Maroni: the British Museum excavations of 1897

In November 1897 H. B. Walters opened tombs at Maroni-Tsaroukkas for the British Museum. The team found some 90 or more Mycenaean vases or part vases and two Late Minoan III vases^1,2. Walters was Superintendent of the excavations, and Percy Christian assisted him^1,3. The main work at Tsaroukkas is reported for 3 to 24 November, and the Maroni work as a whole for November and December 1897; Steel gives 1897 to 1898^4,5. A workforce of 60 to 80 men is reported for the broader Maroni investigation⁴.

The project sought tombs at a site where, it was anticipated, Maroni would be another Enkomi⁴. Steel judges that in many ways the excavations resembled little more than a hunt for finds⁵. Besides the cemetery, the team made trial digs at Maroni-Vournes⁴. Walters described the Tsaroukkas tombs as Bronze Age or Mycenaean; later study places the cemetery within the Late Cypriot period^4,5. His report lists Mycenaean vases, local Base-ring and White Slip pottery, and gold and porcelain objects¹. Tomb 5 held a plain gold diadem; Tomb 18 a porcelain bowl with Egyptian designs and a large vase fragment with figures of stags¹. Tomb 22 yielded a terracotta bull in Base-ring ware, and Tomb 25 three twisted gold rings and two porcelain bowls¹.

Manning and Monks report that Walters's map showed 28 numbered positions, while his notes list 26 tombs from Site A with Aegean imports and mention further openings judged unproductive; the map has no scale and is difficult to align with later excavation⁴. Steel notes that only 26 tombs were listed and that others containing local Late Cypriot wares or fragmentary remains went unrecorded⁵. A fair share of the gold ornaments and a representative collection of pottery was allotted to the Cyprus Museum, and objects marked with an asterisk in Walters's catalogue were separated from their tomb groups and transferred to the British Museum¹. Walters's report and catalogue were published in the Catalogue of the Cyprus Museum of 1899¹.