Ancient CyprusAncient Cyprus

Traveller / antiquarian · Draughtsman / artist · Epigrapher

Richard Pococke

1704–1765 · United Kingdom

English clergyman who spent October to December 1738 in Cyprus and published plans of Kition and Salamis, a map of the island and a plate of Phoenician inscriptions from Kition.

Biography

Richard Pococke left Tripoli for Cyprus on 24 October 1738, anchored at Limassol four days later and left the island from Limassol on 25 December2. He was born at Southampton in 1704, studied at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, took a doctorate of civil law in 1733 and became Bishop of Ossory in 17569,10. He did not excavate or collect for a museum. What he left was a record: the Cyprus chapters of A Description of the East (London, 1743-45), pages 209-235 of the second volume, with a map of the island, plans of Citium and Salamis and a plate of Phoenician inscriptions found in the foundations of ancient Citium2.

His plan of the city wall and harbour appears as plate XXXII5. Of the Phoenician inscriptions, Anastasia Marangou states that he took the stones with him; an 1879 report by Charles Newton, as printed by Kiely, says only that the stones he saw had disappeared, "having, it is said, been used in the construction of an aqueduct"4,8.

His description of grey granite pillars and Corinthian capitals at Salamis (vol. II, p. 216) was used by Munro and Tubbs in 1890 to locate their site A, though they rejected his view that the harbours had become mainland7. Luigi Palma di Cesnola listed him among earlier writers in 1878 and corrected him on Cape Pyla and on Nicosia6. Pococke died in September 17659,10.

Life and work

  1. 24 October 1738 – 25 December 1738
    Left Tripoli for Cyprus on 24 October 1738, anchored at Limassol on 28 October, and left the island from Limassol on 25 December 1738.

    CyprusCobham 1908, p. 251

  2. 1738
    Visited Kition and Salamis; drew plans of both and a plan of Kition's walls and harbour; copied Phoenician-inscribed stones from the foundations of Kition (Cobham: 'a plate of Phoenician inscriptions discovered in the foundations of ancient Citium'). Misidentified Amathus's city wall as the Temple of Venus and Adonis.

    Kition, Salamis, AmathusCobham 1908, p. 251Ulbrich & Kiely 2012Karageorghis 1976, p. 179 n. 20-21Marangou 2000, p. 27

  3. 1738
    At Salamis recorded grey granite pillars and Corinthian capitals 'on the north of the new city, just within the gate' (Description of the East II p. 216), quoted by the Cyprus Exploration Fund team in 1890 to fix their site A; also took the ruins now called the 'church' and supposed the harbours had silted into the mainland, which Munro and Tubbs rejected.

    SalamisMunro et al. 1891, pp. 5

  4. 1743–1745
    Published A Description of the East, and Some Other Countries, vol. 2 (1743-45, folio, 2 vols, London) with a map of Cyprus, plans of Citium and Salamis and a plate of Phoenician inscriptions; Cyprus text at vol. II part i, pp. 209-235.

    LondonCobham 1908, p. 251

  5. 1745
    Cited by Cesnola (1878) as an earlier writer on Cyprus whom he corrects: Cape Pyla/Throni (Pococke took Cape Chiti for Dades) and the claim that Nicosia stands on ancient Tremitus.

    CyprusCesnola 1878

  6. 1879
    Charles Newton's 1879 Cyprus report reprinted by Kiely cites Pococke as having seen Phoenician-inscribed stones by the former Kition harbour in the early 18th century, 'since disappeared', said to have been used in an aqueduct.

    LarnacaKiely 2010, p. 249

Sources

  1. 1.R. Pococke (1743-1745). A Description of the East, and Some Other Countries. London.
  2. 2.C. D. Cobham (1908). Excerpta Cypria: Materials for a History of Cyprus. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. Online
  3. 3.Anja Ulbrich, Thomas Kiely (2012). “Britain and the Archaeology of Cyprus. I. The long 19th century”. Cahiers du Centre d'Études Chypriotes 42. Online
  4. 4.A. G. Marangou (ed.) (2000). The Consul Luigi Palma di Cesnola 1832-1904: Life and Deeds.
  5. 5.V. Karageorghis (1976). Kition: Mycenaean and Phoenician Discoveries in Cyprus. London, Thames and Hudson.
  6. 6.L. P. di Cesnola (1878). Cyprus: Its Ancient Cities, Tombs, and Temples.
  7. 7.J. A. R. Munro, H. A. Tubbs, W. Wroth (1891). “Excavations in Cyprus, 1890: Third Season's Work: Salamis”. Journal of Hellenic Studies 12, 59-198. Online
  8. 8.T. Kiely (2010). “Charles Newton and the archaeology of Cyprus”. Cahiers du Centre d'Études Chypriotes 40, 231-251. Online
  9. 9.Dawn of Discovery: The Early British Travellers to Crete: Richard Pococke, Robert Pashley and Thomas Spratt and their contributions.
  10. 10.O. Medvedkova. Richard Pococke, or the Invention of Jerusalem for Tourists. Online