Ancient CyprusAncient Cyprus

Donor

Earl Granville

Granville Leveson-Gower, 2nd Earl Granville

1815–1891 · United Kingdom

British Foreign Secretary; colonial secretary. Gave to British Museum.

Life and work

  1. 8 July 1880
    Newton's report to the Trustees (Book of Presents, Supplementary I, no. 2868; transcript in Reports 1879-80, Greek and Roman Antiquities, 8 July 1880) submitted a letter from Lord Tenterden saying that Earl Granville offered the Museum 'a small collection of antiquities recently discovered in Cyprus', obtained from four sites: the Bamboula mound at Larnaka (levelled under Lieut. Sinclair R.E.), Aradippou, Limassol and Amathus. Newton thanked Col. Warren, Mr Cobham and Lieut. Kitchener for collecting and preserving them. Bailey (1969) says that in 1880 Granville, 'as Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs', 'made available' the antiquities, 'dug up rather than excavated'. Context: in 1878-79 the Foreign Office was the channel between the Trustees and the Cyprus administration, and control in London passed to the Colonial Office in 1880.

    LondonBailey 1969Kiely & Fourrier 2012, p. 282Tatton-Brown 2001Kiely 2010Edbury 2001

Connections

5 people
Charles NewtonCharles Stuart Aubrey Abb…Falkland WarrenClaude Delaval CobhamHugh SinclairEarl Granville
Sales & giftsColleagues

Sales, gifts & bequests

Colleagues & contacts

Objects

  • Aradippou tomb group ('village priest's tomb'), c. 825-750 BCE by Bailey: White Painted III amphora (80 7-10 1, BMC Vases C 759, pithos-size, ht 76.5 cm), Black-on-Red I-II jugs, juglets and bowls, Bichrome III spouted jug, Black Slip jug and bowl, lamp, limestone tripod bowl (80 7-10 20, BMC Sculpture C 442), limestone box on legs (80 7-10 21, BMC Sculpture C 447), bronze bowl (80 7-10 22), iron hook (80 7-10 23); one intrusive Hellenistic bowl (80 7-10 14). Newton counted 28 painted vases in April 1879; 19 vases are registered.

    From AradippouBritish Museum 1880,7-10.1-231880Bailey 1969

  • Bamboula (Kition) finds from the 1879 levelling: two Phoenician-inscribed stone pieces (80 7-10 43, 44; now WAA 125080, 125081), archaic limestone heads (BMC Sculpture C 69, C 57, C 58, C 87), unfinished sphinx (C 433), terracotta figures and protome, a 'Cyprian Venus' (BMC Terracottas A 91, recorded missing since 1978 by Fourrier), Rhodian amphora handles (80 7-10 38-40), marble head and relief fragment (24, 25), alabaster vessels (26-28), 20 copper coins.

    From Kition-BamboulaBritish Museum 1880,7-10.24-65 (partial)1880Bailey 1969Kiely & Fourrier 2012

  • Limassol tomb vases (Cyprian ware with geometric patterns, from a tomb opened during Newton's visit, aqueduct trench W of Limassol) and Amathus pieces: four bronze bowls (80 7-10 114-117), bronze mirror (118) and mirror case (119), two bronze spearheads (BMC Bronzes 51), archaic limestone heads/figures (BMC Sculpture C 290, C 242), three scarabs (BMC Gems 253; 80 7-10 125, 126).

    From Limassol; AmathusBritish Museum 1880,7-10.114-119, 125-126 (Amathus)1880Bailey 1969

Sources

  1. 1.D. M. Bailey (1969). “The Village Priest's Tomb at Aradippou in Cyprus”. British Museum Quarterly 34, 36-58. Online
  2. 2.T. Kiely, S. Fourrier (2012). “Excavations at Kition-Bamboula 1879. Finds in the British Museum”. Cahiers du Centre d'Études Chypriotes 42, 273-.
  3. 3.Veronica Tatton-Brown (ed.) (2001). Cyprus in the 19th Century AD: Fact, Fancy and Fiction. Oxford, Oxbow.
  4. 4.P. W. Edbury (2001). “Cyprus in the 19th century: perceptions and politics”. Cyprus in the 19th Century AD: Fact, Fancy and Fiction, 13-20. Oxford, Oxbow Books.
  5. 5.T. Kiely (2010). “Charles Newton and the archaeology of Cyprus”. Cahiers du Centre d'Études Chypriotes 40, 231-251. Online
  6. 6.“Granville Leveson-Gower, 2nd Earl Granville (Wikidata Q334053)”. Wikidata. Online