Ancient CyprusAncient Cyprus

Archaeologist · Excavator · Scholar

Marie-Louise von Wartburg

fl. 1966–2013 · Switzerland

Archaeologist who from 1980 excavated the Lusignan and Venetian sugar refinery at Kouklia-Stavros with Franz Georg Maier, co-directed the Palaepaphos expedition and published medieval pottery.

Biography

From 1980 Marie-Louise von Wartburg set up, with Franz Georg Maier, the excavation of the cane-sugar refinery at Kouklia-Stavros, and she became his wife in 19921. The Guide to Palaipaphos calls the 1980 start of the work on these remains the first industrial-archaeology project in Cyprus. It was dug in 1980-82, 1987-91 and 1995, and the refinery was in use from the late 13th to the end of the 16th century; she wrote that section of the guide4. She wrote the medieval sugar-industry section of Maier and Karageorghis's Paphos: History and Archaeology (1984) and assisted with other chapters and illustrations3. In 1995 she gave a Paris paper on cane-sugar production in Cyprus6.

The Swiss-German expedition of the University of Zurich had worked at Kouklia since 1966. By 1995 Herscher described its work as "now codirected by Marie-Louise von Wartburg", concentrated on the sanctuary, the royal tomb at Arkalon and the refinery at Stavros2. Her joint preliminary reports with Maier appeared in the Report of the Department of Antiquities, Cyprus, from the early 1980s, and Maier's bibliography lists "Strangers at Palaepaphos" (1988) and "Reconstruction of a Siege: the Persians at Paphos" (2009) under both names1.

She also published medieval pottery: Middle Byzantine glazed bowls from Swiss private collections (2001), glazed ware from the Paphos region (2003), with S. Y. Waksman a study of Byzantine ceramic production (2006), and with Y. Violaris a closed 12th-century pit from the Palaion Demarcheion site in Nicosia (2009)11,12,13,14.

Life and work

  1. 1980
    Set up with F. G. Maier the excavation of the Lusignan/Venetian cane-sugar refinery at Kouklia-Stavros (site TST), the first industrial-archaeology project in Cyprus; seasons 1980-82, 1987-91, 1995 (the guide's account of the site is her section 9).

    KoukliaHermary 2014, p. 12Maier 2004

  2. 1983–1985
    Co-authored with Maier the RDAC preliminary reports for the 1981-82 and 1983-84 seasons and the 1985 season at Palaepaphos (Evreti wells with Late Cypriot and Late Classical material, a looted Classical tomb at Pighiler, Hadjiabdoulla).

    KoukliaHermary 2014, p. 7Maier 1992, nn. 4

  3. 1984
    Collaborator on Maier & Karageorghis, Paphos: History and Archaeology (Nicosia, Leventis Foundation): wrote the section on the medieval sugar industry and assisted with the text and illustrations of other chapters.

    NicosiaMaier & Karageorghis 1984

  4. 1985
    With Maier, 'Reconstructing history from the earth, c. 2800 B.C.-1600 A.D.: excavating at Palaepaphos, 1966-1984', in V. Karageorghis (ed.), Archaeology in Cyprus 1960-1985, pp. 142-172.

    NicosiaHermary 2014, p. 5

  5. 1990–1991
    Re-investigation of the royal tomb at Arkalon (Spilaion tis Reginas) with Maier; test excavations in 1991 reported in Maier's 1992 CCEC article.

    KoukliaMaier 1992, n. 7

  6. 1992
    Became Maier's wife.

    Hermary 2014, p. 12

  7. 1995
    Published a paper on cane-sugar production in Cyprus (the Kouklia-Stavros refinery) at the Paris colloquium 'Methodes d'expansion et techniques de domination dans le monde mediterraneen'; Steel's survey lists it with the Swiss team's 1994 and 1996 exploratory work on the Marchello city wall.

    ParisSteel 1997-1998, p. 146

  8. 2001
    'Bowls and Birds: Some Middle Byzantine Glazed Bowls from Swiss Private Collections', British School at Athens Studies 8, pp. 115-129 (a study of material in Swiss private collections).

    Dissinger 2017

  9. 2006
    With S. Y. Waksman: 'Fine-Sgraffito Ware', 'Aegean Ware', and other wares: new evidence for a major production of Byzantine ceramics, RDAC 2006, 369-88.

    Stewart et al. 2014

  10. 2009
    With Y. Violaris, pottery of a 12th-century pit from the Palaion Demarcheion site in Nicosia (AIECM 8 Ciudad Real, pp. 249-264); and, with Maier, 'Reconstruction of a Siege: the Persians at Paphos' in Kiely (ed.), Ancient Cyprus in the British Museum, pp. 7-20.

    NicosiaStewart et al. 2014Hermary 2014, p. 6

Connections

6 people
Franz Georg MaierVassos KarageorghisJacqueline KarageorghisSophocles HadjisavvasIoannis ViolarisThomas KielyMarie-Louise von Wartburg
FamilyScholarshipColleagues

Family

Fieldwork & employment

Scholarship

Colleagues & contacts

Sources

  1. 1.A. Hermary (2014). “In memoriam : Franz-Georg Maier (1926-2014)”. Cahiers du Centre d'Études Chypriotes 44, 11-16. Online
  2. 2.Ellen Herscher (1995). “Archaeology in Cyprus”. American Journal of Archaeology 99, 257-294.
  3. 3.F. G. Maier, V. Karageorghis (1984). Paphos: History and Archaeology. 383 pp.. Nicosia, A. G. Leventis Foundation.
  4. 4.F. G. Maier (2004). Guide to Palaipaphos (Kouklia). Nicosia, Bank of Cyprus Cultural Foundation.
  5. 5.F. G. Maier (1992). “A tomb of Paphian Kings: the 'Spilaion tis Regainas' at Kouklia-Arkalon”. Cahiers du Centre d'Études Chypriotes 18. Online
  6. 6.Louise Steel (1997-1998). “Archaeology in Cyprus 1987-1997”. Archaeological Reports 44, 137-149.
  7. 7.C. A. Stewart (ed.), T. W. Davis (ed.), A. Weyl Carr (ed.) (2014). Cyprus and the Balance of Empires: Art and Archaeology from Justinian I to the Coeur de Lion. CAARI / ASOR.
  8. 8.Alicia Marie Dissinger (2017). “Cypro-Archaic Bird Iconography: Types, Uses, and Meanings”. University of Virginia.
  9. 9.F. G. Maier, M.-L. von Wartburg (1985). “Reconstructing history from the earth, c. 2800 B.C.-1600 A.D.: excavating at Palaepaphos, 1966-1984”. Archaeology in Cyprus 1960-1985, 142-172. Nicosia.
  10. 10.F. G. Maier, M.-L. von Wartburg (1988). “Strangers at Palaepaphos”. Report of the Department of Antiquities, Cyprus 1988, 275-279.
  11. 11.M.-L. von Wartburg (2001). “Bowls and Birds: Some Middle Byzantine Glazed Bowls from Swiss Private Collections”. British School at Athens Studies 8, 115-129.
  12. 12.S. Y. Waksman, M.-L. von Wartburg (2006). “'Fine-Sgraffito Ware', 'Aegean Ware', and other wares: new evidence for a major production of Byzantine ceramics”. Report of the Department of Antiquities, Cyprus, 369-388.
  13. 13.M.-L. von Wartburg, Y. Violaris (2009). “Pottery of a 12th Century Pit from the Palaion Demarcheion Site in Nicosia: A Typological and Analytical Approach to a Closed Assemblage”. Actas del VIII Congreso Internacional de Cerámica Medieval en el Mediterráneo, Ciudad Real-Almagro 2006, vol. 1, 249-264. Ciudad Real.
  14. 14.M.-L. von Wartburg (2003). “Cypriot Contacts with East and West as Reflected in Medieval Glazed Pottery from the Paphos Region”. Actes du VIIe Congrès International sur la Céramique Médiévale en Méditerranée, Thessaloniki 1999, 153-166. Athens, Archaeological Receipts Fund.
  15. 15.M.-L. von Wartburg (2013). Vestigia Leonis. Ceramica d'origine veneziana e norditaliana rinvenuta a Cipro.