Ancient CyprusAncient Cyprus

Archaeologist · Scholar

Miranda C. Marvin

fl. 1971–1974

Wellesley College archaeologist who supervised the East Terrace at Idalion in 1971 and 1973 and wrote the history of the site for the first preliminary report.

Biography

Miranda C. Marvin of Wellesley College began work on the East Terrace at Idalion in 1971, as a field supervisor of the American Expedition to Idalion directed by G. Ernest Wright, with Lawrence Stager and Anita Walker as field directors. In 1972 she was absent, and Ralph Doermann of the Evangelical Lutheran Theological Seminary, Columbus, Ohio, took over the terrace1. She appears again as field supervisor for 19733. The notice of that season, from 10 June to 11 August, is signed by Walker and Marvin and reports a survey within a mile of Idalion, work on the city wall and the Lower City houses, and the start of ethnographic work in Dhali village5.

For the first preliminary report she wrote the history of the site, which reviews earlier work at Idalion and the city's history2. On the coinage she holds that the last independent king's issues, abbreviated Sa---, belong to Stasikypros, and she discusses when Kition under 'Oziba'al conquered the city. Gjerstad had dated the conquest to about 470 BCE and linked the unsuccessful siege in the bronze tablet to the Ionian revolt1. The 1989 Idalion volume cites her for the mid-fifth-century date of the attack by "Medes and Kitians" and for what the tablet shows of Idalion's political structure3.

Life and work

  1. 1971
    Began the work on the East Terrace at Idalion as Field Supervisor in the first season of the joint expedition (excavations began August 1971).

    IdalionStager et al. 1974, p. xviStager et al. 1974, p. xxii

  2. 1972
    Absent from the 1972 season (the report calls it her 'enforced absence'); Ralph Doermann took over the East Terrace work.

    IdalionStager et al. 1974, p. xvi

  3. 1973
    Listed as Field Supervisor (1973) in the staff list for the 1973-1980 seasons; the AIA season notice for 1973 (10 June to 11 August) is signed jointly by Anita Walker (Connecticut) and Miranda Marvin (Wellesley).

    IdalionStager & Walker 1989Walker & Marvin 1974, p. 24

  4. 1974
    Wrote Part 2, 'History of the Site of Idalion', of the Introduction to the first preliminary report (pp. xxii-xxviii): earlier explorers, the city's name, the coinage of the Idalion kings and the bronze tablet of Stasikypros, and the debate over the date of the Kition conquest.

    Stager et al. 1974, p. xxiiStager & Walker 1989

Connections

2 people

Scholarship

Colleagues & contacts

Sources

  1. 1.L. E. Stager (ed.), A. Walker (ed.), G. E. Wright (ed.) (1974). American Expedition to Idalion, Cyprus: First Preliminary Report, Seasons of 1971 and 1972. American Schools of Oriental Research.
  2. 2.M. Marvin (1974). “History of the Site of Idalion”. American Expedition to Idalion, Cyprus: First Preliminary Report, Seasons of 1971 and 1972, xxii-xxviii.
  3. 3.Lawrence E. Stager (ed.), Anne M. Walker (ed.) (1989). American Expedition to Idalion, Cyprus, 1973-1980. Chicago, Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago.
  4. 4.Pamela Gaber (2008). “The History of History: Excavations at Idalion and the Changing History of a City-Kingdom”. Near Eastern Archaeology 71. Online
  5. 5.A. Walker, M. Marvin (1974). “Joint American Expedition to Idalion, Cyprus, 1973 Season”. American Journal of Archaeology, 24.