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I.—The First Season's Work. Preliminary Narrative
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 December 2013
Extract
The movement in favour of organised research in Cyprus which, originating in the latter part of the summer of 1887, led before the end of the year to the formation of a Fund directed by a Committee comprising all those who are most prominent in supporting the study of Classical Archaeology in this country, has been set forth already in circulars and reports, and needs only a brief allusion here in order to explain the causes and conditions of our subsequent work at Old Paphos and other sites in the winter and spring of this year. In the early mouths of 1887, Dr. F. H. H. Guillemard, the well-known traveller and ornithologist, spent a considerable time in Cyprus, and in the less known parts of the island saw and heard so much of continual discoveries, legitimate and illegitimate, that, on his return to England, he lost no time in pressing the desirability of sending an expedition on many who were interested in matters archaeological, with the result that the University of Cambridge took into consideration the question of making a grant from the Worts Travelling Bachelor's Fund for that purpose. The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies was also sounded, and many circumstances conspired to induce their favourable consideration for such a proposal. Besides the valuable information communicated by Dr. Guillemard, it was known that the High Commissioner of Cyprus had resolved for sufficient reasons, which need not be detailed here, to discountenance in future all private exploration in the island, but at the same time had declared his willingness to help any work organised and conducted by a recognised scientific body: it resulted therefore that, unless such bodies undertook the task, no one would attempt to solve the many problems connected with the island for some years to come.
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- Copyright © The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies 1888
References
page 149 note 1 See the Circular put out by the Committee of the Fund in the autumn of 1887, and the recently published Report.
page 151 note 1 I had reason to know later that our decision was a fortunate one. Besides the difficulty of negotiations for land held, as is the Lapithos site, by an episcopal see, I am bound to say that after a most careful examination of the ruins in the month of July I could see no spot which looked like repaying excavation. The character of the masonry is most inferior, the rock is never far from the surface, the tombs are all rifled, and there are no traces of any one building of importance.
page 151 note 2 See his Cyprus, pp. 207 foll.
page 157 note 1 A scientific description of these is given by Dr.Dümmler, , Mittheil. d. d. Inst. Athen. 1886, p. 209.Google Scholar
page 158 note 1 We had been informed through a very indirect channel that the Royal Archaeological Institute of Berlin had formed a definite plan or excavation at Kuklia in the coming autumn. Had we discovered this to be the case we should of course have yielded in their favour and selected another site, but, as we could hear of no sort of preparation having been made, and the rumour being excessively vague and untrustworthy, we persevered with our original intention. As a matter of fact the subject of Cyprus had been discussed at Berlin together with other likely fields of operation, but indefinitely postponed for want of opportunity and funds.
page 160 note 1 Sammlung der Griech. Dialekt-Inschriften. I. Nos. 38. 39. De Vogué Mélanges d' Archéologie orientale, p. 96. Pl. iii.
page 160 note 2 See the general plan of the district, Pl. VII. for these tomb sites.
page 160 note 3 See De Vogué loc. cit.
page 161 note 1 The ‘right of excavation’ is obtained by contract with the proprietor of the land, who, in return for a sum of money down, and compensation for crops and walls which may be destroyed by the excavator not only lets his land to the latter, but agrees to renounce all claim to whatever may be unearthed in it. Thus the excavator will obtain two-thirds of the find, paying only a third over to the Government, as enjoined by the Ottoman Code.
page 162 note 1 No. 13 in the list of Inscriptions.
page 163 note 1 The jewellery from this series of tombs fell, in the division of spoil, to the share of the Government. The glass I brought home. As a separate account is to be given of the tombs at Paphos, I need not be more precise as to their character and contents.
page 164 note 1 It is safe to say that no pedestal which we found upon the Temple was in situ. They had either been thrown one on the top of another into pits, or used to carry later walls. In one instance they were found fitted together as if for a pavement. It looks as if the ruins had been still open and not silted up when the later building, be it monastery or farm, was erected on the site.
page 166 note 1 Of this Mr. Smith has a very good photograph.
page 166 note 2 Curiously enough the workpeople had been much excited during the morning, by having been ‘overlooked,’ as they said by the evil eye of a travelling merchant who paused on his way to watch the work: they hooted him off, and unanimously foretold evil before sunset. This was the only time this happened to my knowledge.
page 168 note 1 See Inscriptions of the Temple, No. 117.
page 171 note 1 One such group is in the British Museum.
page 173 note 1 See remarks on the Amargetti inscriptions in the article on Inscriptions.
page 173 note 2 Od. xvii. 247.
page 173 note 3 Sammlung der Griech. Dialekt-Inschri. I. Nos. 27. 28.