The books, page by page

15 of the books were written in a language other than English, and 2,462 pages across the shelf are in English translation. A book written mostly in English can still carry pages in another language (an article in German in one of the Medelhavsmuseet’s English bulletins, say), and those are translated too.

In the reader itself every book opens at any page, by scan or by printed page number, with a table of contents, the book’s own references to its figures and plates turning to them, full-screen reading and a citation for each page.

• 9,005

  links to 28 sites

• 8,059

  links to 1,547 people

• 6,588

  links to 1,369 publications

• 1,806

  links to 525 tombs

• 65

  links to 24 excavations

The counts are of pages: a name printed five times on one page counts once. The forms beside each name are the ones printed, with how many pages print them; forms that differ only in capitals are counted together. 6,672 of the links rest on initials or a surname alone, and the reader marks them as probable.

1. 1The scan

   We start from a complete scan of a copy in the public domain or under an open licence: from the Medelhavsmuseet in Stockholm, the Cyprus Digital Library, Heidelberg University Library, and the copies of university and public libraries on the Internet Archive. The scan is the authority for everything beside it.

2. 2The rights

   Before a book is published we check its rights from the book itself: the date and place of printing and any notice it prints. The result is stated on the book's page, with the licence of the scans.

3. 3The text

   119 books are transcribed page by page for the Archive, keeping the headings, footnotes, tables and captions as the page sets them. The 91 colonial volumes carry the scanned copy's own text, as the library made it, and say so.

4. 4The English

   A page not written in English is translated block for block: each paragraph, heading, footnote and table has its English counterpart beside it, numbers and references exactly as printed, and the titles of cited works left in their own language. Each translated page is then read a second time, the English against the original, for errors of meaning.

5. 5The names

   Each page is read for the places, tombs, people and works it names, in the form printed. A name is linked only when it matches a record in our registers, by its name or a known alias, and the printed form is on the page itself. A link that rests on initials or a surname alone is marked as probable.

6. 6The book's own references

   References to the book's own figures and plates are matched to the page that prints them, so that "Pl. XII" in the text turns to the plate. Each page has its own address and its own citation.

One page taken apart

Herrmann 1888, p. 23

A page of Das Gräberfeld von Marion auf Cypern (Achtundvierzigstes Programm zum Winckelmannsfeste der Archaeologischen Gesellschaft zu Berlin), as the reader holds it: the scan, the German text set from it, the English beside it, the names it links, and the address, citation and rights that go with it.

1. 2

   The text, as printed in German

   Sarkophagen³²). Die Reihe der bisher nur in geringer Anzahl bekannten als freie Rundbilder gearbeiteten Sphinxgestalten wird durch die kyprischen Exemplare in wünschenswerther Weise vermehrt, was um so wichtiger ist, als auch hier die Fundumstände über die Bedeutung der Figuren jeden Zweifel aufheben. Die Art der ursprünglichen Aufstellung bleibt unsicher, aber da die Figuren im Grabweg gefunden sind, so wird man an die Aufstellung auf einer Säule, wie Milchhöfer nach Analogie der Vasenbilder für die Sphinx von Spata annimmt, kaum zu denken haben. Näher liegt die Vermuthung, sie etwa als Wächter der Grabthür, wie auf dem Relief von Xanthos (Cesnola-Stern, Taf. XLVIII) verwendet zu denken³³). Auf eine vom Rücken gedeckte Stellung weist ohnehin die glatte Fläche der Rückseite mit Nothwendigkeit hin.

   In diese älteste Periode gehört endlich noch die alterthümliche Maske aus Kalkstein Fig. 16³⁴), die fast den alleinigen Inhalt des Grabes ausmachte (Berlin, Nekr. II Gr. 257, Höhe 0,175. In demselben Grab fand sich nur noch ein Horn aus Terrakotta von einer Thierfigur). Die Maske ist von einer abstossenden Hässlichkeit, die aber charakteristisch ist und in den sogen. Inselidolen ihre Parallelen findet. Ob das Stück bestimmt war, nach Art der Sepulcralmasken³⁵) das Gesicht der Todten zu bedecken kann hier zweifelhaft sein. Die Kleinheit der Maske und das verwendete Material, das in den weitaus meisten Fällen Metall, Bronce oder Gold, seltener Terrakotta zu sein pflegt³⁶), sprechen dagegen. Dass in dem vorliegenden Fall ein metallenes Exemplar nachgeahmt wurde, beweist der um das Gesicht laufende Rand, der hier keinen praktischen Sinn hat, im Metall sich dagegen fast durchgängig findet, meist mit mehreren eingebohrten Löchern, um die Maske auf dem Gesicht des Todten befestigen zu können. In stilistischer Be-

   Block 1–2 of 8: paragraphs, headings, footnotes and tables are kept as the page sets them.

2. 3

   The English, block for block

   Sarcophagi³²). The series of sphinx figures, hitherto known only in small numbers as free-standing round sculptures, is worthily augmented by the Cypriot examples, which is all the more important since here too the find circumstances leave no doubt about the significance of the figures. The original manner of their placement remains uncertain, but since the figures were found in the dromos of the tomb, one will hardly have to think of their placement on a column, as Milchhöfer assumes by analogy with the vase paintings for the sphinx from Spata. A more likely supposition is to consider them as guardians of the tomb door, as used on the relief from Xanthos (Cesnola-Stern, Pl. XLVIII). A position with the back supported is in any case indicated necessarily by the smooth surface of the reverse side³³).

   To this earliest period finally also belongs the archaic limestone mask Fig. 16³⁴), which made up almost the sole contents of the grave (Berlin, Nekr. II Gr. 257, height 0,175. In the same grave only one further find was made, a horn of terracotta from an animal figure). The mask is of a repellent ugliness, which is nevertheless characteristic and finds its parallels in the so-called island idols. Whether the piece was intended, in the manner of sepulchral masks³⁵), to cover the face of the deceased can remain doubtful here. The small size of the mask and the material used, which in by far the most cases tends to be metal, bronze or gold, more rarely terracotta³⁶), speak against it. That in the present case a metal example was imitated is proved by the rim running around the face, which here has no practical purpose, but which is found almost without exception on metal examples, mostly with several drilled holes so that the mask could be fastened to the face of the deceased. In stylistic be-

3. 4

   The names on the page

   • ‘Amathus’→Amathus · site
   • ‘Golgoi’→Golgoi · site
   • ‘Salamis’→Salamis · site
   • ‘Michaelis’→A. Michaelis · person
   • ‘Schliemann’→Heinrich Schliemann · person
   • ‘Cesnola-Collection (New-York) I Pl. CVI nr. 694’→A Descriptive Atlas of the Cesnola Collection of Cypriote Antiquities in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Vol. 1 · publication, probably
4. 5

   Its address and its citation

   https://www.ancientcyprus.com/archive/herrmann-graberfeld-marion-1888/p/27

   Herrmann 1888, p. 23.

   Paul Herrmann, Das Gräberfeld von Marion auf Cypern (Achtundvierzigstes Programm zum Winckelmannsfeste der Archaeologischen Gesellschaft zu Berlin) (1888), p. 23 [scan 27]. Scan: Internet Archive, Public domain (Public Domain Mark). English translation: ancientcyprus.com (CC BY 4.0). The Archive, ancientcyprus.com, https://www.ancientcyprus.com/archive/herrmann-graberfeld-marion-1888/p/27 (accessed date).

5. 6

   Its rights

   Scans and printed text: Internet Archive, Public domain (Public Domain Mark). English translation: ancientcyprus.com, CC BY 4.0.

   Public domain: first published 1888; author died 1935.

• English · 1878 · 560 pagesCyprusCesnola 1878Cyprus: Its Ancient Cities, Tombs, and Temples is Luigi Palma di Cesnola's account of the excavations he directed in Cyprus while he was American consul there, from his arrival at Larnaca in 1865.543 names linked on its pages
• French · 1882 · 394 pages · 325 in EnglishMonuments antiques de Chypre, de Syrie et d'ÉgypteCeccaldi 1882407 names linked on its pages
• German · 1888 · 78 pages · 63 in EnglishDas Gräberfeld von Marion auf CypernHerrmann 188881 names linked on its pages
• Greek · 1890 · 880 pages · 867 in EnglishΤὰ Κυπριακά, ἤτοι γεωγραφία, ἱστορία καὶ γλῶσσα τῆς νήσου Κύπρου ἀπὸ τῶν ἀρχαιοτάτων χρόνων μέχρι σήμερονSakellarios 18901,222 names linked on its pages
• English · 1899 · 268 pagesA Catalogue of the Cyprus Museum, with a Chronicle of Excavations undertaken since the British Occupation, and Introductory Notes on Cypriote ArchaeologyMyres and Ohnefalsch-Richter 1899A Catalogue of the Cyprus Museum (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1899) is the catalogue of the government collection of antiquities in Nicosia, the Cyprus Museum, by John L. Myres and Max Ohnefalsch-Richter.916 names linked on its pages
• English · 1936 · 296 pagesThe Temples of SoliWestholm 1936The Temples of Soli (Stockholm 1936) is Alfred Westholm's publication of the temple site the Swedish Cyprus Expedition excavated outside the ancient city of Soli.255 names linked on its pages
• English · 1972 · 402 pagesThe Swedish Cyprus Expedition, Vol. IV, Part 1DÅström et al. 1972Volume IV, Part 1D of The Swedish Cyprus Expedition (Lund 1972) completes the expedition's account of the Late Cypriote Bronze Age.2,313 names linked on its pages
• Swedish · 1974 · 192 pages · 164 in EnglishCypern – motsättningarnas öÅström 1974Cypern – motsättningarnas ö ("Cyprus, the island of contrasts"; Gothenburg 1974) is the Swedish catalogue of an exhibition of Cypriot antiquities held at the Röhsska Museum of Decorative Arts in Gothenburg from 20 October 1974 to 6 January 1975, published by Paul Åström as the first pocket-book of the series Studies in Mediterranean Archaeology.403 names linked on its pages

• More of the early literature

  The books and articles of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries still missing from the shelf, as open scans of them are found.

• More in English

  English for more of the pages written in Swedish, German and French, block for block beside the original.

• More names linked

  The people, tombs and cited works the pages name that have no record of their own yet, linked as they are added to the registers.

• Every book in the publication register

  Each volume on the shelf with its record in the register, so that a citation of it anywhere on the site leads to its pages.

• An introduction to each book

  What each book is and how it came to be written, with the works it rests on: 47 of the 210 have one so far.