Ancient CyprusAncient Cyprus

Excavator · Archaeologist · Scholar

John E. Coleman

fl. 1974–2001 · United States

Cornell professor who directed the 1976 to 1982 excavations at the Middle Bronze Age settlement of Alambra-Mouttes and co-authored its 1996 final report.

Biography

John E. Coleman of Cornell University directed the excavation of the Bronze Age settlement at Alambra, in the Nicosia district, a site that had already been dug three times. Vassos Karageorghis's Chronique, reproducing Coleman's own report, says that Luigi Palma di Cesnola claimed to have opened 82 tombs there between 1868 and 1874, that Max Ohnefalsch-Richter dug tombs in 1883 and 1885, and that the Swedish Cyprus Expedition worked there in 19241.

Coleman began with a surface survey in 1974. The first campaign ran from 5 July to 31 August 1976, under Cornell's Interdisciplinary Program in Archaeology, in Sector A beside a ravine on the slopes of Moutes1,7. Campaigns followed in 1978 and 1980, and a fourth in 1982 exposed six or seven buildings and a proposed date of about 1900 BCE2,3,4. In 1986 the Cornell mission was listed as holding a study season6. Interim reports appeared in the Report of the Department of Antiquities, Cyprus, and in 1985 Coleman published a reply to Robert Merrillees15.

The final report, Alambra: A Middle Bronze Age Settlement in Cyprus (SIMA 118, 1996), is by Coleman, Jane A. Barlow, M. K. Mogelonsky and K. W. Schaar. Merrillees notes that its authors deliberately set aside the Swedish classificatory system, and he judges that they ignored the relevant literature10.

Life and work

  1. 1974
    Preliminary surface exploration of the Alambra settlement, cemeteries and hill of Moutes, to judge whether the site justified excavation (Coleman's own report in the Chronique).

    AlambraKarageorghis 1977

  2. 5 July 1976 – 31 August 1976
    First excavation campaign at Alambra for a mission sponsored by Cornell's Interdisciplinary Program in Archaeology, directed by Coleman; work in Sector A beside a small ravine, uncovering large Middle Cypriot buildings.

    AlambraKarageorghis 1977Nicolaou 1978

  3. 1978
    Second campaign at Alambra (Sector A) under J. E. Coleman; Karageorghis's Chronique notes the large buildings, a possible dating to early Middle Cypriot (c. 2000-1900 BCE) and copper pin and crucible fragments.

    AlambraKarageorghis 1979

  4. 1980
    Third campaign; at least four buildings with party walls in Sector A, four pithoi in a storeroom, terracotta figurine fragments, copper objects and crucible fragments.

    AlambraKarageorghis 1981

  5. 1982
    Fourth and last excavation campaign: six or seven buildings in Sector A, a date c. 1900 BCE proposed, no radiocarbon sample.

    AlambraKarageorghis 1983Karageorghis 1983

  6. 1986
    Chronique lists the Cornell mission at Alambra under Coleman among missions holding a study season rather than excavating.

    AlambraKarageorghis 1987

  7. 1996
    Final report published as Alambra. A Middle Bronze Age Settlement in Cyprus (SIMA 118) with J. A. Barlow, M. K. Mogelonsky and K. W. Schaar; the authors abandoned the Swedish Cyprus Expedition typology.

    Merrillees 2001, p. 233Coleman et al. 1996

Connections

7 people
Jane A. BarlowKenneth W. SchaarMarcia K. MogelonskyL. F. DeckerRobert Stuart MerrilleesWalter FasnachtMichael ArtzyJohn E. Coleman
ScholarshipColleagues

Scholarship

Colleagues & contacts

On Ancient Cyprus

3 pages

Sources

  1. 1.V. Karageorghis (1977). “Chronique des fouilles et découvertes archéologiques à Chypre en 1976”. Bulletin de correspondance hellénique 101.
  2. 2.V. Karageorghis (1979). “Chronique des fouilles et découvertes archéologiques à Chypre en 1978”. Bulletin de correspondance hellénique 103.
  3. 3.V. Karageorghis (1981). “Chronique des fouilles et découvertes archéologiques à Chypre en 1980”. Bulletin de correspondance hellénique 105.
  4. 4.V. Karageorghis (1983). “Chronique des fouilles et découvertes archéologiques à Chypre en 1982”. Bulletin de correspondance hellénique 107.
  5. 5.V. Karageorghis (1983). “Chronique des fouilles et découvertes archéologiques à Chypre en 1982”. Bulletin de correspondance hellénique 107.
  6. 6.V. Karageorghis (1987). “Chronique des fouilles et découvertes archéologiques à Chypre en 1986”. Bulletin de correspondance hellénique 111.
  7. 7.K. Nicolaou (1978). “Archaeological News from Cyprus, 1976”. American Journal of Archaeology 82, 521-535.
  8. 8.D. J. Symons (1986-1987). “Archaeology in Cyprus, 1981-85”. Archaeological Reports 33, 62-77.
  9. 9.Ellen Herscher (1995). “Archaeology in Cyprus”. American Journal of Archaeology 99, 257-294.
  10. 10.R. S. Merrillees (2001). “T. B. Sandwith and the beginnings of Cypriote archaeology”. Cyprus in the 19th Century AD: Fact, Fancy and Fiction, 222-239. Oxford, Oxbow.
  11. 11.J. E. Coleman, J. A. Barlow, M. K. Mogelonsky, K. W. Schaar (1996). Alambra: A Middle Bronze Age Settlement in Cyprus. Archaeological Investigations by Cornell University 1974-1985. Jonsered, Paul Åströms Förlag.
  12. 12.J. E. Coleman (1977). “Cornell excavations at Alambra, 1976”. Report of the Department of Antiquities, Cyprus, 71-79.
  13. 13.J. A. Barlow, J. E. Coleman (1982). “Alambra and the Earlier Phases of the Cypriot Bronze Age”. Report of the Department of Antiquities, Cyprus, 31-36.
  14. 14.J. E. Coleman (1985). “Investigations at Alambra, 1974-1984: A Brief Reply to Dr. Merrillees”. Archaeology in Cyprus 1960-1985, 125-140. Nicosia, A. G. Leventis Foundation.
  15. 15. (1989). “Reference list in Archaeometry article doi 10.1111/j.1475-4754.1989.tb01057.x”. Archaeometry. Online
  16. 16.J. A. Barlow (ed.), D. L. Bolger (ed.), B. Kling (ed.) (1991). Cypriot Ceramics: Reading the Prehistoric Record. Philadelphia, University Museum.