1951

The University of Pennsylvania Museum's expedition to Curium in Cyprus began under the directorship of Mr. Bert Hodge Hill in the Spring of 1934 and has been continued intermittently with a break during the war until the present time. The field director, Mr. Hill, was for a period of 20 years director of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens. Other initial members of the expedition were George McFadden, then a graduate student at Pennsylvania, now acting field director, and third to join the staff was the late Pete(John Franklin) Daniel, then a student at the American School at Athens. George McFadden, a Lt. Commander in the Navy during the war, skippered a schooner with a Greek crew for the Maritime Unit of OSS on special operations in the eastern Mediterranean. Pete Daniel, a colonel in OSS with a distinguished record, died suddenly in Turkey while prospecting for a new site there in 1947. He is buried in the village cemetery of Episkopi near the ancient site of Curium where the expedition has its headquarters. Mr. Hill, though now executive director of the Fulbright Fund in Athens is able to visit the site once or twice a year and to give members invaluable help and [handwritten: direction].

Excavations began on the city site of Curium occupying the top of a high bluff overlooking the sea about 10 miles west of the modern town of Limassol. Once an important city it is now mainly pasture land for the sheep and goats that wander over the mounds that cover its ancient dwellings. During the first two seasons parts of a large early Christian basilica was uncovered in the … continues