Ancient CyprusAncient Cyprus

Scholar

Richard MacGillivray Dawkins

1871–1955 · United Kingdom

Director of the British School at Athens who in 1909 drew up recommendations for excavators in Cyprus and later edited the chronicles of Makhairas and Boustronios.

Biography

In 1909 Richard MacGillivray Dawkins (1871-1955), then Director of the British School at Athens, drew up recommendations "for the guidance of excavators" in Cyprus1. Jerome Farrell's confidential report on the Cyprus Museum referred to them and doubted that they would take effect despite the support of Major Clauson, the Chief Secretary1. Merrillees concludes from the report's internal evidence that Dawkins commissioned it. The report was an attachment to a letter of 7 September 1909 in which the School's London Secretary, J. ff. Baker Penoyre, convened a conference for 14 September and said he would go through the matter with Dawkins on his return1.

Dawkins had visited the island earlier that year. On 6 February 1909 he inspected the finds from Eustathios Constantinides' excavations at Idalion in the Curator's house at Nicosia. The reason for his visit is not recorded1.

Dawkins later edited and translated Leontios Makhairas's Chronicle of Cyprus (Oxford, 1932, two volumes)2. His edition of The Chronicle of George Boustronios 1456-1489 was published by Melbourne University Press in 1964 as the second volume of the Melbourne Cyprus Expedition series, with the index and proofs prepared by Eve Stewart after the death of Jim Stewart3,4.

Life and work

  1. 6 February 1909
    Inspected the finds from Eustathios Constantinides' 1908 Idalion excavation at the Curator's house in Nicosia.

    NicosiaMerrillees 2005, p. 10

  2. 1909
    While in Cyprus drew up 'recommendations for the guidance of excavators'. Farrell, reporting in 1909, thought they were unlikely to take practical effect despite the sympathetic efforts of Major Clauson, Chief Secretary to the Government.

    CyprusMerrillees 2005, p. 8

  3. 1909
    Merrillees concludes from internal evidence that Dawkins, as BSA Director, commissioned Jerome Farrell's confidential report on the Cyprus Museum and Cyprus excavations (not stated in the report itself). The BSA London Secretary invited Cobham, Farrell and Thompson to a conference on it on 14 September 1909, planning to add Dawkins' emendations once he returned.

    LondonMerrillees 2005, pp. 4

Connections

4 people
Wilfrid Jerome FarrellEustathios ConstantinidesJohn ff. Baker PenoyreJohn E. ClausonRichard MacGillivray Dawkins
FieldworkColleagues

Fieldwork & employment

Colleagues & contacts

Sources

  1. 1.Robert Stuart Merrillees (2005). “Towards a fuller history of the Cyprus Museum”. Cahiers du Centre d'Études Chypriotes 35, 191-214. Online
  2. 2.Leontios Makhairas (1932). Recital concerning the Sweet Land of Cyprus entitled 'Chronicle', vols I-II. Oxford, Clarendon Press.
  3. 3.George Boustronios (1964). The Chronicle of George Boustronios 1456-1489. Melbourne University Press.
  4. 4.Judy Powell (2013). Love's Obsession: The Lives and Archaeology of Jim and Eve Stewart. Kent Town, South Australia, Wakefield Press.
  5. 5.“Women at the British School at Athens”. Online
  6. 6.Alison Petch (2007). “Notes and Queries and the Pitt Rivers Museum”. Museum Anthropology 30, 21-39. Online