going to answer myself.  as of hive3, its not yet possible to directly bulk load external datasets (e.g. parquet / orc) files. so its necessary to do the following.  create temporary managed hive table LOAD DATA INPATH the parquet / orc / csv into the temporary managed hive table create external table as iceberg.  Select * and copy into the external iceberg table this has worked with the following iceberg features.  write, append, time-travel ... View more