Ancient CyprusAncient Cyprus

Excavator · Scholar · Museum director

Thomas W. Davis

fl. 1984–2016 · United States

American archaeologist who led a small team at Kourion's Earthquake House from 1984, directed CAARI in Nicosia from 2003 to 2011, and later coordinated the Kourion Urban Space Project.

Biography

Thomas W. Davis came to Kourion in 1984 as an excavator for David Soren, after taking a class in Cypriot archaeology at the University of Arizona. Soren sought an experienced excavator to lead a small team alongside his main work at the Temple of Apollo. Davis volunteered, and the effort grew into the excavation of the Earthquake House, a late Roman house. Davis says he worked on it for two years1. The bibliography of Benjamin Costello IV's later monograph on the house lists Davis and Soren's "Seismic Archaeology at Kourion: The 1984 Campaign" (1985) and an article by Soren, Gardiner and Davis (1986), both in the Report of the Department of Antiquities, Cyprus6. In 1989 Davis published "A History of American Archaeology on Cyprus" in The Biblical Archaeologist2.

He was Director of the Cyprus American Archaeological Research Institute (CAARI) in Nicosia from 2003 to 20115. In October 2005 he organized a conference on the medieval frescoes of Cyprus, and he conceived the 2011 conference "Cyprus in the Balance of Empires" in 2006. He edited its proceedings with Charles Anthony Stewart and Annemarie Weyl Carr (2014)5. The foreword also records that, after travel restrictions eased in 2003, he looked into what reconciliation would mean for antiquities laws5.

Davis calls his own project, the Kourion Urban Space Project, a direct outgrowth of the Earthquake House dig1. In 2016 he was at the Charles D. Tandy Institute of Archaeology, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary1. The 2018 season report, with contributions by him, concerns Building 4, southwest of the Earthquake House7.

Life and work

  1. 1984
    After taking a class in Cypriot archaeology at the University of Arizona, volunteered to direct a small subsidiary team at Kourion for David Soren (whose main effort was at the Temple of Apollo); it grew into a major excavation of a late Roman house, the 'Earthquake House', which he says he worked on for two years.

    KourionDavis 2016, p. 1

  2. 1985
    Co-authored with Soren 'Seismic Archaeology at Kourion: The 1984 Campaign', RDAC 293-306.

    IV 2014

  3. 1986
    Third author with Soren and Gardiner of 'The Archaeological Excavations and Analyses of Earthquake-Affected Strata at Roman Kourion, Cyprus', RDAC 202-11.

    IV 2014

  4. 1989
    Published 'A History of American Archaeology on Cyprus' (Biblical Archaeologist 52.4: 163-169), on the Penn Kourion expeditions of Hill and McFadden, Cesnola, and the founding of CAARI.

    Davis 1989, pp. 163-169

  5. 2003–2011
    Director of CAARI, Nicosia; the Balance of Empires volume's foreword calls the volume a monument to his tenure, notes the 2003 easing of travel restrictions, and says he explored the implications of reconciliation for antiquities laws and encouraged Byzantine scholarship and conferences in the Republic.

    NicosiaStewart et al. 2014

  6. October 2005
    Organized the 'Medieval frescoes of Cyprus' conference at CAARI.

    NicosiaStewart et al. 2014

  7. 2007–2008
    As CAARI Director, took a personal interest in Benjamin Costello IV's Fulbright project and introduced him to the archaeological community on the island; Costello's later monograph publishes the Earthquake House.

    NicosiaIV 2014

  8. 8 January 2011
    CAARI conference 'Cyprus in the Balance of Empires', conceived by Davis in 2006; he lectured on the historiography of Byzantine-period archaeology on Cyprus. Co-edited the proceedings (2014).

    NicosiaStewart et al. 2014

Connections

4 people
David SorenAnnemarie Weyl CarrCharles Anthony StewartBenjamin Costello IVThomas W. Davis
FieldworkScholarshipColleagues

Fieldwork & employment

Scholarship

Colleagues & contacts

On Ancient Cyprus

1 page

Sources

  1. 1.Thomas W. Davis (2016). “The Jewish Diaspora in Ptolemaic and Roman Cyprus: Some Speculations”. Journal of Ancient Egyptian Interconnections 10.
  2. 2.Thomas W. Davis (1989). “A History of American Archaeology on Cyprus”. The Biblical Archaeologist 52, 163-169. Online
  3. 3.Thomas W. Davis (2008). “What's in a Name: CAARI at 30”. Near Eastern Archaeology 71, 16-20.
  4. 4.Thomas W. Davis (2010). “Earthquakes and the Crises of Faith: Social Transformation in Late Antique Cyprus”. Buried History 46, 3-14.
  5. 5.C. A. Stewart (ed.), T. W. Davis (ed.), A. Weyl Carr (ed.) (2014). Cyprus and the Balance of Empires: Art and Archaeology from Justinian I to the Coeur de Lion. CAARI / ASOR.
  6. 6.Benjamin Costello IV (2014). Architecture and Material Culture from the Earthquake House at Kourion, Cyprus. Oxford, Archaeopress.
  7. 7.Laura A. Swantek, Lucas Grimsley (2018). Kourion Urban Space Project: Preliminary Report of the 2018 Season.