Ancient CyprusAncient Cyprus

Excavator · Epigrapher · Scholar

H. Arnold Tubbs

fl. 1888–1893 · United Kingdom

Oxford scholar and student of the British School at Athens who dug with J. A. R. Munro at Poli, Limniti and Salamis for the Cyprus Exploration Fund in 1889 and 1890, then left for Australia.

Biography

H. A. Tubbs wrote the excavation and inscription sections of the Cyprus Exploration Fund's reports on Limniti and Salamis. J. A. R. Munro introduced him as "Mr. H. A. Tubbs, of Pembroke College, Oxford, who was Craven University Fellow", a student of the British School at Athens, whom Ernest Gardner left in charge at Poli with Munro in 18891. Myres and Ohnefalsch-Richter print his name as "H. Arnold Tubbs", and the Salamis volume of 2019 gives it as Henry A. Tubbs5,9.

Tubbs joined the Poli party some days into the season; Munro remarked that he "brought little or no luck"1. After the finds were divided on 14 April, Munro handed the narrative to Tubbs for the sanctuary at Mersineri, west of the Limniti river, which yielded votive terracottas and three small bronzes1,5.

In January 1890 he and Munro reached Larnaca and began on Salamis, where they opened the dune site they read as the temenos of Zeus, the Agora and temple site, a cistern, the Toumba shrine with its painted terracotta figures, and tombs west of the city3,6. The gymnasium was later recognised in the first of these. Tubbs wrote the Excavations and Inscriptions sections of the report, Munro the Finds and Warwick Wroth the note on coins3. Max Ohnefalsch-Richter disputed their reading of Marion-Arsinoe in Kypros, the Bible and Homer (1893)8.

Munro's second Poli season in June 1890 went ahead without Tubbs, who had been called home by other engagements4. He left England early in 1891 for a post in Australia, and the editors saw his sections of the Salamis report through the press3.

Life and work

  1. 1889
    Joined Munro and Gardner's Cyprus Exploration Fund dig at Poli (Munro: 'On the 10th we were joined by H. A. Tubbs, but he brought little or no luck with him'; one tomb opened, holding three coarse jugs and a small bronze vessel). Ulbrich & Kiely give mid-January to mid-April for the season.

    Poli tis ChrysochousMunro & Tubbs 1890Ulbrich & Kiely 2012

  2. 14 April 1889
    Division of the Poli finds with Mr. Thompson ('speedily and amicably effected'); Munro then hands the narrative to Tubbs, who writes up the Limniti sanctuary excavation from 15 April.

    Poli tis ChrysochousMunro & Tubbs 1890

  3. April 1889
    Excavated the small sanctuary at Mersineri, west of the Limniti river, for the Cyprus Exploration Fund: votive terracottas and three small bronze statuettes. The site had been plundered earlier by natives, with spoils in Berlin, the Fitzwilliam Museum and O-R's possession (Myres & O-R 1899).

    LimnitiMyres & Ohnefalsch-Richter 1899, p. 8Munro & Tubbs 1890

  4. 1889–1890
    Further excavations in both Marion/Poli necropoleis for the Cyprus Exploration Fund by Munro and Tubbs, 'of the British School of Archaeology in Athens'; in 1889 the team opened 154 tombs between mid-January and mid-April per Ulbrich & Kiely.

    Poli tis ChrysochousMyres & Ohnefalsch-Richter 1899, p. 9Ulbrich & Kiely 2012

  5. 8 January 1890
    Reached Larnaca on 8 January 1890 with Munro for the Salamis season; camped at Ayios Sergios; Captain Young, Commissioner of Famagusta, fixed the site boundaries on 15 January. Dig ran from 16 January with 40 to 58 men and 26 women at first.

    SalamisMunro et al. 1891

  6. 1890
    Salamis sites opened by Munro and Tubbs: sand-dune 'column site' B read as the temenos of Zeus, the Agora/temple site C, the Cistern D, the Toumba shrine G (large deposit of painted terracotta figures), tombs west of the city (site J); the report's 'Excavations' and 'Inscriptions' sections are Tubbs's, Munro wrote the Finds, Warwick Wroth of the British Museum the coin note.

    SalamisMunro et al. 1891Ulbrich & Kiely 2012

  7. 1890
    Inscribed marble fragments from Salamis, found or bought by villagers during the dig (including purchases from a villager of Encomi and from a boy on the works), went to the British Museum.

    SalamisMunro et al. 1891

  8. June–July 1890
    Munro's second Poli season (June 1890) began without Tubbs, who 'had been called home by other engagements'.

    Poli tis ChrysochousMunro 1891

  9. February 1891
    Left England early in 1891 to take a post in Australia; the editors saw his sections through the press after Munro's preface (dated Oxford, February 1891).

    Munro et al. 1891

Connections

8 people
John Arthur Ruskin MunroGregorios AntoniouErnest Arthur GardnerMax Ohnefalsch-RichterWarwick WrothTheodor MommsenJohn William WilliamsonA. H. YoungH. Arnold Tubbs
FieldworkDisputesScholarshipColleagues

Fieldwork & employment

Disputes & the law

Scholarship

Colleagues & contacts

Sources

  1. 1.J. A. R. Munro, H. A. Tubbs (1890). “Excavations in Cyprus, 1889: Second Season's Work: Polis tes Chrysochou; Limniti”. Journal of Hellenic Studies 11, 1-99.
  2. 2.J. A. R. Munro, H. A. Tubbs (1890). “Excavations in Cyprus, 1889: Second Season's Work: Polis tes Chrysochou; Limniti”. Journal of Hellenic Studies 11, 1-99.
  3. 3.J. A. R. Munro, H. A. Tubbs, W. Wroth (1891). “Excavations in Cyprus, 1890: Third Season's Work: Salamis”. Journal of Hellenic Studies 12, 59-198. Online
  4. 4.J. A. R. Munro (1891). “Excavations in Cyprus, 1890: Third Season's Work: Polis tes Chrysochou”. Journal of Hellenic Studies 12, 298-330.
  5. 5.J. L. Myres, M. Ohnefalsch-Richter (1899). A Catalogue of the Cyprus Museum. Oxford, Clarendon Press.
  6. 6.Anja Ulbrich, Thomas Kiely (2012). “Britain and the Archaeology of Cyprus. I. The long 19th century”. Cahiers du Centre d'Études Chypriotes 42. Online
  7. 7.Veronica Tatton-Brown (ed.) (2001). Cyprus in the 19th Century AD: Fact, Fancy and Fiction. Oxford, Oxbow.
  8. 8.Max Ohnefalsch-Richter (1893). Kypros, the Bible and Homer. London, Asher & Co.. Online
  9. 9.S. Rogge (ed.), Ch. Ioannou (ed.), Th. Mavrojannis (ed.) (2019). Salamis of Cyprus: History and Archaeology from the Earliest Times to Late Antiquity. Münster, Waxmann.