Vases Marked for Exchange: The Not-So-Special Case of Pictorial Pottery

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 circumstances 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 associated 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 Mycenaean pottery

Appendix IV: Potmarks

I. Potmarks from the Limassol area tombs The excavation of any Late Cypriote site settlement, tomb, shipwreck usually yields pottery marked with incised, impressed, or painted signs. The collection of marked pottery presented here is significant especially because it fills in the heretofore geographic lacuna between the substantial assemblages of Late Cypriote potmarks discovered in the Kouris (Smith 2012) and Vasilikos (E. Masson 1989; Cadogan, Driessen, and Ferrara 2009, 145) River Valleys. Smith has demonstrated how much marked pottery, considered in the context of other indications of administrative control, can reveal about the administrative, economic, and political organization of a region. The Vasilikos Valley merits similar treatment. In between there are now these twenty-eight marked vases from the Limassol district too few to indicate clearly how this region fitted into or rubbed against the marking practices used by its neighbours, but a start and, it is hoped, a promise of more

Preventing infections in non-hospital settings: long-term care.

Infection concerns in long-term care facilities include endemic infections, outbreaks, and colonization and infection with antimicrobial-drug resistant microorganisms. Infection control programs are now used in most long-term care facilities, but their impact on infections has not been rigorously evaluated. Preventive strategies need to address the changing complexity of care in these facilities, e.g., the increased use of invasive devices. The anticipated increase in the elderly population in the next several decades makes prevention of infection in long-term care facilities a priority

Potters\u27 Marks and Potmarks

The brief remarks and the detailed catalogue presented below, along with the author\u27s forthcoming (a) re-study of the discoveries of the British expedition to Enkomi, supplement and update the author\u27s 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) \u27read\u27 the marks directly and must still rely on their patterns of occurrence in order to decipher their meaning(s), each new piece of evidence, or each piece of known evidence now more clearly defined, sharpens the patterns

Navigation and Transportation

Water was the most efficient means of transportation and travel in the ancient Greek world. Evidence of the movement of commodities and people comes from a combination of literary, iconographical, and archaeological sources

Signs of Writing? Red Lustrous Wheelmade Vases and Ashkelon Amphorae

One important question about Bronze Age potmarks is whether they are signs of writing. An affirmative answer has significant implications for our understanding of how widely a script was used within and between communities. This essay discusses two instances for which the claim of writing on ceramics has been made: Red Lustrous Wheelmade (RLWM) pottery and the “inscriptions” found at Ashkelon. In both cases, the question is whether the marks incised into these vases are to be identified as signs of the Cypro-Minoan script. The answer is important in the first instance for our understanding of the diversity and specialization of the Cypriot ceramic industry and in the second for our understanding of the use and influence of Cypriot writing outside the island

Cypriots to the West? The Evidence of Their Potmarks

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

Eastwards via Cyprus? The Marked Mycenaean Pottery of Enkomi, Ugarit and Tell Abu Hawam

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, 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\u27une partie de la céramique mycénienne qui était arrivée tant à Chypre qu\u27au Proche-Orient portait des marques incisées sur l\u27anse ou peintes sur la base des vases. Cette communication examine les liens possibles entre ces marques, la céramique mycénienne, Chypre et le commerce de céramique à l’âge du Bronze Récent. Une attention spéciale est portée aux données fournies par les sites d\u27Enkomi, Ougarit et Tell Abou Hawam

How and Why Potmarks Matter

Potmarks lie in a no-man\u27s land, not quite within the usual parameters of ceramic studies, not usually a concern for epigraphists. Although many excavations have yielded some potmarks, they are not a regular feature of publication. But potmarks found in Bronze Age contexts in Cyprus occupy an unusual position in the archaeology of the Bronze Age Mediterranean: they are regularly noticed and published