Cyprus Museum

Last updated
The Cyprus Museum
Κυπριακό Μουσείο Kıbrıs Müzesi
Nicosia 01-2017 img28 Cyprus Museum.jpg
Building of the Cyprus Museum in Nicosia
Cyprus Museum
Established1882
Location1 Museum Street, Nicosia, Cyprus
TypeArchaeological
CuratorMs. Eftychia Zachariou
Website www.mcw.gov.cy/da

The Cyprus Museum (also known as the Cyprus Archaeological Museum) is the oldest and largest archaeological museum in Cyprus.

Contents

The museum houses artifacts discovered during numerous excavations on the island. The museum is home to the most extensive collection of Cypriot antiquities in the world and is located on Museum Street in central Nicosia. Its history goes hand in hand with the course of modern archaeology (and the Department of Antiquities) in Cyprus. Of note is that only artefacts discovered on the island are displayed.

History

As an institution, the Cyprus Museum was founded in 1882 during the British occupation of the island following a petition by the Cypriot people. This makes the museum 139 years old. The petition was delivered to the British administration by a delegation headed by the religious leaders of both the Christian and Muslim populations. [1] A major catapult for this action were several illicit excavations and the smuggling of antiquities off the island. The most extensive of these had been carried out a few years earlier by the United States Ambassador, Luigi Palma di Cesnola, who had smuggled over 35,000 artefacts off the island, most of which were destroyed in transit. Many of the surviving items ended up in the newly formed Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and are currently on display in their own galleries on the second floor. [2]

The initial museum was funded by private donations and was temporarily housed in existing governmental offices. It moved to its own premises in 1889 on Victoria Street within the medieval walls of the city. Construction of the current building began in 1908 and was completed in 1924. [3] It was originally dedicated to the memory of the British monarch, Queen Victoria. It was designed by the architect N. Balanos of the Archaeological Society of Athens and construction was supervised by George H. Everett Jeffery then curator of the museum. [4] In 1961 a second set of galleries, storerooms and offices was completed. It published the Cyprus Museum Annual Report. [5]

Collections

Chalcolithic cruciform figurines found in Lemba. These are made from picrolite and on display in Gallery 1. Cypriot Cruciform Figurines in Cyprus Museum.JPG
Chalcolithic cruciform figurines found in Lemba. These are made from picrolite and on display in Gallery 1.

Soon after its inception, the museum started receiving items from the numerous excavations on the island, mainly run by British and European expeditions. Indicative are the annual excavation reports published in The Journal of Hellenic Studies from 1890 onwards. [7] The first organised catalogue was soon compiled and published in 1899 by Sir John Myres and Max Ohnefalsch-Richter. [8] The collections of the museum were greatly augmented by the first large scale systematic excavations carried out by the Swedish Cyprus Expedition between 1927 and 1931 under the direction of professor Einar Gjerstad. [9]

Today, the Cyprus Museum remains the principal show-piece for finds preceding independence (1960). [10] It also houses the most important recent acquisitions. Recent years have seen a progressive decentralization of Cyprus's museum collections and most finds from current excavations are deposited in the local district museums. [11] The museum consists of fourteen display halls surrounding a square central area which comprises auxiliary offices, a library, storerooms and laboratories for preserving and studying items in the collection. The displays in each hall follow a chronological and a thematical succession starting from the Neolithic period and ending with the Roman period.

Future

The museum collection has far outgrown the capacity of the existing buildings so much so that only a small fraction is on display at any point in time. With several ongoing excavations and constant new finds, the issue of relocation to more spacious premises has been raised but a suitable site has yet to be decided on. There have been suggestions that the nearby and now demolished building of the Nicosia Old General Hospital [12] be redeveloped, whilst there have also been plans to create a new museum as part of a new larger cultural centre at the site of the old GSP stadium. [13]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Prehistoric archaeology</span> Archaeological discipline

Prehistoric archaeology is a subfield of archaeology, which deals specifically with artefacts, civilisations and other materials from societies that existed before any form of writing system or historical record. Often the field focuses on ages such as the Stone Age, Bronze Age and Iron Age, although it also encompasses periods such as the Neolithic. The study of prehistoric archaeology reflects the cultural concerns of modern society by showing interpretations of time between economic growth and political stability. It is related to other disciplines such as geology, biology, anthropology, historiography and palaeontology, although there are noticeable differences between the subjects they all broadly study to understand; the past, either organic or inorganic or the lives of humans. Prehistoric archaeology is also sometimes termed as anthropological archaeology because of its indirect traces with complex patterns.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nicholson Museum</span> Archaeological museum in New South Wales, Australia

The Nicholson Museum was an archaeological museum at the University of Sydney home to the Nicholson Collection, the largest collection of antiquities in both Australia and the Southern Hemisphere. Founded in 1860, the collection spans the ancient world with primary collection areas including ancient Egypt, Greece, Italy, Cyprus, and the Near East. The museum closed permanently in February 2020, and the Nicholson Collection is now housed in the Chau Chak Wing Museum at the University of Sydney, open from November 2020. The museum was located in the main quadrangle of the University.

Sir John Linton Myres OBE FBA FRAI was a British archaeologist and academic, who conducted excavations in Cyprus during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joan du Plat Taylor</span> British archaeologist

Joan Mabel Frederica du Plat Taylor FSA was a British archaeologist and pioneer of underwater nautical archaeology.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marion, Cyprus</span>

Marion was one of the Ten city-kingdoms of Cyprus. It was situated in the north-west of the island in the Akamas region, close to or under the present town of Polis. Both Strabo and Pliny the Elder mention the city in their writings.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joan Breton Connelly</span> Archaeologist and academic

Joan Breton Connelly is an American classical archaeologist and Professor of Classics and Art History at New York University. She is Director of the Yeronisos Island Excavations and Field School in Cyprus. Connelly was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship in 1996. She received the Archaeological Institute of America Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching Award in 2007 and held the Lillian Vernon Chair for Teaching Excellence at New York University from 2002 to 2004. She is an Honorary Citizen of the Municipality of Peyia, Republic of Cyprus.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tenta, Cyprus</span> Aceramic Neolithic settlement

Tenta, also referred to as Kalavasos-Tenta or Tenda, is an Aceramic Neolithic settlement located in modern Kalavasos near the southern coast of Cyprus. The settlement is approximately 38 kilometres southwest of Larnaca and approximately 45 kilometres south of Nicosia. Tenta occupies a small natural hill on the west side of the Vasilikos valley, close to the Nicosia–Limassol highway.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kition</span> Ancient Helleno-Phoenician city in Cyprus

Kition was an Ancient Greek city-kingdom on the southern coast of Cyprus, one of the Ten city-kingdoms of Cyprus. According to the text on the plaque closest to the excavation pit of the Kathari site, it was established in the 13th century BC by Greek (Achaean) settlers, after the Trojan War.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pitcairn Island Museum</span> History museum in Pitcairn Island

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Winifred Lamb</span> British art historian

Winifred Lamb was a British archaeologist, art historian, and museum curator who specialised in Greek, Roman, and Anatolian cultures and artefacts. The bulk of her career was spent as the honorary keeper (curator) of Greek antiquities at the University of Cambridge's Fitzwilliam Museum from 1920 to 1958, and the Fitzwilliam Museum states that she was a "generous benefactor ... raising the profile of the collections through groundbreaking research, acquisitions and publications."

Ayios Andreas or Tophane is a Neighbourhood, Quarter, Mahalla or Parish of Nicosia, Cyprus. In September 1945, the Ottoman name of Tophane was changed to Ayios Andreas, but there is no parish church of that name.

Vassos Karageorghis FBA was a Cypriot archaeologist and director of the Department of Antiquities, Cyprus.

The archaeology of Cyprus involves the analysis of human activity derived from Cypriot artefacts and architecture from the Neolithic through to the British period. The earliest archaeological discoveries in Cyprus are attributed to European amateur collectors or “treasure hunters” during the early 19th century. By the mid 19th century, systematic fieldwork and excavations were conducted on various sites involving studying the remains of Cypriot cemeteries and tombs, maritime artefacts, architecture, pottery as well as a range of other individual artefacts. Subsequent findings and analysis detail the social and physical landscapes of ancient Cyprus as well as their evolving culture, religious beliefs and technology throughout antiquity.

Porphyrios Dikaios FSA was a Cypriot archaeologist born in Nicosia.

Claude Delaval Cobham was a British Colonial official in Cyprus from 1878 to 1908, from 1879 until 1907 he acted as the District Commissioner of Larnaca.

Max Ohnefalsch-Richter was a German archaeologist and antiquities seller. He was born in Saxony in 1850 and arrived in British occupied Cyprus in 1878 to work as a journalist, in the following year he worked for the British Colonial government and the British Museum in carrying out excavations on behalf of Sir Charles Newton as well as private individuals. The discovered material was later sold to various European museums as well as in public auctions. In 1910, he was caught smuggling antiquities outside of Cyprus and was banned from carrying out further excavations. He carried out a number of excavations in Cyprus, at the sites of Idalion, Politiko and Tamassos. Together with John Myres he published a catalogue of the Cyprus Museum in 1899. He was the editor of two journals, The Owl. Science, Literature and Art (1888-1889) and The Journal of Cypriote Studies, with only one issue in 1889.

Menelaos Markides was a Cypriot archaeologist and the first curator of the Cyprus Museum (1912-1931).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kition Necropolis Phoenician inscriptions</span>

The Kition Necropolis Phoenician inscriptions are four Phoenician inscriptions discovered in the necropolis of Tourapi at Kition in 1894 by British archaeologist John Myres on behalf of the Cyprus Exploration Fund.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Solomon Islands National Museum</span> Museum in Honiara, Solomon Islands

The Solomon Islands National Museum is the national museum of the Solomon Islands and is located in Honiara. It is a department of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism.

Theophilus Amin Halil Mogabgab or Moghabghab M.B.E. OStJ was a Cypriot government official, topographer, designer and scholar of Lebanese Christian descent.

References

  1. "Historical background of the Cyprus Department of Antiquities". Department of Antiquities. Retrieved 2007-04-17.
  2. Markides, Constantine (August 13, 2006). "Taking stock of our stolen past". Archaeology News. Archived from the original on January 12, 2008. Retrieved 2007-04-17.
  3. "Culture Spot Museums Directory". CultureSpot. 2 August 2023.
  4. Κυπριακό Μουσείο, Λευκωσία. Cyprus Department of Antiquities (in Greek). Retrieved 2007-04-17.
  5. Merrillees, Robert Stuart (2005). "Towards a fuller history of the Cyprus Museum". Cahiers du Centre d'Etudes Chypriotes (in French). 35 (1): 191–214. doi:10.3406/cchyp.2005.1482. ISSN   0761-8271.
  6. Vagnetti, Lucia (May–August 1991). "Stone Sculpture in Chalcolithic Cyprus". Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research. No. 282/283 (282): 139–151. doi:10.2307/1357267. JSTOR   1357267.
  7. Munro, J. A. R.; Tubbs H. A. (1890). "Excavations in Cyprus, 1889. Second Season's Work.-Polis tes Chrysochou.-Limniti". The Journal of Hellenic Studies. 11: 1–99. doi:10.2307/623412. JSTOR   623412.
  8. Myres, John; M.Ohnefalsch-Richter (1899). A catalogue of the Cyprus Museum with a chronicle of excavations undertaken since the British occupation and introductory notes on Cypriot Archaeology. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
  9. Karageorghis, Vassos (1989). The Cyprus Museum. C. Epiphaniou Publications. ISBN   9963-576-06-0.
  10. Gaber, Pamela (1989). "The Museums of Cyprus" (PDF). Biblical Archaeologist. 52 (4): 170–177. doi:10.2307/3210134. JSTOR   3210134. Archived from the original (PDF) on July 14, 2006. Retrieved 2007-04-25.
  11. Herscher, Ellen (April 1995). "Archaeology in Cyprus". American Journal of Archaeology. 99 (2): 257–294. doi:10.2307/506341. JSTOR   506341 . Retrieved 2007-04-25.
  12. Christou, Jean (December 12, 2006). "Deputies question cash for hospital conversion". Cyprus Mail . Archived from the original on September 27, 2007. Retrieved 2007-04-17.
  13. Leonidou, John (October 15, 2006). "'Hall of Culture' to back shelf museum and theatre plans". Cyprus Mail . Archived from the original on September 27, 2007. Retrieved 2007-04-25.

35°10′18″N33°21′19″E / 35.17167°N 33.35528°E / 35.17167; 33.35528