Ancient CyprusAncient Cyprus

Scholar · Expedition member

David S. Reese

fl. 1987–2024 · United States

Zooarchaeologist and shell specialist who reported on bones and shells from Akrotiri-Aetokremnos, Kition, Amathous, Athienou and other Cypriot excavations.

Biography

When the Akrotiri-Aetokremnos rock shelter produced abundant bone in the 1980s, with skull and jaw fragments of the extinct pygmy hippopotamus Phanourios, the report on excavations in Cyprus for 1987 recorded that the detailed analysis would be done by David Reese, "du Musée d'Histoire Naturelle"1. Reese went on to publish "Cypriot Hippo Hunters No Myth" (1996), which Stuart Swiny cites in support of an association between hippopotamus and people at the site2,13. With Alan H. Simmons he wrote on the eleven cultural features of Aetokremnos, and he contributed the sections on tortoise, marine invertebrates and land snails to Simmons's Faunal Extinction in an Island Society (2002)2,3.

His other Cypriot work was specialist reporting on excavated material: the ostrich shells in Excavations at Kition V (1985), the shells and animal bones of the Amathous tombs (1992), the faunal remains from Athienou-Pampoulari tis Koukkouninas (2005), and Chapter 18 of the 2011 Malloura Valley volume on the animal bones from Athienou-Malloura5,15,16,17. He also published on the trade in Indo-Pacific shells (1991) and on organic imports to Late Bronze Age Cyprus (2008)11,14.

His 1995 book on the Pleistocene vertebrate sites of Cyprus is the source Robert Stuart Merrillees quotes for George Basil Palma selling seven elephant molars from the Athna well to the Natural History Museum in London in May 19254.

Life and work

  1. 1987
    Karageorghis' Chronique reports that the detailed analysis of the bone samples from Akrotiri-Aetokremnos (deposits with abundant non-fossilised bone, many Phanourios cranial fragments, partly burnt) would be done by David Reese of the Natural History Museum.

    AkrotiriKarageorghis 1988

  2. 1995
    Published The Pleistocene Vertebrate Sites and Fauna of Cyprus (Nicosia); Merrillees quotes Reese for Basil Palma selling seven fragmentary Elephas molars from the Athna well to the Natural History Museum, London, in May 1925.

    NicosiaMerrillees 2014, p. 13, n. 25 and bibliography

  3. 1999
    Simmons and Reese (1999) discuss the eleven cultural features at Aetokremnos; Reese contributed the tortoise, marine invertebrate and land snail sections of Simmons's 2002 Faunal Extinction in an Island Society.

    Swiny 2001, p. 17Simmons 1999, p. 16

  4. 2003
    Listed as a contributor to Rautman et al., A Cypriot Village of Late Antiquity: Kalavasos-Kopetra in the Vasilikos Valley (JRA Supplementary Series 52).

    KalavasosPapuci-Władyka 2020

  5. 2011
    Contributed Chapter 18, 'Faunal Remains from Athienou', to Crossroads and Boundaries (Malloura Valley) on animal bones from the Cypro-Geometric III to Roman sanctuary, the Hellenistic-Roman tombs and late Roman and Venetian structures excavated 1991-1995, 1997-1999, 2001-2002 and 2004-2005.

    AthienouToumazou et al. 2011

Connections

7 people
Michael GivenAlan H. SimmonsMarcus RautmanKathy RolerStuart SwinyGeorge Basil PalmaMichael NeeleyDavid S. Reese
ScholarshipColleagues

Scholarship

Colleagues & contacts

Sources

  1. 1.V. Karageorghis (1988). “Chronique des fouilles et découvertes archéologiques à Chypre en 1987”. Bulletin de correspondance hellénique 112.
  2. 2.Stuart Swiny (ed.) (2001). The Earliest Prehistory of Cyprus: From Colonization to Exploitation. Boston, American Schools of Oriental Research.
  3. 3.Alan H. Simmons (1999). Faunal Extinction in an Island Society: Pygmy Hippopotamus Hunters of Cyprus. New York, Kluwer Academic/Plenum.
  4. 4.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
  5. 5.M. K. Toumazou (ed.), P. N. Kardulias (ed.), D. B. Counts (ed.) (2011). Crossroads and Boundaries: The Archaeology of Past and Present in the Malloura Valley, Cyprus.
  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.M. Given (2024). City and Cemetery: Excavations at Kourion's Amathous Gate Cemetery, Cyprus. The Excavations of Danielle A. Parks. Volume 1: Context, Analysis, and Conclusions. Alexandria, VA, American Society of Overseas Research.
  8. 8.Eric M. Meyers (ed.) (1997). The Oxford Encyclopedia of Archaeology in the Near East. New York, Oxford University Press.
  9. 9.D. S. Reese (1995). The Pleistocene Vertebrate Sites and Fauna of Cyprus. Nicosia.
  10. 10.D. S. Reese (2007). “Zooarchaeology on Cyprus”. Report of the Department of Antiquities, Cyprus, 469-484.
  11. 11.D. S. Reese (2008). “Organic Imports from Late Bronze Age Cyprus (with Special Reference to Hala Sultan Tekke)”. Opuscula Atheniensia 31-32 (2006-2007), 191-209.
  12. 12.D. S. Reese (2002). “On the Incised Cattle Scapulae from the East Mediterranean and Near East”. Bonner zoologische Beiträge 50, 183-198.
  13. 13.David S. Reese (1996). “Cypriot Hippo Hunters No Myth”. Journal of Mediterranean Archaeology 9, 107-112.
  14. 14.D. S. Reese (1991). “The Trade of Indo-Pacific Shells into the Mediterranean Basin and Europe”. Oxford Journal of Archaeology 10, 159-196.
  15. 15.D. S. Reese (1992). “Shells and Animal Bones”. La Nécropole d'Amathonte Tombes 113-367, 6, 123-144. Nicosia, A. G. Leventis Foundation.
  16. 16.D. S. Reese (2005). “Faunal Remains from Israeli Excavations at Athienou-Pampoulari tis Koukkouninas”. Report of the Department of Antiquities, Cyprus, 87-108.
  17. 17.D. Reese (1985). “Appendix VII, B. The Kition Ostrich Shells”. Excavations at Kition V: The Pre-Phoenician Levels, Areas I and II, Part I, 371-380. Nicosia, Department of Antiquities, Cyprus.