Cyprus digitisation project

Project leader: Lesley Fitton

Department: Greece and Rome

Project start: March 2005
End date: May 2009

Other British Museum staff: Thomas Kiely, Dominic Oldman, Matthew Cock

Other departments: Information Systems, Learning and Audience

Project funded by: The A. G. Leventis Foundation

Description:

The British Museum holds an exceptionally large and varied collection of objects from Cyprus, covering all periods of antiquity and deriving from sites all over the island. Particularly important holdings come from the
Museum’s own excavations in the late nineteenth century, at sites including Enkomi, Amathus, Kourion, Klavdhia and Hala Sultan Tekke.

Publication of this material has been extensive but uneven. The original excavation reports are in general unsatisfactory. Some sites have been re-published, and some classes of material have been the subject of specialist study, while others remain relatively neglected. It is therefore highly desirable that all the material should be studied, photographed and published to a consistently high standard.

The Cyprus Digitisation Project is designed to achieve this. The material from the important Late Bronze Age site of Enkomi has already been prepared for web publication. This group of 1800 objects includes examples of pottery, bronzes, jewellery of gold and semi-precious stones, and objects in ivory, faience and other materials. The rich finds show the wealth of the site and its wide-ranging connections.

We are now working on the material from Amathus, Kourion and other sites, broadening both the geographical and the chronological spread of the project. Also, the field notebooks from the Turner Bequest excavations of 1894-1896, largely unpublished and containing much valuable information relating to the original find contexts of the objects (including details of objects dispersed or not kept) will also be scanned and made available in electronic form in due course. 

The island of Cyprus was important throughout antiquity because of its natural resources, including copper and because of its position, which allowed extensive contacts with both East and West.  We are aiming for wider dissemination of information about our collections, which demonstrate the richness and importance of Cypriot culture.

Objectives:

The aim of the Cyprus Digitisation Project is to create an on-line resource for scholars, students and the general public. This will give access to all the material from the major sites represented in our collection, with images and information. Both exhibited and reserve material will be included, with up-to-date catalogue entries and bibliography.

The Cyprus database will be part of the British Museum’s Web presence, and will be searchable by various criteria. We hope that it will be useful to a wide audience, ranging from those who are simply inspired to find out more about the rich cultural heritage of Cyprus to those who need detailed information as a basis for scholarly research.

Images (from top):

• Thomas Kiely digitising objects from Kourion in the Cyprus basement, assisted by Sara Cambeta (a Da Vinci Programme intern from Portugal).
• A page of the original field notebook of the British Museum Turner Bequest excavations at Amathus, Cyprus in 1894.