Ancient CyprusAncient Cyprus

Scholar · Archaeologist

Axel W. Persson

fl. 1922–1934 · Sweden

Uppsala professor of classical archaeology whose chance meeting with Luke Z. Pierides on a Serbian railway platform in 1922 led his student Einar Gjerstad to Cyprus.

Biography

Axel W. Persson never dug in Cyprus, but a railway-station conversation in Serbia in March 1922 sent his student to the island. Persson, a professor of classical archaeology at Uppsala2, was on his way to the Swedish excavations at Asine in Greece, where he was responsible for the finds while Otto Frödin directed in the field4. A man there introduced himself as the Swedish consul in Cyprus, Luke Zenon Pierides, borrowed five pounds from him and then more, described his collection at Larnaca and urged the Swedes to excavate on the island1. Einar Gjerstad gives the loan as five pounds and a second five; Powell gives five and ten, fifteen in all, repaid from Athens with a letter3.

Persson could not go himself, and Pierides had asked for a young archaeologist. One summer night at Asine he put the proposal to Gjerstad, who accepted1. Gjerstad reached Larnaca in October 19231. Persson told the story himself in Asine. De svenska utgrävningarna (1931)2.

Life and work

  1. March 1922
    On his way to direct the Asine excavations in Greece, met Luke Zenon Pierides, Swedish consul in Cyprus, at a railway station in Serbia; lent him money (five pounds, then more) and received an invitation to send a Swedish archaeologist to Cyprus.

    SerbiaGjerstad 1980, pp. 11-12Recke 2012, pp. 2-3

  2. 1922–1923
    After the money reached him in Athens with a letter from Pierides urging an expedition, discussed the invitation with his student Gjerstad one summer night at Asine and recommended he accept; Gjerstad went to Cyprus in October 1923.

    AsineGjerstad 1980, p. 12Powell 2013, pp. 45-46

  3. 1931
    Published the popular book Asine. De svenska utgrävningarna, which tells the Pierides meeting in his own version (so Goransson 2012; the text itself was not read).

    StockholmRecke 2012, p. 3

Connections

6 people
Einar Nilson GjerstadLuke Zenon PieridesGustaf VI Adolf of SwedenSigurd CurmanJohannes HellnerMartin Persson NilssonAxel W. Persson
ScholarshipColleagues

Scholarship

Colleagues & contacts

Sources

  1. 1.E. Gjerstad (1980). Ages and Days in Cyprus.
  2. 2.Matthias Recke (2012). “Deutschland und das antike Zypern. Beiträge zur Geschichte einer archäologischen Disziplin”. Cahiers du Centre d'Études Chypriotes 42.
  3. 3.Judy Powell (2013). Love's Obsession: The Lives and Archaeology of Jim and Eve Stewart. Kent Town, South Australia, Wakefield Press.
  4. 4.A. Ulbrich (2012). “The Swedish Cyprus Expedition and its results”. Cahiers du Centre d'Études Chypriotes 42.
  5. 5.F. Whitling (2014). “'The Wonderful Adventures of the Swedish Cyprus Expedition': Einar Gjerstad, Erik Sjöqvist, the Swedish Institute in Rome and the Cyprus Expedition”. Islands of the Eastern Mediterranean, 123-139. I.B. Tauris. Online
  6. 6.A. W. Persson (1931). Asine. De svenska utgrävningarna. Stockholm, J. A. Lindblads Förlag.