Ancient CyprusAncient Cyprus

Epigrapher · Scholar

Maurice Sznycer

1921–2010 · France

Paris Semitist (1921-2010) who read and published the Phoenician inscriptions found in Cyprus, with Olivier Masson and for the Department of Antiquities, Kition and Idalion.

Biography

Maurice Sznycer began working on Cypriot Phoenician inscriptions in 1969, while a Semitist at the École pratique des hautes études in Paris. Born in Poland in 1921, he came to France after the Second World War, studied Semitic languages at the École pratique des hautes études under André Dupont-Sommer, and became directeur d'études there in 1971. He died in 20101. His friendship with Olivier Masson and the trust of Vassos Karageorghis made Cypriot epigraphy a large part of his work1.

In Karageorghis's report for 1969 he commented on the first Phoenician inscription known from Pergamos, and with Masson on the bilingual Cypro-syllabic and Phoenician stele found at Kaloriziki near Kourion2. Their Recherches sur les Phéniciens à Chypre (1972) is cited by Karageorghis for the Kition texts6,9. Sznycer wrote the note on the incised jug from tomb 69 at Palaepaphos-Skales, concluding that its signs were not securely Phoenician5,10. With Marguerite Yon he published the Phoenician inscription of the Milkyaton trophy of Kition in 199112.

From 1991 Maria Hadjicosti invited him to study the several hundred Phoenician ink ostraka from Idalion. He did not finish the work and left a short account in 20041,11.

Life and work

  1. 1969–1970
    Presented his first research on the Phoenician inscriptions of Cyprus within the EPHE (reports by Dupont-Sommer on his conferences: 'the temple accounts of Kition', 'the oldest Phoenician inscription of Cyprus').

    ParisHermary et al. 2010, pp. 13

  2. 1969
    Commented the first Phoenician inscription known from Pergamos, on a fragment of a Greek-island marble stele (inv. 1969/XII-9/1, c. 400 BCE) acquired by the Department of Antiquities, in Karageorghis's 1969 Chronique.

    PergamosKarageorghis 1970

  3. 1969
    With O. Masson sent the Chronique a note on the Cypro-syllabic and Phoenician bilingual on a window-type limestone stele (reg. 143) found accidentally at Kaloriziki, east of Kourion; the lower part is damaged.

    KourionKarageorghis 1970

  4. 1972
    Published with Olivier Masson Recherches sur les Phéniciens à Chypre (Geneva and Paris), the standard collection of the Phoenician inscriptions of Cyprus; cited for Kition's temple tariffs and other Kition texts.

    Hermary et al. 2010, p. 13Karageorghis 1976, nn. 18

  5. 1981
    Two-week tour of all the archaeological sites of Cyprus with Masson, in the car of J.-C. Courtois; several days at Palaepaphos as guests of F. G. Maier, lodging in Kouklia village, to check original inscriptions.

    CyprusSznycer 2001, p. xviiiMaier 1997

  6. 1981
    Commented a Phoenician inscription painted on a White Painted IV jug (inv. 1981/XII-14/6) in the 1981 Chronique.

    Karageorghis 1982

  7. 1983
    Contributed the 'Note sur l'inscription gravée sur une cruche de la tombe 69' to Karageorghis's Palaepaphos-Skales: the circular signs (23 visible) are enigmatic and not securely Phoenician; studied from the vase in the Nicosia museum and photographs.

    PalaepaphosKarageorghis 1983, p. 416

  8. 1985
    Noted a Phoenician graffito (a fuller's name, in his reading) on a Rhodian-type amphora at the 1984 excavations (P.M. 2691/1), and, with D. Michaelides, published a Phoenician graffito from Tomb 103/84 at Nea Paphos (RDAC 1985).

    Nea PaphosKarageorghis 1985Hermary et al. 2010, p. 15

  9. 1991
    With Marguerite Yon published the royal Phoenician inscription of Milkyaton, king of Kition, a trophy of victory (early 4th century BCE), CRAI 1991 and RDAC 1992; he called it one of the three finest inscriptions of his life.

    LarnacaHermary et al. 2010, pp. 13

  10. 1991–2010
    At the invitation of Maria Hadjicosti, studied the Phoenician ink ostraka (several hundred) from her Idalion excavations, remnants of an economic archive of the Kition kings' administrative and craft centre; left unfinished, with a short account in CCEC 34 (2004).

    IdalionHermary et al. 2010, pp. 13-14

  11. 2010
    Died; obituary by Hermary, Yon and Caubet in CCEC 40.

    Hermary et al. 2010, p. 13

Connections

10 people
Jacques-Claude CourtoisVassos KarageorghisOlivier MassonMarguerite YonMaria HadjicostiLaurent DuboisEmilia MassonAndré Dupont-SommerFranz Georg MaierM. G. Guzzo AmadasiMaurice Sznycer
FieldworkScholarshipColleagues

Fieldwork & employment

Scholarship

Colleagues & contacts

Sources

  1. 1.A. Hermary, M. Yon, A. Caubet (2010). “In memoriam Maurice Sznycer (1921-2010)”. Cahiers du Centre d'Études Chypriotes 40, 13-16. Online
  2. 2.V. Karageorghis (1970). “Chronique des fouilles et découvertes archéologiques à Chypre en 1969”. Bulletin de correspondance hellénique 94.
  3. 3.V. Karageorghis (1982). “Chronique des fouilles et découvertes archéologiques à Chypre en 1981”. Bulletin de correspondance hellénique 106.
  4. 4.V. Karageorghis (1985). “Chronique des fouilles et découvertes archéologiques à Chypre en 1984”. Bulletin de correspondance hellénique 109.
  5. 5.V. Karageorghis (1983). Palaepaphos-Skales: An Iron Age Cemetery in Cyprus.
  6. 6.V. Karageorghis (1976). Kition: Mycenaean and Phoenician Discoveries in Cyprus. London, Thames and Hudson.
  7. 7.Maurice Sznycer (2001). “Olivier Masson (1922-1997) - un tribute”. Cyprus in the 19th Century AD: Fact, Fancy and Fiction, xv-xviii. Oxford, Oxbow.
  8. 8.F. G. Maier (1997). “A hundred years after Hogarth: Digging at Aphrodite's Sanctuary at Palaipaphos”. Cahiers du Centre d'Études Chypriotes 27, 127-136. Online
  9. 9.O. Masson, M. Sznycer (1972). Recherches sur les Phéniciens à Chypre. Geneva and Paris.
  10. 10.M. Sznycer (1983). “Note sur l'inscription gravée sur une cruche de la tombe 69 de Palaepaphos-Skales”. Palaepaphos-Skales, 416-417.
  11. 11.M. Sznycer (2004). “Idalion, capitale économique des rois phéniciens de Kition et d'Idalion”. Cahiers du Centre d'Études Chypriotes 34, 85-100.
  12. 12.Marguerite Yon, Maurice Sznycer (1991). “Une inscription phénicienne royale de Kition (Chypre)”. Comptes rendus de l'Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, 791-823.