Nicolle Hirschfeld | Trinity University, Texas (original) (raw)

Books by Nicolle Hirschfeld

Interactions between the "Aegean" and "Levant" cannot be discussed in monolithic terms. The physi... more Interactions between the "Aegean" and "Levant" cannot be discussed in monolithic terms. The physical realities of sea travel, the vocabulary and accounts preserved in texts, and the objects found in foreign earth and under the seas point to many routes among the diverse communities that inhabited the eastern Mediterranean littoral in the Late Bronze Age, and give hints of the different peoples forging the connections. They interacted in a multiplicity of ways, their relationships shifting through time. Focusing in on the specifics of interactions reveals complexities that should be the basis for alternative ways of classifying interactions across the Aegean and eastern Mediterranean seas.

Papers by Nicolle Hirschfeld

The brief remarks and the detailed catalogue presented below, along with the author's forthcoming... more 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 importaqt 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 and must still rely on their patterns of occurrence in order to deci pher their meaning(s), each new piece of evidence, or each piece of known evidence now more clearly defined, sharpens the patterns. The catalogue below comprises fifty-three marked vases. Two appear in Dikaios' final report (nos. 2 and 46), ten were included in the tabulations presented in the 2002 study but have not been individually published (nos. 6, 12, 14, 15, 22, 32, 39, 40, 41, 43), and the remaining forty-one are presented here for the first time. This is a substantial addition, when one considers that the 2002 corpus-all the known potmarks found by all the expeditions to Enkomi-numbered approximately 250 vases. The catalogue is organized first by vase type. This is in part to accord with the methodology proposed by Daniel (1941, 252), viz. to classify marks first in terms of the objects on which they occur. And, indeed, it has become clear that there is some correlation between marking systems and vase shapes. This is certainly true, for example, of Red Lustrous wheel-made spindle bottles with their idiosyncratic marks (Hirschfeld, forthcoming). And it is also the case that vases imported from the Aegean are marked differently according to their shapes: large storage containers with incised marks, small containers and open shapes with painted marks (Hirschfeld 2000, 180). But in general this organizing principle should be• regarded only as a tool, a way to grapple with the material until (and in hopes that) classification(s) valid for the ancient function(s) of these marks can be identified. The amphoras, for example, comprise a variety of marking systems-though perhaps a clearer identification of the fabrics or shapes (not easy, when only a handle stub remains) might also reveal some correlation with certain kinds of marks. Contextual information is given when it is known. Thus far it has not been possible to discern any

• Es gibt nur wcnigc Inschriften, die nicht als Gricchisch gclescn wcrdcn konncn; 0, Masson hat d... more • Es gibt nur wcnigc Inschriften, die nicht als Gricchisch gclescn wcrdcn konncn; 0, Masson hat die Thcorie gciiul3crt, dal3 es sich clabci urn cine cinhcimische Schrift, Etcocypriot, handclt (ICS', 85-87). '' ICS2, passim.

Three amphora handles (Fig. 1), of Mycenaean type, bear the only possible traces of Cypriot writi... more 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. All three marked handles were found at Cannatello, a site on the southern coast of Italy. They have been published by the excavator, Professor Ernesto de Miro, in the context of a corpus of Mycenaean pottery found at the site (De Miro 1996, 999, 1004, 1007-1008, 1010-1011, pl. VII). The three handles are only fragmentarily preserved, and it is difficult to be certain whether in fact they really belong to amphorae. Their round sections and their fairly substantial dimensions do indicate that they belonged to closed shapes, medium to large in size. It is not absolutely clear from the published illustrations that these are vertical handles, but this is a reasonable surmise, substantiated by the painted decoration preserved on two of the handles.

Near Eastern Archaeology, 2008

Travaux de la Maison de l'Orient méditerranéen, 2004

Résumé/Abstract À partir de son étude sur les schémas de répartition, Vronwy Hankey a suggéré que... more Résumé/Abstract À partir de son étude sur les schémas de répartition, Vronwy Hankey a suggéré que Chypre, ou des Chypriotes, avaient joué un rôle dans le commerce de la céramique mycénienne en direction du Levant. Elle avait aussi remarqué qu'une partie de ...

Bulletin of The Institute of Classical Studies, 1998

Large, bold marks are painted or incised on the handles or bases of thirty-seven pictorial vases.... more Large, bold marks are painted or incised on the handles or bases of thirty-seven pictorial vases. These same kinds of marks and same patterns of marking are found on non-pictorial Mycenaean pottery. In general, marks on Mycenaean pottery are rare and the circum stances of their use are not yet fully understood. It is clear that they are associated with Cyprus, and it is most likely that they are asso ciated with Cypriot traders. The marks do indicate that pictorial vases were handled through the same channels and documented in the same manner as the trade in linear and pattern-decorated Myce naean pottery.* It is the decorated panels of the pictorial vases which catch the modem eye, and one presumes that this was true also in antiquity. Modem studies have tended to set vases with pic torial decoration apart, treating them as a special and sepa rate class of pottery. Was it the same in the Late Bronze Age? To what extent were pictorial representations the de fining elements of ...

II�. arks scratched or painted on the Late Bronze Age (LBA) pottery of the t�, � eastern Mediterr... more II�. arks scratched or painted on the Late Bronze Age (LBA) pottery of the t�, � eastern Mediterranean are often highly visible elements of the ceramic V assemblage because of their bold rendering and prominent placement (fig. I). Nevertheless, often they have been overlooked. In those instances where they have been noted, interest in them has been primarily epigraph ical. Certainly some of the potmarks are connected somehow with contem porary writing systems. But all of them, signs of script or not, have some reason(s) fo r being painted or incised on certain vases. This paper begins the process of looking systematically fo r those reasons. Potmarks may be applied in the process of manufacture, exchange, use, or deposition of a vase, and they may identify potter, workshop, merchant, owner, quality or quantity of contents, price, batch, point of origin, destina tion, or other information. The potmarks studied in this paper are single signs whose fo rms give no indication of the value or meaning of the marks. Therefore, a contextual approach is adopted: the marks are examined in terms of the containers on which they appear and the types of deposits in which they were fo und in order to try to identify patterns of occurrence. Those patterns fo rm the basis fo r interpreting the significance of the signs boldly painted (fig. 2) or incised (figs. 1, 3, and 4) especially on the pottery fo und in LBA Cyprus. Even a subject so seemingly confined as the study of potmarks fr om LBA Cypriot contexts becomes Immense on closer inspection. This paper

American Journal of Archaeology, 2007

American Journal of Archaeology, 2014

American Journal of Archaeology, 2001

Near Eastern Archaeology, 1999

Smith, J. S. and N. E. Hirschfeld 1999 “The Cypro-Minoan Corpus Project Takes An Archaeological A... more Smith, J. S. and N. E. Hirschfeld 1999 “The Cypro-Minoan Corpus Project Takes An Archaeological Approach,” in Arti-facts in Near Eastern Archaeology 62.2: 129–130.

The Biblical Archaeologist, 1990