Foreman · Museum staff
Lazaros Nikolaou
fl. 1927–1935 · Cyprus
Foreman and Cyprus Museum attendant who ran the workmen for the Swedish Cyprus Expedition at Vouni and Petra tou Limniti and ran to announce the Vouni treasure.
Biography
Lazaros Nikolaou was the foreman who ran to tell the Swedish Cyprus Expedition that the earth at the Vouni palace was gleaming with gold and silver. The preface to the expedition's first volume lists him with Jorkos Anastasiou, Loizos and the late Michalis Nikolaou as foremen who were attendants at the Cyprus Museum1.
Einar Gjerstad remembered him in Ages and Days in Cyprus as "the first of the Cypriot Vounites", a head taller than the workers, calm, in a blue waistcoat with a watch chain and a whistle as the sign of his authority2. At Petra tou Limniti he exchanged the whistle for a conch shell to call the shifts2. At Vouni he stood among the workers as the dump cars carried off the earth, and when a jar of gold and silver was found below the palace he ran to bring the news2. In 1930 he camped with two other workmen near the church of St Phokas at Kythrea, where Alfred Westholm slept in the church2. His dates of birth and death, and his career after the expedition, are not recorded.
Life and work
- 1927–1931Named in the Preface of SCE I as one of four foremen (Jorkos Anastasiou, Lazaros Nikolaou, Loizos, and the late Michalis Nikolaou), all attendants at the Cyprus Museum, used by the Expedition at its Cyprus excavations.
CyprusGjerstad et al. 1934
- 1928–1929Foreman of the workmen at the Vouni palace excavation: calm, very tall, blue waistcoat, watch chain and a whistle as sign of authority; stood among the workers while dump cars removed the earth.
VouniGjerstad 1980
- 1928–1929On the Petra tou Limniti excavation he exchanged his whistle for a conch shell to call the workers at 5.30 a.m. and at meal times; sounded it for the last time when the work finished.
Petra tou LimnitiGjerstad 1980
- 1929–1930On the Vouni treasure find (gold and silver in a clay jar below a staircase of the palace) Lazaros ran to tell the staff: 'The earth is gleaming with gold and silver in the palace!'; Kristos was the workman who struck it.
VouniGjerstad 1980
- 1930Camped with Kristos and Mavrokeratas in a hut near St Phokas church, Kythrea, while Westholm lodged in the church, during the Chalcolithic settlement excavation of spring 1930.
KythreaGjerstad 1980
Connections
4 peopleFieldwork & employment
- Employed by Einar Nilson Gjerstad1927–1931
- Employed by Alfred Westholm1928–1929
Colleagues & contacts
- Worked with Michalis Nikolaou1927–1931
- Worked with Alfred Westholm1928–1930
- Worked with Loizos Vasiloi1935
Sources
- 1.E. Gjerstad, J. Lindros, E. Sjöqvist, A. Westholm (1934). The Swedish Cyprus Expedition: Finds and Results of the Excavations in Cyprus 1927-1931, Vol. I (text). Stockholm, The Swedish Cyprus Expedition.
- 2.E. Gjerstad (1980). Ages and Days in Cyprus.