1958–1961

Tel. No.: Our Ref.: 55/55 Your Ref.:

Stamp: GOVERNMENT OF CYPRUS coat of arms

GOVERNMENT OF CYPRUS DEPARTMENT OF ANTIQUITIES NICOSIA.

22nd July, 1959Dear [handwritten: Roger],

I have been very remiss in not replying [handwritten: u]ntil now to your letter of [handwritten: 3]0th April about the Curium Basilica. Since I received it there have been signs of a possible improvement in the Department's finances and there are now prospects that Government funds will be available for a campaign of excavation and systematization at the Basilica,which I would undertake in October. Consequently it may not be necessary at present to take up your suggestion that the University Museum might sponsor an application so some foundation in the [handwritten: S]tates.

If [handwritten: the] Government grant comes off this will simplify the division. The University Museum is entitled to its half share of the [handwritten: C]urium Expedition's Basilica finds, and could claim a smaller share of what may now be found, based on the proportion [handwritten: of] its £200 contribution bears to the [handwritten: G]overnment contribution. The transfer of power to the Republic will not affect the division rights of excavators who have worked under permits issued by the Colonial Government, even if the ensuing Government were to change the law in this respect (which I do not expect it will do).

The Basilica finds are, I believe, the only part of the [handwritten: C]urium Expedition's finds that remain undivided (though its shares of the Sotira and Ay. Ermoyenis finds remain to be shipped on receipt of proofs of Dikaios Sotira report). I would hope to be able to make proposals for division of the Basilica finds before I leave the Island (next spring, on present calculations).

In the enclosed copy of the second edition of our Curium leaflet you will find a restored plan of the Basilica and a brief reference to it in the text. The plan is also appearing in the proceedings of the Byzantinists Congress at Munich last September.

The Curium capital (Bulletin Vol.22, No.2. p.6 fig.2, upper left) about which you sought [handwritten: my] opinion is a puzzle. I can point to no other example. Experience with [handwritten: odd] capitals at Salamis makes it worth suggesting that, like [handwritten: them], yours is unfinished; the original intention being to finish it in situ in the usual corinthian form. If this is the correct it may be relevant to add that the practice of [handwritten: e]recting stone capitals in an unfinished state was followed in the earliest building of the Roman period at the Salamis Gymnasium. For the date of this we have no clear evidence yet, though we have assigned it tentatively to Augustus, Trajans is the earliest reign for which we have epigraphic evidence of work at the Gymnasium.

[handwritten: All good wishes, in haste, Sheldon Jones Yours ever, Peter]

Roger Edwards Esq., Pensylvania University Museum, 33rd and Spruce Streets, Philadelphia 4, PA. U.S.A.