Römisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum, Mainz

A small Cypriot collection catalogued as 195 ceramics (Early Cypriot to Cypro-Archaic/Classical), 9 terracottas, 1 lamp, 8 gold items, 21 metal, 8 stone tools, 2 stone vessels and 34 spindle whorls, plus 68 replicas made in the museum workshops; some war losses (2012)

Recke 2012, p. 27

1. 1852
   Founded (as the Roman-Germanic Central Museum) by Ludwig Lindenschmit the Elder; renamed Leibniz-Zentrum für Archäologie (LEIZA) on 1 January 2023. Not a Cypriot institution in origin.

   MainzLeibniz-Zentrum für Archäologie

2. 1897–1898
   The Rudolf-Virchow-Stiftung, Berlin, gave the museum a collection of over 240 Cypriot antiquities (243 pieces, the 'Gute Collection B') from Max Ohnefalsch-Richter, who had grouped his finds into sets of about 200-250 objects. A handwritten note in the Leipzig acquisition document records it going to Mainz. Recke dates the gift 1898; Buchholz's Virchow route is the same.

   MainzRudolf VirchowMax Ohnefalsch-RichterRecke 2012, p. 9, p. 27Buchholz 1989Tatton-Brown 2001, p. 202

3. 1907
   Gift of Cypriot material from the Musée Guimet, Paris.

   Recke 2012, p. 27

4. 1907–1918
   Until 1918 the museum received Cypriot antiquities almost every year from private donors and other institutions, though Cyprus was never a special focus of its collecting; the gifts stop at the Weimar inflation and resume only in 1927/28.

   Recke 2012, p. 13

5. 1909
   Cypriot material from the Kallenberg collection (mode of transfer not stated).

   KallenbergRecke 2012, p. 27Recke 2012, p. 112

6. 1913
   Friedrich Behn's catalogue no. 4 of the museum, 'Vorhellenistische Altertümer der östlichen Mittelmeerländer' (Mainz 1913), covers the pre-Hellenistic eastern Mediterranean holdings including the Ohnefalsch-Richter pieces (Cypriot section pp. 67-97 per the note cited in the Leipzig paper).

   MainzFriedrich BehnRecke 2012, p. 27Buchholz 1989

7. 1939
   Gift of Cypriot objects from the Oberhessisches Museum, Giessen.

   GiessenRecke 2012, p. 27

8. 1967–1969
   After the French Mission's 1967 campaign at Enkomi found a bronzeworker's well with bronzes too corroded to identify, the museum's laboratory under Prof. H.-J. Hundt X-rayed and conserved them; the fragments of a four-wheeled cult chariot with a bull were identified and reassembled. The museum also made replicas (bronze hoard from Enkomi well 212, 1967) and published the conservation report in Schaeffer, Alasia I (1971).

   MainzH.-J. HundtClaude Frédéric-Armand SchaefferKarageorghis 1970Recke 2012, p. 27

9. 1968
   Exhibits from the museum were shown in 'Schätze aus Zypern' in Munich, the first special exhibition on Cyprus in Germany, with objects from Nicosia and provincial Cypriot museums and the two big Munich collections.

   MunichRecke 2012, p. 16

• 'Gute Collection B': 243 Cypriot objects from Ohnefalsch-Richter (195 ceramics, 9 terracottas, a lamp, 8 gold items and more)

  from Marion and Tamassos (query in source)via Rudolf-Virchow-Stiftung1897–1898Recke 2012, p. 27Tatton-Brown 2001, p. 202

• Finds from the Mnason necropolis at Tamassos (excavated 1885 and 1889) held in Mainz

  from Tamassos, Mnason necropolisvia Max Ohnefalsch-RichterRecke 2012, p. 8

• Bronze tripod cauldron from Salamis (replica made in the workshops)

  from SalamisRecke 2012, p. 27