Ancient CyprusAncient Cyprus

Museum

Nicholson Museum

Sydney, Australia · founded 1860

Museum in Sydney, founded 1860; part of University of Sydney. 22 people in the register connected with it.

The Cypriot collection

over 1500 Cypriot items (2012); 'a couple of thousand items' (2017); the largest collection of Cypriot material in the southern hemisphere (2017)

Barker 2012, p. 12Barker & Merrillees 2017

History

  1. 1860
    Museum founded on the Sydney campus from the benefaction of Sir Charles Nicholson, as a teaching collection of Etruscan, Greek, Roman and Egyptian antiquities.

    Sir Charles NicholsonBarker & Merrillees 2017Barker 2012, p. 12

  2. by 1898
    Mycenaean IIIC:1 squat jar NM 98.02, said to be from Cyprus, presented by Nicholson after his initial gift and before 1898; described as the earliest Cypriot antiquity in the collection if its provenance is accurate.

    Sir Charles NicholsonBarker & Merrillees 2017Barker 2012, p. 12

  3. 1926–1927
    Honorary Curator W. J. Woodhouse, after a letter via Art and Archaeology, raised a fund and bought from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which was then selling part of the Cesnola collection, 23 Cypriot objects (glass, pottery, sculpture, terracottas) for $290.70 (equal to GBP 60 after a 15 per cent institutional discount from $342). Letters of 5 January 1927 signed by Gisela Richter; a 24th piece (NM48.268) came with them. The authors call it the first large-scale collecting of Cypriot antiquities by the museum.

    New YorkWilliam John WoodhouseGisela Marie Augusta RichterLuigi Palma di CesnolaBarker & Merrillees 2017

  4. 1926–1946
    Move of the collection into the southern wing of the Quadrangle Building (completed by 5 October 1926); accessioning of material acquired before the war was delayed by staffing and budget shortages until the post-war years and the first full stocktake in the 1960s, so the 1927 Cesnola items received 48 and 62/64 numbers decades later and some were wrongly given 47 (Cambridge Loan) numbers.

    Barker & Merrillees 2017

  5. 1937–1938
    J. R. B. Stewart excavated Tombs 80-164 (Site A) at Bellapais-Vounous under the auspices of the British School at Athens; a substantial part of the finds ended up in the Nicholson Museum and other Australian collections (published later, with the finds traced, by Dunn-Vaturi 2003).

    Bellapais-VounousJames Rivers Barrington StewartAnne-Elizabeth Dunn-VaturiBarker 2012

  6. 1945
    First edition of the Handbook to the Nicholson Museum, describing three Cesnola-purchase glass vases and three limestone pieces displayed together in Case P3 and a photograph of the Cypriot case.

    Barker & Merrillees 2017

  7. 1946–1947
    At Trendall's instigation, and with A. W. Lawrence arranging it, a permanent loan of Cypriot material from the Fitzwilliam Museum, the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology and the Museum of Classical Archaeology, Cambridge, after plans for a Cambridge museum of Cypriot antiquities had failed. Six cases arrived on SS Taranaki in October 1947. At least 160 items per Barker 2012; the Nicholson file list has 195. Stewart chose pieces to fill gaps. Sources include Cyprus Exploration Fund excavations, Ohnefalsch-Richter's Tamassos finds via Bulwer, the Ransom gift of 1923 and the Lawrence-Cesnola sales of 1883-1892.

    Arthur Dale TrendallA. W. LawrenceJames Rivers Barrington StewartFrank RansomHenry Ernest Gascoyne BulwerMax Ohnefalsch-RichterBarker & Merrillees 2017Barker 2012

  8. 1948
    Second edition of the Handbook to the Nicholson Museum (Trendall and Stewart), with Stewart's illustrated sections on the Near East and Cyprus.

    Arthur Dale TrendallJames Rivers Barrington StewartBarker 2012

  9. 1949–1951
    University of Sydney-Ashmolean Museum Myrtou-Pighades Expedition (directors Joan du Plat Taylor and Veronica Seton-Williams); Stewart obtained additional University of Sydney funding and the Nicholson Museum was allocated pottery from the courtyard and several rooms.

    Myrtou-PigadhesJoan du Plat TaylorVeronica Seton-WilliamsJames Rivers Barrington StewartBarker 2012

  10. July–August 1951
    Hennessy excavated the cemetery at Stephania under the Ashmolean Museum-Sydney University Expedition to Cyprus, costs borne by the University of Sydney and the Australian Institute of Archaeology, Melbourne. Sydney received material from Tombs 3, 5, 9, 10 and metal from Tomb 14; the Cyprus Museum kept Tombs 4, 7 and 12; the Australian Institute of Archaeology took Tombs 6, 13 and 14. Published by Hennessy in 1964.

    Myrtou-StephaniaBasil HennessyJames Rivers Barrington StewartBarker 2012

  11. 1953
    Exchange with Stanford University: at least five Mycenaean pieces (NM53.21-25) said to be from Alambra, from the portion of Luigi Palma di Cesnola's collection that Leland Stanford sen. bought from the Metropolitan Museum in 1896. Trendall reported the arrival on 6 October 1953; what was sent in return is not recorded, and the Alambra provenance is called problematic.

    Arthur Dale TrendallLeland StanfordLuigi Palma di CesnolaBarker & Merrillees 2017

  12. 1954–1962
    J. R. B. Stewart, Honorary Curator; the bulk of the Cypriot collection was acquired during the late 1940s and 1950s under his supervision, including his purchases from dealers and gifts from his own collection.

    James Rivers Barrington StewartBarker & Merrillees 2017Barker 2012

  13. 1955
    Division of the Kouklia (Liverpool) Expedition finds: the Expedition's share went to Britain except Asproyi Tomb IV, allocated to the Nicholson Museum in consideration of financial support from Sydney University and shipped to Australia in 1955 before more than a superficial inventory had been made. Catling later tried in vain to recover the excavation records; some metal objects stayed in Nicosia and some alabaster pieces went to St Andrews.

    Kouklia-AsproyiHector CatlingJames Rivers Barrington StewartCatling 2020Barker 2012

  14. 1955
    Melbourne Cyprus Expedition (Stewart, nominally sponsored by the University of Melbourne, funded by Stewart): Vasilia-Kafkallia (Tomb 1 material in the Nicholson) and rescue excavations at Nicosia-Ayia Paraskevi (Nicholson received Epaminondas Street Tomb 1, Theophanides Street Tomb 9 and 22 MC II-III vessels from Gladstone Street).

    Vasilia-KafkalliaJames Rivers Barrington StewartBarker 2012

  15. 1960
    Stewart presented fragments of an amphoroid krater (NM 60.57) from the looted Stephania Tomb 2 (found 1950).

    Myrtou-StephaniaJames Rivers Barrington StewartBarker 2012

  16. 1961
    Stewart acquired in Cyprus from dealers a substantial group of Iron Age vases on behalf of the Friends of the Nicholson Museum (including pieces from Dhenia); item 61.81 'said from Yalia'.

    James Rivers Barrington StewartBarker 2012

  17. 1961
    Stewart's last Cyprus season at Karmi-Palealona and Karmi-Lapatsa with students and the museum's conservator Derek Howlett; finds include the 'Tomb of the Seafarer' (Palealona 6). Material scattered across collections; Karmi material later given to the Nicholson by Basil Hennessy (2010).

    KarmiJames Rivers Barrington StewartDorothy Evelyn Stewart (née Dray)Derek HowlettRobert Stuart MerrilleesMary-Ann MeagherBarker 2012

  18. 9 April 1962 – 19 April 1962
    Memorial exhibition at the War Memorial Gallery after Stewart's death: five cases of Stewart's own excavations and collections (Karmi), a sixth case of Iron Age material bought with Friends contributions in 1961, and three Near Eastern and Greek cases.

    James Rivers Barrington StewartBarker 2012

  19. 1995
    University of Sydney resumed fieldwork in Cyprus under J. Richard Green at the theatre of Nea Paphos (Hellenistic-Roman), under the Department of Antiquities; the Nicholson Museum is described as a major supporter.

    Nea PaphosJ. Richard GreenCraig BarkerBarker 2012

  20. 2001
    Jennifer Webb, Cypriote Antiquities in the Nicholson Museum at the University of Sydney (CCA 20, SIMA 20), the catalogue of the Cypriot holdings (Webb numbers).

    Jennifer M. WebbBarker & Merrillees 2017

  21. 2010
    Basil Hennessy gave the Karmi (Palealona and Lapatsa) material excavated by Stewart in 1961.

    KarmiBasil HennessyBarker 2012

  22. 2012
    Exhibition and catalogue Aphrodite's Island: Australian Archaeologists in Cyprus (ed. Craig Barker; essays by Merrillees, Webb, Powell, Green and others), marking 50 years since Stewart's death; senior curator Michael Turner.

    Craig BarkerMichael TurnerRobert Stuart MerrilleesJennifer M. WebbBarker 2012

  23. 2017
    Barker and Merrillees publish the 1927 Cesnola purchase file, identifying the 23+1 pieces, and list the 1947 Cambridge Loan items with Ransom collection numbers (R.C.) as the certain Lawrence-Cesnola provenance; at least 29 Cesnola-traceable objects.

    Craig BarkerRobert Stuart MerrilleesBarker & Merrillees 2017

  24. 2020
    The collection is credited by Catling's 2020 Kouklia volumes as the Nicholson Collection, Chau Chak Wing Museum, University of Sydney, with Michael Turner as Senior Curator and Elizabeth Bollen as Assistant Curator in the acknowledgements.

    Michael TurnerElizabeth BollenCatling 2020

People

22 people

Staff and members · 12

Fieldwork · 1

Donors and lenders · 6

Sellers and consignors · 1

Others connected · 2

Objects

On Ancient Cyprus

3 pages

Sources

  1. 1.Craig Barker, Robert S. Merrillees (2017). “Cypriot Antiquities from the Cesnola Collections in the Nicholson Museum at the University of Sydney”. Mediterranean Archaeology 30, 51-71.
  2. 2.Craig Barker (2012). Aphrodite's Island: The Cypriot Collection of the Nicholson Museum. Sydney, Nicholson Museum, University of Sydney.
  3. 3.H. W. Catling (2020). Kouklia: Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age Tombs at Palaepaphos 1951-1954. Oxford, BAR Publishing.
  4. 4.Judy Powell (2013). Love's Obsession: The Lives and Archaeology of Jim and Eve Stewart. Kent Town, South Australia, Wakefield Press.