Emma Turner

Miss Emma Turner of Oxford paid for the British Museum's excavations at Amathus, Kourion and Enkomi and is not known to have collected or bought anything from Cyprus herself. Polina Nikolaou gives her dates as 1811 to 1892 and says she was born in Oxford and apparently lived in the family house for most of her life¹. Her name is printed variously as Emma Tourner Turner, Emma Turner Turner and E. T. Turner^1,2,6.

Her will of 1892 left 2,000 pounds to the Trustees of the British Museum for the "excavation or survey of sites in Europe, Asia or Africa in furtherance of the study of the antiquities of Greece, Rome or Egypt or of Biblical Antiquities"¹. Ulbrich and Kiely put the sum at about 150,000 pounds in modern values and say Cyprus was chosen for the long interest of Museum staff and for its favourable political conditions, while restrictions grew in the Ottoman Empire. The bequest let the Museum keep all the finds the law allotted to it².

The money paid for Amathus (October 1893 to March 1894, under Arthur Hamilton Smith and then John Linton Myres), Kourion (1895) and Enkomi (1896)². John William Williamson and Charles Christian acted as agents on the island, and the work was largely left to Percy Christian². The results at Enkomi led the Museum to reverse its refusal to fund excavation from public money, and it allowed up to 500 pounds a year for Maroni, Hala Sultan Tekke, Kouklia and Klavdia in 1897 to 1899². The Trustees published the results in 1900 as Excavations in Cyprus: Bequest of Miss E. T. Turner to the British Museum⁶.