Ancient CyprusAncient Cyprus

Antiquities official · Scholar

Marina Solomidou-Ieronymidou

fl. 1987–2023 · Cyprus

Archaeologist of the Cyprus Department of Antiquities who published six Cypro-Archaic statues from Tamassos and served as its acting director in 2009 and as Director by 2019.

Biography

Marina Solomidou-Ieronymidou published the six Cypro-Archaic statues found in 1997 in a pit beside Tomb 2 of the "Royal" necropolis at Politiko-Tamassos: two pairs of lions and a pair of sphinxes. The sphinxes are in the Cyprus Museum as 1997/VII-15/3 and 1997/VII-15/6, and the catalogue of the Smithsonian Institution exhibition of Cypriot antiquities cites her article in the Report of the Department of Antiquities for 20016,7. An earlier paper of hers, on the ancient religion of Cyprus as seen in inscriptions from Cyprus and Greece, appeared in Archaeologia Cypria in 19858.

At the Department of Antiquities she was acting director in 2009, when, with Director Maria Hadjicosti, she granted Peter M. Fischer permission to resume excavation at Hala Sultan Tekke1. In October 2017 she opened the Paphos Agora Project exhibition at the Paphos Visitors Centre, and the project's 2020 volume thanks her as the present director3.

On 6 February 2019 she signed a letter to foundations, foreign missions and the Association of Cypriot Archaeologists asking them not to take part in a conference at Kyrenia, which the letter called illegal under the Antiquities Law and the 1999 Second Protocol to the Hague Convention2. The conference organisers describe it as a campaign letter that prevented a bicommunal conference2.

Life and work

  1. 1997
    Six sculptures (two antithetic pairs of lions and a pair of sphinxes) found in a pit beside Tomb 2 of the 'Royal' necropolis at Politiko-Tamassos; the sphinxes are Cyprus Museum 1997/VII-15/3 and 1997/VII-15/6. Her RDAC 2001 article is the publication cited for them.

    Politiko, TamassosCyprus: Crossroads of Civilizations 2021, p. 156Solomidou-Ieronymidou 2001, pp. 165-182

  2. 1 September 2009
    As then acting director, supported and (with Maria Hadjicosti) granted Peter M. Fischer's application to resume excavation at Hala Sultan Tekke.

    NicosiaFischer 2012, p. 6

  3. October 2017
    As Director of the Department of Antiquities opened the Paphos Agora Project exhibition at the Paphos Visitors Centre, Kato Paphos; the Jagiellonian University book thanks her for support.

    Kato PaphosPapuci-Władyka 2020, p. 5, Pl. 2 caption

  4. 6 February 2019
    As Director signed a letter to the Leventis Foundation, CAARI, the Bank of Cyprus Cultural Foundation, the Makarios III Foundation, foreign missions and the Association of Cypriot Archaeologists calling the Kyrenia (Keryneia) conference an 'illegal' event, asking them not to take part and citing the Antiquities Law and the 1999 Second Protocol of the Hague Convention. Summerer, Kiessel and Kaba, organisers of the conference, call it a 'campaign letter' that prevented a bicommunal conference.

    NicosiaSummerer 2023

Connections

7 people
Ewdoksia Papuci-WładykaPeter M. FischerTasoula HadjitofiLoria MarkidesMaria HadjicostiDavid JohnsonGeorge (Giorgos) GeorgiouMarina Solomidou-Ieronymidou
Sales & giftsFieldworkDisputesScholarshipColleagues

Sales, gifts & bequests

Fieldwork & employment

Disputes & the law

Scholarship

Colleagues & contacts

On Ancient Cyprus

1 page

Sources

  1. 1.P. M. Fischer (2012). “SIMA and the New Swedish Cyprus Expedition at Hala Sultan Tekke”. Studies in Mediterranean Archaeology: Fifty Years On, 73-80. Uppsala.
  2. 2.Lâtife Summerer (2023). “In Fear of Blacklisting. How the Division Shaped Archaeology in Cyprus”. New Approaches toward Recording, Preserving and Studying Cultural Heritage in Divided Cyprus. Kyrenia, ARUCAD Press.
  3. 3.E. Papuci-Władyka (ed.) (2020). Interdisciplinary Research of the Jagiellonian University in Nea Paphos UNESCO World Heritage Site (2011-2015): First Results.
  4. 4.Benjamin Costello IV (2014). Architecture and Material Culture from the Earthquake House at Kourion, Cyprus. Oxford, Archaeopress.
  5. 5.E. Peltenburg (ed.), D. Bolger (ed.), L. Crewe (ed.) (2019). Figurine Makers of Prehistoric Cyprus: Settlement and Cemeteries at Souskiou. Oxford, Oxbow Books.
  6. 6. (2021). Cyprus: Crossroads of Civilizations.
  7. 7.M. Solomidou-Ieronymidou (2001). “The Discovery of Six Unique Cypro-Archaic Statues at Tamassos”. Report of the Department of Antiquities, Cyprus, 165-182.
  8. 8.M. Solomidou-Ieronymidou (1985). “The ancient religion of Cyprus through the epigraphical documents of Cyprus and Greece: a comparative study”. Archaeologia Cypria 1, 57-64.
  9. 9.M. Solomidou-Ieronymidou (2015). Αρχαιολογικός χώρος Παλαιπάφου: Προβλήματα και προβληματισμοί για την αντιμετώπιση της φ….
  10. 10.Loria Markides (ed.) (1999). Archaeological Sites and Monuments of Cyprus on the List of World Cultural Heritage. Nicosia, Cyprus National Commission for UNESCO.