Ancient CyprusAncient Cyprus

Numismatist · Scholar

D. M. Metcalf

fl. 1906–2013 · United Kingdom

Numismatist and historian of Byzantine Cyprus who wrote Byzantine Cyprus 491-1191 (2009) and searched the Cyprus Museum strong-room in 2007 and 2008 for the 1906 Lambousa gold hoard.

Biography

In 2007 and again in 2008 D. M. Metcalf searched the strong-room of the Cyprus Museum for the Lambousa gold hoard of 1906 and did not find it1. The hoard held 131 gold solidi of Heraclius and Constans II, two gold crosses and a rosary. It had been divided under an agreement made by Major Chamberlayne, Commissioner of Kyrenia: 88 coins went to the Cyprus Museum and 43 to the see of Kyrenia1. Metcalf writes that the hoard had not been examined for nearly fifty years; A. I. Dikigoropoulos had seen some of the bishop's share around 19591,9. He argues that the first and second Lambousa treasures were different finds, and dates the second to February 19021.

His main work on Cyprus is Byzantine Cyprus 491-1191 (2009), and he also published lead seals and coin finds from Cypriot sites: the coins from Saranda Kolones at Paphos in 2003, the Morphou hoard of 1958 in 1991, and a volume on Byzantine lead seals from Cyprus in 20042,4,5. With Massimo Perna he republished in 2008 the lead seals from Salamis-Constantia that Alessandro Palma di Cesnola had published in 1887; they were donated in 2006 to the Museo di Antichita in Turin1. He also edited J. R. Stewart's Lusignan Cyprus and its Coinage (2 volumes, Bank of Cyprus, 2002)8.

Life and work

  1. 2002
    Edited the posthumous two-volume Lusignan Cyprus and its Coinage by the late J. R. Stewart (Bank of Cyprus, Nicosia).

    NicosiaMerrillees 2014Powell 2013

  2. 2003
    Published the Byzantine, Islamic and Crusader coins from Saranda Kolones, Paphos (Numismatic Chronicle 163, 205-226).

    PaphosMetcalf 2009Papuci-Władyka 2020

  3. 2007–2008
    Searched the strong-room of the Cyprus Museum for the 88 gold coins of the Lambousa hoard of 1906 (Heraclius/Constans II) that passed to the Museum; he could not see them in either 2007 or 2008, and by 2009 called the hoard 'unaccountably mislaid'. The hoard (131 gold solidi of Heraclius and Constans II with a few earlier pieces, two gold crosses and a rosary or bracelet; find-spot 'at the Acheiropoietos') was divided under Major Chamberlayne's agreement with the bishop: Chamberlayne assigned one third (43) to the see of Kyrenia and lodged the balance of 88 in the Kyrenia treasury safe, whence they came to the Cyprus Museum (Cyprus Museum Committee minute-book, Minute 2 of 22 November 1906). Dikigoropoulos (1961, p. 24) saw 19 coins in the see's treasury, 'mostly of Heraclius and Constans'.

    NicosiaMetcalf 2009, p. 56Metcalf 2009, pp. 198-199Metcalf 2009, p. 166

  4. 2007
    With I. Nicolaou, published 'The Limassol (Molos) hoard of Byzantine gold, t.p.q. 641' (RDAC 2007, 399-423), the fully illustrated publication of a hoard found at the Limassol foreshore.

    LimassolMetcalf 2009

  5. 2008
    With M. Perna, republished the Byzantine lead seals of Salamis-Constantia that A. Palma di Cesnola had published in 1887 in Salaminia and that were donated in 2006 to the Museo di Antichita, Turin; he notes they are all pierced, i.e. picked up locally and worn as amulets.

    TurinMetcalf 2009

  6. 2009
    Published Byzantine Cyprus 491-1191 (Cyprus Research Centre, Texts and Studies in the History of Cyprus 62). He thanks the Director of Antiquities and colleagues in the Cyprus Museum for facilities to study Byzantine material there.

    NicosiaMetcalf 2009

  7. 2009
    In the Lambousa appendix he dates the second treasure's find to February 1902, argues the first and second treasures were separate finds (calling the contrary view 'irresponsible', on the strength of a letter by a Greek Cypriot involved in the sale of the Epiphany medallion saying it lay in the same pot as the girdle and jewellery), and retells the 1902-05 story: villagers negotiated with Paris dealers, police surrounded and searched the suspects' houses and found part, the larger part was smuggled out and reached Paris, the dealer was 'neither a British nor a French subject', the villagers sued the Government and won, and the verdict was overturned on appeal. He notes four gold solidi (Maurice, two of Constans II, one probably Constantine IV) confiscated in 1902 that cannot now be identified in the Cyprus Museum, and accepts Dodd's dating of the David plate stamps to 613-629/30.

    Metcalf 2009, pp. 52-57

  8. 2013
    Published 'Byzantine and Islamic Coins and Topography of Nea Paphos' in D. Michaelides (ed.), Studies in Honour of Ino Nicolaou (2013), pp. 69-76.

    PaphosPapuci-Władyka 2020

Connections

10 people
Alessandro (Alexander) Pa…James Rivers Barrington S…Pavlos FlourentzosIno (Ioanna) NicolaouMassimo PernaAndreas PitsillidesP. J. DonaldTankerville James Chamber…Tassos PapacostasErica Cruikshank DoddD. M. Metcalf
ScholarshipColleagues

Scholarship

Colleagues & contacts

Sources

  1. 1.D. M. Metcalf (2009). Byzantine Cyprus 491-1191. Nicosia, Cyprus Research Centre.
  2. 2.D. M. Metcalf (1991). “The Morphou hoard of 1958 and governmental spending in Cyprus under John II and Manuel I”. Report of the Department of Antiquities, Cyprus, 237-254.
  3. 3.D. M. Metcalf (2003). Coinage as Evidence for the Changing Prosperity of Cyprus in Byzantine and Medieval Times. Nicosia, Bank of Cyprus Cultural Foundation.
  4. 4.D. M. Metcalf (2003). “Byzantine, Islamic and Crusader coins from Saranda Kolones, Paphos”. Numismatic Chronicle 163, 205-226.
  5. 5.D. M. Metcalf (2004). Byzantine Lead Seals from Cyprus. Nicosia, Cyprus Research Centre.
  6. 6.E. Papuci-Władyka (ed.) (2020). Interdisciplinary Research of the Jagiellonian University in Nea Paphos UNESCO World Heritage Site (2011-2015): First Results.
  7. 7.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
  8. 8.Judy Powell (2013). Love's Obsession: The Lives and Archaeology of Jim and Eve Stewart. Kent Town, South Australia, Wakefield Press.
  9. 9.A. I. Dikigoropoulos (1961). “Cyprus 'betwixt Greeks and Saracens', A.D. 647-965”. University of Oxford (Lincoln College).