Nicolle Hirschfeld on “Bar codes (but no scanner!): Potmarks and what they tell us about Late Bronze Age business”

Saturday, February 9, 2013 at 11am, in the Pillsbury Auditorium at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts

People mark things for all sorts of reasons: to claim ownership, to indicate recipient, to keep track of sequence, to label contents or weight or quality or price or date of consumption or manufacture, for example. Some marks are less purposeful: doodles.

Archaeologists regularly find marked objects: coins, tools, architectural elements, and especially pottery. The audience may be familiar with the many kinds of information gleaned from the study of Greek and Roman amphora stamps. This lecture presents the author’s research on marking systems of the Late Bronze Age, and what they tell us about the organization of trade and industry. 

About the Speaker:

Dr. Nicolle Hirschfeld is with the Department of Classical Studies at Trinity University, and is also a Research Associate with the Institute of Nautical Archaeology.  She holds her degrees from the University of Texas at Austin (Ph.D.), Texas A&M University (M.A.), and Bryn Mawr College (B.A.).  Her current interests are exchange among Late Bronze Age cultures of the eastern Mediterranean, the maritime archaeology of the eastern Mediterranean, ancient technologies and the development of writing, ancient industries (particularly ceramics), and the archaeoogical history of Cyprus.  Professor Hirschfeld has received numerous awards for her work, published widely, and is the AIA’s Kershaw Lecturer for 2012/2013 (http://www.archaeological.org/giving/endowments/234). See also: 

N. Hirschfeld. 2008. “How and Why Potmarks Matter,” Near Eastern Archaeology (71.1-2) 120-129.

A no-host lunch with the speaker will follow the lecture at Christos Greek Restaurant, 2632 Nicollet Avenue, Minneapolis.