Marking Pottery in the Cypriot Hinterland: Examining Potmarks from the Late Bronze Age Farming Settlement at Arediou

Steel, Louise and Hirschfeld, Nicolle (2026) Marking Pottery in the Cypriot Hinterland: Examining Potmarks from the Late Bronze Age Farming Settlement at Arediou. Near Eastern Archaeology. ISSN 1094-2076 (In Press)

Text 4178 Steel, L. Marking pottery (2026).pdf - Accepted Version Available under License CC-BY Creative Commons Attribution. Download (374kB)

Abstract

This paper explores the evidence for marking pottery at Arediou, a Late Bronze Age farming settlement in the Cypriot hinterland. Three potmarks were discovered at the site in the course of excavations, adding to current knowledge of the practice of marking pottery on Cyprus and how this was embedded within the island’s socio-political and economic organization during the later second millennium BCE. Although the quantity is small, the diversity of wares, forms, and sign types is intriguing; this corresponds to patterns of marking observed elsewhere on the island and in the Late Bronze Age eastern Mediterranean generally. From the perspective of potmark studies, their rural provenience is what makes the Arediou corpus significant. It broadens the question of where and why potmarks had relevance and raises the question of the bounds of literacy and how the rural hinterland was embedded within wider exchange networks in the Late Bronze Age.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	potmarks; Cypro-Minoan; Late Cypriot; writing systems; economic networks; trade; Aegean pottery; transport amphora
Subjects:	C Auxiliary Sciences of History > CB History of civilization C Auxiliary Sciences of History > CC Archaeology C Auxiliary Sciences of History > CN Inscriptions. Epigraphy. D History General and Old World > DE The Mediterranean Region. The Greco-Roman World
Divisions:	Institutes and Academies > Institute of Education and Humanities > Academic Discipline: Humanities and Social Sciences
Depositing User:	Louise Steel
Date Deposited:	02 Apr 2026 10:26
Last Modified:	02 Apr 2026 10:26
URI:	https://repository.uwtsd.ac.uk/id/eprint/4178

Administrator Actions (login required)

Edit Item - Repository Staff Only