Series·Swedish Cyprus Expedition

Ayios Iakovos

86 field photographs, 172 object photographs · 1929

Site: Ayios Iakovos-Melia

This series holds 258 photographs from the Swedish Cyprus Expedition's work at Ayios Iakovos, about 22 km north of Famagusta, in 1929. Erik Sjöqvist excavated the necropolis of Melia, east of the village, where grave-robbers had already been at work: two tombs had been looted and fourteen were intact. They were rock-cut, with a stepped dromos and an irregular vaulted chamber, and ran from Middle Cypriot III to Late Cypriot II. While looking for the settlement, the expedition found a Bronze Age sanctuary at Dhima, north of the village, with a large terracotta basin. Melia here should not be confused with Milia, a different site north-west of Famagusta.

The 86 field photographs are mostly of the tombs: chambers with skeletons and grave goods, Sjöqvist cleaning a skeleton and standing in the dromos of Tomb 8, and John Lindros with the skulls from that tomb. A few show the landscape around the village. The 172 object photographs show the pottery and other finds by A.J. number (A.J. 6.136 is Tomb 6, object 136), much of it Black Slip and Plain White Wheel-made ware.

The tombs and the Dhima cult places were published in the first volume of the expedition's report. See the tomb pages for Tomb 6 and Tomb 8, the excavation page, and the notebooks DII:2c and DII:2e.

Sources

Gjerstad, E., Lindros, J., Sjöqvist, E. and Westholm, A. 1934. The Swedish Cyprus Expedition: Finds and Results of the Excavations in Cyprus 1927–1931, vol. I. Stockholm, pp. xviii, 302–370.
Göransson, K. 2012. 'The Swedish Cyprus Expedition, the Cyprus collections in Stockholm and the Swedish excavations after the SCE'. Cahiers du Centre d'Études Chypriotes 42, p. 403.
Karageorghis, V. et al. 2003. The Cyprus Collections in the Medelhavsmuseet. Nicosia, p. 24.