Wilhelm Dörpfeld

Wilhelm Dörpfeld spent a few weeks in Cyprus in early 1890, asked twice for leave to dig and never dug there^3,6. He was born at Barmen on 26 December 1853¹. Masson reports that the German Archaeological Institute had planned around 1887 a German excavation at the Aphrodite temple at Kouklia, which might have been led by Max Ohnefalsch-Richter and Dörpfeld². Ohnefalsch-Richter later wrote that Dörpfeld's original plan was to dig at Paphos with him and that the Institute stood aside for the British, a version Schmid finds more credible than that of Gardner³.

Dörpfeld was in Nicosia by 25 January 1890. He applied twice to Colonel Warren for small trial excavations, and Schmid reports that both requests were refused³. He then toured with Ohnefalsch-Richter and photographed the built tombs at Tamassos, capitals at Idalion, the sanctuary of Apollo Hylates and Kouklia; the negatives are in the Institute's collection at Athens^2,4. At Kouklia he noticed a syllabic inscription, ICS 11, built into a wall of loose stones. Richard Meister first read it from a copy as a dedication to Apollo and corrected it to an epitaph when the stone reached Berlin, the only object known to have gone there². Ohnefalsch-Richter named Dörpfeld as the finder of the sanctuary place at Cape Greco⁴.

Maier writes that the German plan was dropped because of the Cyprus Exploration Fund⁶. Dörpfeld died at Lefkada on 25 April 1940¹.