Ancient CyprusAncient Cyprus

Archaeologist · Excavator · Scholar · Restorer / conservator

Martha Demas

fl. 1979–1990

Co-author with Vassos Karageorghis of three 1980s excavation reports (Pyla-Kokkinokremos, Kition, Maa-Palaeokastro) and writer of the architecture chapter of the last.

Biography

Martha Demas wrote the architecture chapter of the 1988 Maa-Palaeokastro report and was co-author, with Vassos Karageorghis, of three excavation reports of the 1980s: Pyla-Kokkinokremos: A Late 13th-Century B.C. Fortified Settlement in Cyprus (1984), Excavations at Kition V: The Pre-Phoenician Levels, Areas I and II (1985) and Excavations at Maa-Palaeokastro 1979-1986 (1988)8,9,10. Hermary reports the Pyla volume as published by Karageorghis and Martha Demas1.

Her named contribution at Maa-Palaeokastro, near Paphos, is the chapter "The Architecture", pages 1 to 99 of the 1988 volume3,11. Excavation there ran from 1979 to 1986, and the report was published by the Department of Antiquities in Nicosia4,10.

At Pyla-Kokkinokremos, Symons's survey of work in Cyprus describes the 1981 and 1982 seasons as carried out by Karageorghis, as Director of the Department of Antiquities, without naming her2. She is named on the preliminary report "Excavations at Pyla-Kokkinokremos 1981", by Karageorghis and Demas, in the Report of the Department of Antiquities, Cyprus for 19817. Studies of Cypriot figurines cite the Kition V volume for finds from the Bothros contexts3.

Life and work

  1. 1979–1986
    Co-authored with V. Karageorghis the report Excavations at Maa-Palaeokastro 1979-1986 (1988); Winkelmann cites her chapter 'The Architecture' (pp. 1-99) of that volume.

    Maa-PalaeokastroWinkelmann 2020, p. 587, p. 591

  2. 1981–1982
    Two seasons at Pyla-Kokkinokremos led by the Director of Antiquities, Karageorghis; the 1981 interim report appears under Karageorghis and Demas (RDAC 1981, 135-141 in the Late Cypriot Goldwork citation).

    PylaSymons 1986-1987Goring 1983, p. 420

  3. 1984
    Published Pyla-Kokkinokremos: A Late 13th-Century B.C. Fortified Settlement in Cyprus with Karageorghis (Nicosia).

    NicosiaHermary 1986Given 2025, p. 44

  4. 1985
    Co-edited with Karageorghis Excavations at Kition V: The Pre-Phoenician Levels, Areas I and II (Nicosia).

    NicosiaDissinger 2017, p. 530Meyers 1997

  5. 1988
    Co-published Excavations at Maa-Palaeokastro 1979-1986 with Karageorghis (Nicosia, Department of Antiquities).

    NicosiaGiven 2025, p. 44Winkelmann 2020, p. 591

Connections

1 person

Fieldwork & employment

Scholarship

On Ancient Cyprus

2 pages

Sources

  1. 1.Antoine Hermary (1986). “Chronique d'archéologie chypriote (1984-1985)”. Cahiers du Centre d'Études Chypriotes 5.
  2. 2.D. J. Symons (1986-1987). “Archaeology in Cyprus, 1981-85”. Archaeological Reports 33, 62-77.
  3. 3.Christine Winkelmann (2020). The Neolithic and Chalcolithic Figurines of Cyprus. Münster, Zaphon.
  4. 4.Michael Given (2025). “Over the landscape, in the landscape? Knowledge and agency in Cypriot archaeology, 1870-1910”. Empire & Excavation: Critical perspectives on archaeology in British-period Cyprus, 1878-1960. Leiden, Sidestone Press.
  5. 5.Alicia Marie Dissinger (2017). “Cypro-Archaic Bird Iconography: Types, Uses, and Meanings”. University of Virginia.
  6. 6.Eric M. Meyers (ed.) (1997). The Oxford Encyclopedia of Archaeology in the Near East. New York, Oxford University Press.
  7. 7.Elizabeth Sarah Goring (1983). “Late Cypriot Goldwork, vol. 1”. PhD thesis, Bedford College, University of London.
  8. 8.V. Karageorghis, M. Demas (1984). Pyla-Kokkinokremos: A Late 13th-Century B.C. Fortified Settlement in Cyprus. Nicosia, Department of Antiquities, Cyprus.
  9. 9.V. Karageorghis, M. Demas (1985). Excavations at Kition V: The Pre-Phoenician Levels, Areas I and II. Nicosia, Department of Antiquities, Cyprus.
  10. 10.V. Karageorghis, M. Demas (1988). Excavations at Maa-Palaeokastro 1979-1986. Nicosia, Department of Antiquities, Cyprus.
  11. 11.M. Demas (1988). “The Architecture”. Excavations at Maa-Palaeokastro 1979-1986, 1-99.
  12. 12.Martha Demas, Neville Agnew (2006). “Decision making for conservation of archaeological sites: The example of the Laetoli Hominid trackway, Tanzania”. Of the past, for the future (Getty Conservation Institute Symposium Proceedings), 64-72.
  13. 13.M. Demas (1997). “Ephesus”. The Conservation of Archaeological Sites in the Mediterranean Region, 127-149. Getty Conservation Institute.