Anlass zur Überlegung, wohin, in welchen Mengen und zu welchem Zweck sie exportiert wurde. Folgende Fragen wären zu beantworten: War dieser Exportartikel von Angebot und Nachfrage abhängig? Stellt diese Keramik ein Mittel im Geschenkeaustausch dar? Wurde sie durch private oder …

Fine Tuning: An Analysis Of Bronze Age Potmarks As Clues To Maritime Trade, Nicolle Hirschfeld

Nicolle E Hirshfeld

One of many puzzling questions facing archaeologists working in the eastern Mediterranean deals with the organization of trade during the Late Bronze Age (LBA). This is the time of the New Kingdom-the period of Tutankhamun and Ramses—in Egypt, the Hittite empire in Anatolia and parts of the Near East, and the age of the heroes of the Trojan war. Palace archives, treaties inscribed on public monuments, and murals painted on walls testify to extensive economic ties between these powers. Archaeological excavations also provide a glimpse of the types and quantities of trade-items and their distribution. These sources give some indication …

Cypriots To The West? The Evidence Of Their Potmarks, Nicolle E. Hirschfeld

Nicolle E Hirshfeld

Three amphora handles (Fig. 1), of Mycenaean type, bear the only possible traces of Cypriot writing found in Bronze Age Italy, and they are the only known possible direct traces of Cypriot participation in trade with the western Mediterranean in the Late Bronze Age. In this paper, I proceed first with a brief description of the marked handles and their provenience; second, I illustrate their Cypriot associations; and finally I discuss possible implications of this identification.

The Potmarks From Troy Vi-Vii In The Berlin Schliemann Collection, Nicolle E. Hirschfeld

Nicolle E Hirshfeld

More than a century of excavations on and around the citadel of Troy have uncovered a total of only fifteen Late Bronze Age (LB) ceramic vases with non-decorative mark(s) incised into their rim, handle, belly or base. Surely potmarks have been Overlooked or lost in the course of the tremendous labors of digging and sorting. On the other hand, in the absence of the discovery of archives, the excavators of Troy have been on the look-out for signs of writing of the briefest sort on the humblest kinds of objects. For example, already the first volume of Schliemann's publications is …

Cypriot Pottery, Nicolle Hirschfeld

Nicolle E Hirshfeld

At least 3 of the 10 pithoi (large ceramic transport containers) stowed on the ship that sank at Uluburun contained Cypriot pottery: Bucchero jugs, lug-handled bowls, milk bowls, Base Ring bowls and a single juglet, White Shaved juglets, lamps, and wall brackets—about 140 pieces in total, excluding the pithoi. The Uluburun shipment and the ceramic cargo jettisoned off Point Iria on the Greek mainland a century later are the only extant excavated direct archaeological evidence for the transport of pottery in the eastern Mediterranean during the Late Bronze Age. These examples of ceramics-in-transport are highly significant for what they tell …

Marked Objects From Apliki Karamallos, Nicolle Hirschfeld

Nicolle E Hirshfeld

The study of Cypriot Late Bronze Age (LBA) writing had reached one of its apogees in the summer of 1939, when Joan du Plat Taylor undertook excavations at Apliki Karamallos. Publication of the Swedish Cyprus Expedition's reports and new discoveries by Schaeffer at Enkomi and the Americans at Kourion Bamboula had shrugged off the mantle of dormancy imposed by the first World War; by the mid '30's, scholarship on the origins and uses of writing on LBA Cyprus was in full swing. Evans (1935), Persson (1932 and 1937), and Schaeffer (1936) published important studies, and Casson (1937 and 1939) and …

Eastwards Via Cyprus? The Marked Mycenaean Pottery Of Enkomi, Ugarit And Tell Abu Hawam, Nicolle E. Hirschfeld

Nicolle E Hirshfeld

Based on her study of distribution patterns, Vronwy Hankey suggested that Cyprus or Cypriots played some role in the trade of Mycenaean pottery eastwards to the Levant. She also noted that some of the Mycenaean pottery which reached both Cyprus and the Near East carried marks incised on handles or painted on bases. This paper examines the possible relationships between the marks, Mycenaean pottery, Cyprus, and the trade in Late Bronze Age ceramics. Special reference is made to the evidence from the sites of Enkomi, Ugarit, and Tell Abu Hawam.

À partir de son étude sur les schémas de répartition, …

Potmarks, Nicolle E. Hirschfeld

Nicolle E Hirshfeld

Twelve potmarks have been recorded among the finds from Tel Mor (Fig. 6.1). They are all simple marks, and only one may possibly be part of a longer inscription. They are incised, mostly into handles. At present, we do not know enough about the potmarking practices of the Late Bronze Age Levant to ascertain whether the assemblage recovered from Tel Mor is typical or unusual.

Potters' Marks And Potmarks, Nicolle Hirschfeld

Nicolle E Hirshfeld

The brief remarks and the detailed catalogue presented below, along with the author's forthcoming (a) re-study of the discoveries of the British expedition to Enkomi, supplement and update the author's 2002 study of the marked pottery found at Enkomi. In both cases, it is more a matter of adding, refining, and correcting than significantly changing the observations presented in the earlier paper. But even though they are not headline-grabbing, these contributions are important in that they add to the gradually accumulating evidence for marked vases in circulation in Late Bronze Age Cyprus. Because we cannot (yet) 'read' the marks directly …

Marks On Pots: Patterns Of Use In The Archaeological Record At Enkomi, Nicolle Hirschfeld

Nicolle E Hirshfeld

Marks scratched or painted on the Late Bronze Age (LBA) pottery of the eastern Mediterranean are often highly visible elements of the ceramic assemblage because of their bold rendering and prominent placement (fig. 1). Nevertheless, often they have been overlooked. In those instances where they have been noted, interest in them has been primarily epigraphical. Certainly some of the potmarks are connected somehow with contemporary writing systems. But all of them, signs of script or not, have some reason(s) for being painted or incised on certain vases. This paper begins the process of looking systematically for those reasons.