Ancient CyprusAncient Cyprus

Museum staff · Curator · Antiquities official · Cataloguer

Angeliki Pieridou

1918–1973 · Cyprus

Archaeologist of the Cyprus Museum from 1948 to 1973 who helped compile its records, published tombs and jewellery, and organised the Department of Antiquities' first folk-art museums.

Biography

Angeliki Pieridou, born Paschalides in 1918, spent the last twenty-five years of her life in the Cyprus Museum, where she rose from Assistant Record Keeper (1948-58) to Assistant Curator of Records (1958-64) and Assistant Curator (1964-73)1,4. She had studied archaeology at the University of Athens4.

Porphyrios Dikaios thanked "Mrs. A. Pieridou, Assistant Record Keeper in the Museum" for much help in the preface to his 1953 Khirokitia report9. In 1952 she helped H. W. Catling and Mick Wright with the first study of Evreti Tombs III-XI at Kouklia, and compiled the tomb inventories that Catling later rewrote8. In 1957 she assisted A. I. Dikigoropoulos in the Department's excavation of the smaller church beside the great basilica at Salamis3. She published a tomb found in 1962 in the school yard at Kyra2, "A tomb group from Lapithos Ayia Anastasia" in the Report of the Department of Antiquities for 1966 (pp. 1-12)17, a study of ritual ring vessels in the 1971 volume (pp. 18-26) and the catalogue Jewellery in the Cyprus Museum (Nicosia, 1971).

Folk art was her own interest4. She organised the small collection in the repaired House of Hadjismith-Zimbabwe at Paphos in 1950 and the Museum of Folk Art at Kyrenia in 1965, the first ethnographic museums of the Department, the second made after Lady Margaret Loch gave the state part of her collection and her house there4. She gave part of her own collection to the Gymnasium of Pallouriotissa, and after her death in 1973 her husband and daughter gave items to the Benaki Museum in Athens, at her wish1,4.

Life and work

  1. 1948–1958
    Assistant Record Keeper in the Cyprus Museum; then Assistant Curator of Records (1958-64) and Assistant Curator (1964-73).

    NicosiaNicolaou 1976, p. 3

  2. 1950
    Organised the small folk-art collection housed in the repaired House of Hadjismith-Zimbabwe (the former British consular agent's house) at Paphos, the first Yeroskipou folk-art museum.

    PaphosStylianou-Lambert & Bounia 2016, pp. 106-107

  3. 1952
    Helped M. Wright and H. W. Catling with the preliminary study of the contents of Evreti Tombs III-XI at Kouklia and originally compiled the tomb inventories (later revised by Catling).

    KoukliaCatling 2020

  4. 1953
    Thanked in the Preface to Dikaios's Khirokitia Final Report as Assistant Record Keeper in the Museum for much help.

    Dikaios 1953

  5. 1957
    Assisted A. I. Dikigoropoulos in the Department of Antiquities' resumed excavation of the smaller church adjoining the great basilica at Salamis.

    SalamisMegaw 1957, p. 8

  6. 1963
    Published in RDAC 1963 (pp. 32 ff.) a tomb found accidentally in 1962 in the school yard at Kyra (Hellenistic I to Graeco-Roman II; fifty skeletons; pottery, glass, bronzes, gold and silver ornaments, coins).

    KyraNicolaou 1966

  7. 1965
    Organised the Museum of Folk Art at Kerynia (Kyrenia) after Lady Margaret Loch gave the state part of her folk-arts collection and her house there; described the rooms herself in print.

    KyreniaStylianou-Lambert & Bounia 2016, pp. 106-107

  8. 1966
    Published 'A tomb group from Lapithos Ayia Anastasia' in RDAC 1966, pp. 1-12.

    LapithosMorris 1985Given 2025

  9. 1971
    Published Jewellery in the Cyprus Museum (Nicosia) and, in RDAC 1971, a Greek paper on Cypriot ritual (ring) vessels, pp. 18-26.

    NicosiaKarageorghis 2010Morris 1985Merrillees 2014

  10. 1973
    Died while Assistant Curator of the Cyprus Museum; the Archaeological Reports note this as a loss for Cyprus archaeology. After her death, at her wish, her husband and daughter gave a number of her folk-art items to the Benaki Museum, Athens.

    Nicolaou 1976, p. 3Stylianou-Lambert & Bounia 2016, p. 108

Connections

6 people
Arthur Hubert Stanley Meg…Paschalis KitromilidesPorphyrios DikaiosHector CatlingGeorge Roy Haslam WrightAndreas I. DikigoropoulosAngeliki Pieridou
FieldworkScholarshipColleagues

Fieldwork & employment

Scholarship

Colleagues & contacts

On Ancient Cyprus

2 pages

Sources

  1. 1.K. Nicolaou (1976). “Archaeology in Cyprus, 1969-76”. Archaeological Reports 22.
  2. 2.K. Nicolaou (1966). “Archaeology in Cyprus, 1961-66”. Archaeological Reports 12, 27-43. Online
  3. 3.A. H. S. Megaw (1957). “Archaeology in Cyprus, 1957”. Archaeological Reports 4, 43-50. Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies.
  4. 4.T. Stylianou-Lambert, A. Bounia (2016). The Political Museum: Power, Conflict, and Identity in Cyprus.
  5. 5.M. Iakovou (1994). Aggeliki Pieridou (1918-1973): A chronological account and list of works. Nicosia, Cultural Foundation of Cyprus Bank.
  6. 6.P. M. Kitromilides (2006). “Letters from Cyprus on archaeology, folk art and life. Letters of Aggeliki Paschalidou-Pieridou to Anna Hadjinikolaou”. Mouseion Benaki 6, 169-179.
  7. 7.E. Rizopoulou-Egoumenidou (1996). “Η Αγγελική Περίδου και η Κυπριακή εθνογραφία”. Report of the Department of Antiquities, Cyprus, 367-371.
  8. 8.H. W. Catling (2020). Kouklia: Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age Tombs at Palaepaphos 1951-1954. Oxford, BAR Publishing.
  9. 9.P. Dikaios (1953). Khirokitia: Final Report on the Excavation of a Neolithic Settlement in Cyprus on Behalf of the Department of Antiquities, 1936-1946. Oxford, Oxford University Press.
  10. 10.Desmond Morris (1985). The Art of Ancient Cyprus, with a check-list of the author's collection. Oxford, Phaidon Press in association with Jonathan Cape.
  11. 11.Michael Given (2025). “Over the landscape, in the landscape? Knowledge and agency in Cypriot archaeology, 1870-1910”. Empire & Excavation: Critical perspectives on archaeology in British-period Cyprus, 1878-1960. Leiden, Sidestone Press.
  12. 12.V. Karageorghis (ed.) (2010). Cypriote Antiquities in the Phylactou Collection. Nicosia, A. G. Leventis Foundation.
  13. 13.Robert Stuart Merrillees (2014). “George Basil Palma, Chemist and Collector of Cypriote Antiquities in Famagusta, Cyprus, in the 20th Century A.D.”. Cahiers du Centre d'Études Chypriotes 44. Online
  14. 14.V. Karageorghis (1983). Palaepaphos-Skales: An Iron Age Cemetery in Cyprus.
  15. 15.A. Pieridou (1963). “Folk art in Cyprus”. The Greek Heritage of Cyprus: A Handbook on the Island's Past and Present, 75-82. Nicosia, Publications Department of the Greek Communal Chamber.
  16. 16.A. Pieridou (1963). Report of the Department of Antiquities, Cyprus, 32 ff..
  17. 17.A. Pieridou (1966). “A tomb group from Lapithos Ayia Anastasia”. Report of the Department of Antiquities, Cyprus, 1-12.
  18. 18.A. Pieridou (1966). “Διαμαντής και Μουσείον Λαϊκής Τέχνης (Diamantis and the Museum of Folk Art)”. Φιλολογική Κύπρος, 19-20. Ελληνικός Πνευματικός Όμιλος Κύπρου.
  19. 19.A. Pieridou (1967). “Pieces of Cloth from Early and Middle Cypriote Periods”. Report of the Department of Antiquities, Cyprus, 25-29.
  20. 20.A. Pieridou (1971). Jewellery in the Cyprus Museum. Nicosia.
  21. 21.A. Pieridou (1971). “Τελετουργικά (δακτυλιόσχημα) αγγεία της Κύπρου”. Report of the Department of Antiquities, Cyprus, 18-26.
  22. 22.A. Pieridou (1973). Ο Πρωτογεωμετρικός ρυθμός εν Κύπρω. Athens.