Kyrios Kaplanis

When the Swedish Cyprus Expedition came to Lapithos in 1927, the mayor, Mr. Kaplanis, spoke at the public meeting where the landowners agreed to let it dig. Einar Gjerstad had the backing of the Museum of Cyprus committee and a law allowing finds to be ceded, but still needed each owner's signature. Antonios Papapetrou, an assistant land registrar, first called on the mayor, who owned the village's only important general store and, in Gjerstad's account, saw what the expedition's presence would bring. At a public meeting outside a café Kaplanis spoke of the honour and the money the excavation would bring, and the peasants signed at sunset¹.

The expedition worked at Lapithos from autumn 1927 to spring 1928 and lodged with "our friend the Mayor, the celebrated Kyrios Kaplanis"¹. Gjerstad describes him as a former poor schoolteacher at Rhizokarpasso, married to the daughter of one of the richest men in Lapithos and mayor at thirty-five. He calls him "the Pericles of Lapithos" for his lemons, roads, Council Hall and girls' school. A faction led by a tailor, Papatouli, later beat him in a mayoral election; Gjerstad gives no year. His forename is not recorded¹.