George Hill

When the Cyprus Department of Antiquities was created in the 1930s, its first Director was picked from a list drawn up by a coin specialist at the British Museum. George Francis Hill, who is recorded as having been born in 1867 and died in 1948⁹, joined the museum in 1893 and later became its Director, serving from 1931 to 1936¹. His 1904 Catalogue of the Greek Coins in the British Museum: Cyprus is described by Kiely as the seminal work on the island's coinage^1,6.

Committee secretary

In 1918 Hill became founding secretary of the Archaeological Joint Committee, which dealt with antiquities legislation for the Mandated territories. Policy in 1918 and 1919 ensured that the British Museum received a share of the antiquities². On 16 November 1932 the Committee met with Hill, Charles Peers, John Linton Myres, Clauson, W. H. Buckler, Buxton, Seymer and Dawe present, and proposed a Department of Antiquities for Cyprus². Buckler wrote to Hill on 24 January 1933 against the Cyprus Museum's sales of antiquities³.

The 1934 inspection

Hill went to Cyprus in April 1934 with Peers, the British Museum paying his expenses. His report was much longer than Peers's. It assessed the Cyprus Museum and listed amendments to the Antiquities Law, among them a clause, new to Cyprus, naming the British Museum as entitled to be offered certain antiquities; the clause was deleted in 1964². On the Museum's practice of selling antiquities he wrote that it was "not altogether dignified", though he accepted that other great museums sold duplicates. His worry was the sale of objects that were not true duplicates³.

He argued that the Director should be an archaeologist with an architect's training, or an architect, and in print he never considered Porphyrios Dikaios². With Peers he drew up the list of candidates. He favoured Hilary Waddington until doubt arose about him, and the board took John Hilton, who was second on Hill's list, after a dinner at Hill's residence in the British Museum². Hill also recommended Theophilus Mogabgab to Hilton².

After Hilton's dismissal in 1935, Hill gave the Colonial Office his notes, thought Megaw the strongest candidate to replace him, and took no part in the new selection. In November 1935 he wrote to Hilton praising his work. Stanley-Price says that Hill later left Hilton's name out when he wrote about the founding of the Department².

Gunnis and Khirokitia

In May 1935 Rupert Gunnis offered Hill and Stanley Casson, privately, the Neolithic site he had found at Miliou; both disclaimed interest³. Stanley-Price states that Gunnis's "ambiguous role in handling antiquities" was known to Hill³. Diane Powell reports a belief of Jim Stewart, set down in a letter to Wace, that Hill was trying to have Gunnis dismissed over alleged tomb robbery; she calls the allegation against Gunnis one "that could not be proved"⁵.

In 1937 Hill visited Dikaios's excavation at Khirokitia. Dikaios later thanked "the late Sir George Hill" for the interest and encouragement to which his final report "owes a great deal"⁴. Hill's A History of Cyprus appeared from 1940 and ran to four volumes, the last edited by H. Luke and published in 1952. Kiely says it was inspired by his reform work and drew on staff of the Cyprus Museum and the Department^1,8.