Ancient CyprusAncient Cyprus

Curator · Museum buyer · Epigrapher · Scholar

Samuel Birch

1813–1885 · United Kingdom

British Museum oriental department official who announced in 1872 that the Cypriot script was a form of Greek and acted for the Museum in its 1876 purchase of 127 Cesnola objects.

Biography

On 2 January 1872 Samuel Birch told the Society of Biblical Archaeology that the Cypriot script was a form of Greek. Robert Hamilton Lang had handed him the Dali bilingual, and Birch passed it to George Smith to study; Lang and Smith backed his announcement2. Birch (1813-1885) never worked in Cyprus4. Masson places him in the Museum's oriental department from 18661.

He was the Museum's regular correspondent for Luigi Palma di Cesnola. The Museum's Western Asiatic department holds their letters, which run from 1870 to 18812. Between August 1874 and April 1876 Cesnola sent him photographs and drawings of finds from Amathus and Kourion5. Marangou says that in December 1870 Cesnola offered the Museum the 1,277 Golgoi pieces and that C. T. Newton rejected the proposal2. Six boxes from Cesnola reached the Museum on 30 November 18752.

In September 1876 the Museum bought from Cesnola the series registered 1876.9-9, 1-127, mostly vases, with Birch as intermediary. Masson gives the payment as 300 pounds in two instalments of 213 and 87 pounds1; Marangou describes Birch telling Cesnola that the Trustees would buy a selection he had chosen for 213 pounds2. In November 1876 Birch and Newton reported on the Curium collection of about 1,500 objects, for which 12,000 pounds was asked, and recommended its purchase. The Trustees minuted it on 11 November, the sale did not go through, and the collection went to New York2.

Birch also befriended Alessandro Palma di Cesnola, who wrote the acquaintance ripened into "a very devoted friendship". Birch wrote the introduction to Alessandro's Salaminia3.

Life and work

  1. 2 January 1872
    Announced at the Society of Biblical Archaeology, backed by Lang and George Smith, that the Cypriot script was a form of Greek, after Lang had handed him the Dali bilingual.

    LondonMarangou 2000, p. 49

  2. 29 August 1874
    Cesnola wrote to Birch from Kourion describing the large Amathus vases and a second vase left in place; further letters 24 Mar, 14 Jun, 24 Jun 1875 and 4 Apr 1876 sent photographs and drawings of Amathus finds (incl. the Amathus sarcophagus).

    KourionMasson 1990

  3. 30 November 1875
    Received six boxes of antiquities shipped by Cesnola to the BM; the list of contents survives in the Cesnola-Birch correspondence.

    LondonMarangou 2000, p. 273

  4. 9 November 1876
    Birch and Newton reported to the Trustees (reports dated 9 November; Trustees' minute of 11 November 1876) on the Curium collection (c. 1,500 objects) and recommended purchase; asking price £12,000.

    LondonMarangou 2000, p. 279

  5. 1876
    Selected, from Cesnola's offer, the series later registered 1876.9-9, 1-127 (over eighty vases plus terracottas and other pieces) for the BM; the £300 paid was split in two instalments of £213 and £87.

    LondonMasson 1996Marangou 2000, p. 275

Through their hands

1 record
  1. n.d.

    AgencyBirch acted as intermediary for the British Museum’s direct purchase from Cesnola.

    Agent for British Museuma series of antiquitiesNo. 1876.9-9, 1 à 127300 livresLondonMasson 1996, p. 9

Connections

13 people
Luigi Palma di CesnolaRobert Hamilton LangGeorge SmithAugustus ReadyDemetrios PieridesAlessandro (Alexander) Pa…Olivier MassonCharles NewtonEdwin Henry LawrenceArchibald Henry SayceJohannes BrandisReginald Stuart PooleJohn RuskinSamuel Birch
Sales & giftsFieldworkScholarshipColleagues

Sales, gifts & bequests

Fieldwork & employment

Scholarship

Colleagues & contacts

Show 1 more

Recording and study

2 records
Published1

  • 1876probablyBirch published a note on inscribed objects that Masson thought was probably the earliest mention of the lamp.

    quelques objets inscrits, dont ICS 329No. ICS 329Masson 1990

Employed by1

Objects

  • 127 Cypriot objects (vases of various periods, some terracottas, miscellany) bought from L. P. di Cesnola

    British Museum 1876.9-9,1-1271876Masson 1996

On Ancient Cyprus

1 page

Sources

  1. 1.Olivier Masson (1996). “La dispersion des antiquités chypriotes: les deux collections Cesnola”. Cahiers du Centre d'Études Chypriotes 25, 3-32. Online
  2. 2.A. G. Marangou (ed.) (2000). The Consul Luigi Palma di Cesnola 1832-1904: Life and Deeds.
  3. 3.Alexander Palma di Cesnola (1884). Salaminia (Cyprus): The History, Treasures, and Antiquities of Salamis in the Island of Cyprus. London, Whiting and Company.
  4. 4.T. Kiely (2010). “Charles Newton and the archaeology of Cyprus”. Cahiers du Centre d'Études Chypriotes 40, 231-251. Online
  5. 5.O. Masson (1990). “Cesnola à Amathonte, 1874-1875”. Cahiers du Centre d'Études Chypriotes 13, 15-18.
  6. 6.Wikidata / GND (2026). Samuel Birch (Q2742058; GND 116188839). Online
  7. 7.Veronica Tatton-Brown (ed.) (2001). Cyprus in the 19th Century AD: Fact, Fancy and Fiction. Oxford, Oxbow.
  8. 8.R. H. Lang (1905). “Reminiscences: Archaeological Researches in Cyprus”. Blackwood's Magazine 177, 622-639.
  9. 9.Léon Fivel (1990). “Le second vase d'Amathonte”. Cahiers du Centre d'Études Chypriotes 13. Online
  10. 10.Lemesos: A History of Limassol in Cyprus from Antiquity to the Ottoman Conquest.
  11. 11.O. Masson (1984). “Cesnola et le trésor de Curium (II)”. Cahiers du Centre d'Études Chypriotes 2.
  12. 12.Olivier Masson (1994). “L. Palma di Cesnola, H. Schliemann et l'éditeur John Murray”. Cahiers du Centre d'Études Chypriotes 21, 7-14.
  13. 13.C. D. Cobham (1908). Excerpta Cypria: Materials for a History of Cyprus. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. Online
  14. 14.A. Hermary, J. R. Mertens (2014). The Cesnola Collection of Cypriot Art: Stone Sculpture. New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art.
  15. 15.A. P. di Cesnola (1881). Lawrence-Cesnola Collection. Cyprus Antiquities excavated by Major Alexander Palma di Cesnola, 1876 to 1879. London, W. Holmes & Son.
  16. 16.Nicholas Stanley-Price (2018). “Illicit excavation: the trial of Alessandro Palma di Cesnola in Cyprus in 1878”. The Antiquaries Journal 98, 297-317.
  17. 17.T. Kiely (ed.), A. Reeve (ed.), L. Crewe (ed.) (2025). Empire & Excavation: Critical perspectives on archaeology in British-period Cyprus, 1878-1960. Leiden, Sidestone Press.
  18. 18.Olivier Masson (1990). “L'inscription syllabique ICS 329 rendue à Amathonte”. Cahiers du Centre d'Études Chypriotes 13.