Papa Prokopios

In November 1929 a priest from Agia Irini, Papa Prokopios, came to Nicosia with a gift for the Cyprus Museum: the head and upper part of a terracotta statue of the early 6th century BC, which he had found on his own farm¹. Einar Gjerstad of the Swedish Cyprus Expedition writes that within days the Expedition inspected the farm, concluded that the priest had found an intact temple, and obtained a permit with the Cyprus Museum and the government. Erik Sjöqvist moved from the Karpas to dig there¹.

According to Gjerstad, Prokopios received the Swedes, led them to the field and told them he had saved everything. He said that the villagers had been ready to stone him for stopping them taking finds, and Gjerstad adds that the Expedition later found he had told the truth¹. The excavation of 1929 and 1930 produced some 2,000 terracottas arranged in semicircles around an altar, as well as war chariots, bronze statuettes, life-size statues and 300 scarabs¹. Marie-Louise Winbladh gives the story more briefly, saying the priest showed the Expedition where to dig, and notes that his small white church of 1929 can still be seen at the site². Nothing is recorded of his age, family or later life¹.