Ancient CyprusAncient Cyprus

Archaeologist · Excavator · Draughtsman / artist · Scholar

George Roy Haslam Wright

1924–2014 · Australia

Australian architect-archaeologist who directed the 1952 excavation of the Evreti tombs at Kouklia, worked at Dhenia in 1953 and later wrote Ancient Building in Cyprus.

Biography

George Roy Haslam Wright, known as Mick, was born on 4 March 19241. In 1952 he directed the excavation of Evreti Tombs III to XI at Kouklia for the Liverpool City Museum and St Andrews University expedition, working from 1 to 22 July; Terence Mitford completed the cemetery in 1954. H. W. Catling, who published the tombs in 2020, thanks Wright for his "pioneering excavation at Evreti"2. In 1953 he assisted G. C. Griffith Williams at the Kafkalla cemetery at Dhenia3, and with Paul Åström he published Tombs 1 and 6 there in Opuscula Atheniensia 45.

Drawings by Wright appear among the plates of J. L. Benson's Bamboula at Kourion4. His later work was on building: a chapter on Ottoman law and archaeology in a British Museum colloquium volume8 and Ancient Building in Cyprus (1992), which he wrote in the early 1980s while caretaker of the new building of the Cyprus American Archaeological Research Institute1. He died on 25 July 20141.

Life and work

  1. July–August 1951
    Architect, surveyor and planner on Basil Hennessy's Ashmolean Museum-Sydney University Expedition cemetery excavation at Stephania; foreman Tryphon Koulermos; costs borne by the University of Sydney and the Australian Institute of Archaeology, Melbourne. Finds divided: Sydney (Nicholson Museum) took Tombs 3, 5, 9, 10; Cyprus Museum kept Tombs 4, 7, 12; Australian Institute of Archaeology got Tombs 6, 13, 14.

    Stephania

  2. July 1952
    Directed the excavation of Evreti Tombs III-XI (ten productive tombs, LBA) at Kouklia, 1-22 July, for the Liverpool City Museum/St Andrews University Expedition; the cemetery was completed in 1954 by T. B. Mitford with E. M. Hunter. His unpublished Wright-Catling MS (1952) describes the site; Catling's 2020 volume publishes the tombs.

    KoukliaCatling 2020

  3. 1953
    Assisted Mr Justice Griffith-Williams, with Department of Antiquities sponsorship, in excavating two looted Middle Cypriot tombs in the Kafkalla cemetery between Dhenia and Akaki, plus a small intact Early Cypriot II group; looted pottery confiscated from the same cemetery had reached the Cyprus Museum.

    DheniaMegaw 1954

  4. 1962–1963
    Co-published the Dhenia tombs (Tombs 1 and 6) with Paul Astrom in Opuscula Atheniensia IV, pp. 225-276.

    Åström & Wright 1962, pp. 225-276Middle Cypriot White Painted…

  5. 1971
    Article in Palestine Exploration Quarterly (1971) cited by Karageorghis for Near Eastern parallels to Kition architecture (pp. 17 ff., 19 ff.).

    Karageorghis 1976

  6. c. 1981
    From the early 1980s a regular at CAARI, acting as caretaker of the newly bought CAARI building (camping in what became the library) while writing Ancient Building in Cyprus.

    NicosiaTribute: George Roy Haslam… 2014, p. 8

  7. 1992
    Ancient Building in Cyprus (the CAARI tribute calls it a now standard reference work).

    Tribute: George Roy Haslam… 2014, p. 8

Connections

9 people
George Cyril Griffith Wil…Paul ÅströmHector CatlingTerence Bruce MitfordJack L. BensonBasil HennessyEthel M. HunterAngeliki PieridouTryphon KoulermosGeorge Roy Haslam Wright
FieldworkScholarshipColleagues

Fieldwork & employment

Scholarship

Colleagues & contacts

On Ancient Cyprus

3 pages

Sources

  1. 1. (2014). “Tribute: George Roy Haslam Wright, 4 March 1924-25 July 2014”.
  2. 2.H. W. Catling (2020). Kouklia: Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age Tombs at Palaepaphos 1951-1954. Oxford, BAR Publishing.
  3. 3.A. H. S. Megaw (1954). “Archaeology in Cyprus, 1953”. Journal of Hellenic Studies 74. Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies.
  4. 4.J. L. Benson (1972). Bamboula at Kourion: The Necropolis and the Finds Excavated by J. F. Daniel. Philadelphia, University Museum, University of Pennsylvania.
  5. 5.P. Åström, G. R. H. Wright (1962). “Two Bronze Age Tombs at Dhenia in Cyprus”. Opuscula Atheniensia 4, 225-276.
  6. 6.Middle Cypriot White Painted Ware: A Study (figure list). Online
  7. 7.V. Karageorghis (1976). Kition: Mycenaean and Phoenician Discoveries in Cyprus. London, Thames and Hudson.
  8. 8.G. R. H. Wright (2001). “Archaeology and Islamic Law in Ottoman Cyprus”. Cyprus in the 19th Century AD: Fact, Fancy and Fiction, 261-.