Cyprus Exploration Fund

Held no collection of its own. Its finds were divided among the Cyprus Museum, the British Museum and subscriber institutions, chiefly the Ashmolean (about 1,200 provenanced objects from the Fund's excavations) and the Fitzwilliam. (2012)

Ulbrich & Kiely 2012Childs et al. 2012

1. 16 June 1887
   High Commissioner Bulwer announces in a Minute to the Cyprus Museum Committee that excavation permits will in future go only to foreign museums and recognised antiquarian institutions, which may take a share of the finds. The Fund worked under this policy.

   Henry Ernest Gascoyne BulwerTatton-Brown 2001

2. 7 December 1887
   E. A. Gardner, Director of the British School at Athens, asks the Cyprus Government for permission for a 'tour of exploration', the start of what was called the Cyprus Exploration Fund from 1888.

   Ernest Arthur GardnerChilds et al. 2012

3. c. November 1887
   Fund founded in London in late autumn 1887 in response to Bulwer's reforms. Initial grants: Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies GBP 150, British School at Athens GBP 150, University of Cambridge GBP 150 (for M. R. James). Subscribers received shares of the finds in proportion to their contributions; the British Museum, represented on the founding committee, was understood to have first choice as the national museum.

   LondonFrancis Henry Hill GuillemardSidney ColvinAlexander Stuart MurrayEdward Maunde ThompsonFrederic LeightonG. A. MacmillanUlbrich & Kiely 2012Tatton-Brown 2001

4. 1888
   First season, January to end of May. Trial work at Leondari Vouno near Nicosia; then Kouklia (Palaepaphos: sanctuary, inscriptions, tombs from the Bronze Age to the Roman period, February to April) and Amargetti (sanctuary of Opaon Melanthios). Directed by Gardner with Hogarth, M. R. James and the architect R. Elsey Smith. The Fund bought a house and yard on the temple site from Hadji Ephraem (22 February 1888).

   Kouklia, Amargetti, Leondari VounoErnest Arthur GardnerDavid George HogarthM. R. JamesR. Elsey SmithGregorios AntoniouHadji EphraemYagob PanagiUlbrich & Kiely 2012Gardner et al. 1888

5. 1888
   After the season Hogarth travelled the island to identify further sites, especially in the Paphos district and the Karpas; published as Devia Cypria (1889). Only Salamis of the Karpas sites was later dug by the Fund (1890).

   David George HogarthUlbrich & Kiely 2012

6. 1888–1894
   Finds from the Fund's work went to the Ashmolean (about 1,200 provenanced objects, laying the foundation of its Cypriot collection), the Fitzwilliam, the British Museum and the Cyprus Museum under the Antiquities Law arrangements. A further c. 240 pieces came to the Ashmolean from the BM Trustees in recognition of Myres's work at Amathus (not a CEF find).

   Ulbrich & Kiely 2012Childs et al. 2012

7. 3 March 1888
   The Fund's constitution was printed in The Athenaeum no. 3149, 3 March 1888, p. 282 (as cited by Tatton-Brown; not read).

   Tatton-Brown 2001

8. 1889
   Second season at Marion-Arsinoe near Polis tis Chrysochou (mid-January to mid-April per Ulbrich and Kiely; 154 tombs by their count; Smith gives over 200 tombs, 165 with recorded objects), directed by Munro and Tubbs. The Fund bought out the excavation rights of the earlier private syndicate from J. W. Williamson, who helped locally. Government overseer: Sophocles Stavrinides. Followed by a dig at Limniti (temenos and favissa with terracotta figures). By April the Government gave the Fund 'first refusal of sites applied for by foreign bodies'.

   Polis tis Chrysochou, LimnitiJohn Arthur Ruskin MunroH. Arnold TubbsJohn William WilliamsonSophocles StavrinidesGregorios AntoniouH. L. ThompsonUlbrich & Kiely 2012Childs et al. 2012

9. 1889
   Reminded of Article 19 of the 1874 Ottoman Antiquities Law (no one may excavate at two points at once) when it asked to start at Limnitis before finishing at Polis.

   Tatton-Brown 2001

10. 1890
    Third season at Salamis, from January, by Munro and Tubbs with Warwick Wroth: urban area (column site/gymnasium, temple of Zeus and esplanade, Cistern, Campanopetra, Toumba sanctuary deposit), Ayios Epiphanios and western tombs. Munro then began a short second season at Marion in June (80 further tombs, per Ulbrich and Kiely).

    Salamis; MarionJohn Arthur Ruskin MunroH. Arnold TubbsWarwick WrothLefteris MichaeliPanagis Hadji TophiGiorgi CharolampouUlbrich & Kiely 2012Childs et al. 2012

11. 1890
    JHS reports published: Excavations in Cyprus 1887-88 (JHS 9, 1888), 1889 Polis and Limniti (JHS 1890), 1890 Salamis and Marion (JHS 12, 1891). Reports on Marion were schematic, with emphasis on Greek pottery, sculpture and inscriptions.

    Ulbrich & Kiely 2012

12. 1894
    The Committee offered the small balance of the Fund to the British School at Athens; used by J. L. Myres for five small excavations: Ayia Paraskevi (Nicosia, 14 tombs), Kalopsida-Tsaoudhi Chiftlik, Larnaca (Laxia tou Riou, Tourabi Tekke, Kamelarga sanctuary at Kition, Batsalos), plus Maroni-Tsaroukkas. Myres studied the finds in the Cyprus Museum and the Ashmolean; these underpin his chronological typology.

    Nicosia, Kalopsida, Larnaca, MaroniJohn Linton MyresMyres 1897Ulbrich & Kiely 2012

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