Kourion: Vicomte de Castillon de Saint-Victor's excavations for the French Government

When Vicomte Eugène de Castillon de Saint-Victor, French consul in Cyprus, dug at Kourion in the winter of 1886 to 1887, the campaign initially aimed at verifying Luigi Palma di Cesnola's claim to have discovered underground chambers there with the notorious "Curium Treasure"¹. Schmid reports that Castillon must have obtained a permit on behalf of either the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs or the Ministry of Public Instruction and Fine Arts¹; the Cyprus Museum catalogue gives the work as done for the French Government². Theocharis Koutsocheris was guide and assistant, and Masson says he had shown Castillon the chambers earlier in 1886³.

Masson says Castillon made a plan locating the alleged chamber centre relative to the east gate of Curium and the church of Ayios Ermoyenis³. His published report, written in January 1887, chiefly describes, in Masson's reading, a series of wells and tombs of generally secondary interest and gives no specific description of the chambers³. Buitron-Oliver notes that missions sent out by the French found nothing closely matching Cesnola's account of the treasure chambers, while the tombs below the city held much rich material⁴. Kiely and Merrillees say Castillon recorded some tombs with attention to archaeological context⁵.

Two figurine-jugs came from tomb XV, a figurine and a Bichrome Red III (VI) jug according to Vandenabeele; both are now in the Musée du Louvre⁶. Buitron-Oliver reports that Castillon found a Classical-period tomb with gold and silver jewellery and Athenian red-figure bell-kraters, one inscribed with the name Megakles⁴. The Louvre catalogue attributes to the excavations a gold and red-glass ring (AM 345), a gold and cornelian ring (AM 344) and a pair of gold earrings (AM 359), with a donation recorded in 1891⁷. The Cyprus Museum catalogue lists jewellery (C.M. 4251 to 4253) and some glass (for example C.M. 2536) among the results and says the glass was allotted to that museum².

Masson refers to an earlier report on the chambers that Castillon said he sent to the French Minister of Foreign Affairs on 31 May 1886, and states that he could not find it³. Castillon's report to the Minister of Public Instruction and Fine Arts appeared in 1891 in the Nouvelles Archives des Missions scientifiques et littéraires⁸.