Misplaced Pages

#479520

23-593: The museum is home to the most extensive collection of Cypriot antiquities in the world, and houses artifacts discovered during numerous excavations on the island. Its history goes hand in hand with the course of modern archaeology (and the Department of Antiquities ) in Cyprus. Of note is that only artefacts discovered on the island are displayed. As an institution, the Cyprus Museum was founded in 1882 during

46-537: A few years earlier by the United States Ambassador, Luigi Palma di Cesnola , who had smuggled over 35,000 artefacts off the island, most of which were destroyed in transit. Many of the surviving items ended up in the newly formed Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and are currently on display in their own galleries on the second floor. The initial museum was funded by private donations and

69-535: A focus on a specific method, type of material, geographical, chronological, or other thematic categories. Among academic disciplines, archaeology , in particular, often can be found in cross-disciplinary research due to the inherent multidisciplinary and geographical nature of the field in general. The lived human experience is vast and varied and reconstructing those lifeways and their consequences requires problem solving from numerous angles. In general, archaeologists work backwards with their research, starting with what

92-559: A library, storerooms and laboratories for preserving and studying items in the collection. The displays in each hall follow a chronological and a thematical succession starting from the Neolithic period and ending with the Roman period . The museum collection has far outgrown the capacity of the existing buildings so much so that only a small fraction is on display at any point in time. With several ongoing excavations and constant new finds,

115-516: A new approach as centuries of human occupation had created deep layers of stratigraphy that could often only be seen through the keyholes of individual building plots. In Britain, post-war archaeologists such as W. F. Grimes and Martin Biddle took the initiative in studying this previously unexamined area and developed the archaeological methods now employed in much cultural resource management and rescue archaeology . Archaeology increasingly became

138-436: A professional activity during the first half of the 20th century. Although the bulk of an excavation's workforce would still consist of volunteers, it would normally be led by a professional. It was now possible to study archaeology as a subject in universities and other schools, and by the end of the 20th century nearly all professional archaeologists, at least in developed countries, were graduates of such programs. Undoubtedly

161-405: A small portion has actually been excavated. The application of physical sciences to archaeology, known as archaeometry or archaeological science , is now a major part of archaeology. Archaeology has also come to use geographic information systems , designed to capture, store, manipulate, analyze, manage, and visualize all types of geospatial data. The discovery in 1991 in the Ötztaler Alps of

184-477: A technology that measures the height of the ground surface and other features in large areas of landscape with resolution and accuracy that was not previously available. Subsurface remote sensing techniques such as magnetometry and ground-penetrating radar enable an advanced picture to be built up of what lies beneath the soil before excavation even commences. The entire Roman town of Viroconium , modern day Wroxeter , has been surveyed by these methods, though only

207-648: Is already known. Another main division of archaeology distinguishes: In areas of semi-literacy the term A selective list of sub-disciplines distinguished by time-period might include: More regional specific categories include: Some archaeologists fall into regional or categorical groupings based on geography; these include: Certain civilizations and cultural groups have attracted so much attention that their study has been specifically named. These sub-disciplines include: Some archaeologists prefer to approach their research from various philosophical and political lenses. These include: Many subdisciplines, notably from

230-468: Is the discipline of archaeology which contributes to excavations . Johann Joachim Winckelmann was one of the founders of scientific archaeology and first applied the categories of style on a large, systematic basis to the history of art . He was "the prophet and founding hero of modern archaeology". The next major figure in the development of archaeology was Mortimer Wheeler , whose highly disciplined approach to excavation and systematic coverage in

253-574: The Archaeological Society of Athens and construction was supervised by George H. Everett Jeffery then curator of the museum. In 1961 a second set of galleries, storerooms and offices was completed. It published the Cyprus Museum Annual Report. Soon after its inception, the museum started receiving items from the numerous excavations on the island, mainly run by British and European expeditions. Indicative are

SECTION 10

#1732772844480

276-658: The British occupation of the island following a petition by the Cypriot people. This makes the museum 139 years old. The petition was delivered to the British administration by a delegation headed by the religious leaders of both the Christian and Muslim populations. A major catapult for this action were several illicit excavations and the smuggling of antiquities off the island. The most extensive of these had been carried out

299-534: The Environmental and archaeological sciences , are often grouped by their methods. These subfields are often heavily disciplinary with other departments. These include: Specific methods include: The following is a list of other sub-disciplines. Some of these are not areas of study in their own right, and are only methods to be used in larger projects. This non-exhaustive list includes: Post-excavation analysis and heritage preservation also make use of

322-403: The 1920s and 1930s brought the science into the modern era. Wheeler developed the grid system of excavation , which was further improved on by his student Kathleen Kenyon . The two constant themes in their attempts to improve archaeological excavation were first, to maintain strict stratigraphic control while excavating (for this purpose, the baulks between trenches served to retain a record of

345-431: The Cyprus Museum remains the principal show-piece for finds preceding independence (1960). It also houses the most important recent acquisitions. Recent years have seen a progressive decentralization of Cyprus's museum collections and most finds from current excavations are deposited in the local district museums. The museum consists of fourteen display halls surrounding a square central area which comprises auxiliary offices,

368-584: The annual excavation reports published in The Journal of Hellenic Studies from 1890 onwards. The first organised catalogue was soon compiled and published in 1899 by Sir John Myres and Max Ohnefalsch-Richter . The collections of the museum were greatly augmented by the first large scale systematic excavations carried out by the Swedish Cyprus Expedition between 1927 and 1931 under the direction of professor Einar Gjerstad . Today,

391-618: The issue of relocation to more spacious premises has been raised but a suitable site has yet to be decided on. There have been suggestions that the nearby and now demolished building of the Nicosia Old General Hospital be redeveloped, whilst there have also been plans to create a new museum as part of a new larger cultural centre at the site of the old GSP stadium . 35°10′18″N 33°21′19″E  /  35.17167°N 33.35528°E  / 35.17167; 33.35528 Modern archaeology Modern archaeology

414-400: The linen fibres were of medieval origin. Other developments, often spin-offs from wartime technology, led to other scientific advances. For field archaeologists, the most significant of these was the use of the geophysical survey . This encompasses a number of remote sensing techniques, such as aerial photography and satellite imagery . Also used is light detection and ranging (LIDAR) ,

437-407: The major technological development in 20th century archaeology was the introduction of radiocarbon dating , based on a theory first developed by American scientist Willard Libby in 1949. Despite its many limitations (compared to later methods it is inaccurate; it can only be used on organic matter; it is reliant on a dataset to calibrate it; and it only works with remains from the last 10,000 years),

460-565: The prehistorical mummy dubbed Ötzi resulted in the techniques of genetics being brought to bear on archaeological science. With the help of DNA analysis , scholars were able to ascertain that Ötzi does not belong to any known human population. In the subsequent years, genetics has helped us reconstruct human migrations that occurred during prehistory. Attribution: text copied from Old revision of History of archaeology , see there for edit history. Archaeological sub-disciplines Archaeological subfields are typically characterised by

483-568: The strata that had been dug through), and second, to publish a record of the excavation promptly and in a form that would tell the story of the site to the intelligent reader. Bomb damage during the Second World War and subsequent rebuilding gave archaeologists the opportunity to meaningfully examine inhabited cities for the first time. Bombed sites provided windows onto the development of European cities whose pasts had been buried beneath working buildings. Urban archaeology necessitated

SECTION 20

#1732772844480

506-607: The technique brought about a revolution in archaeological understanding. For the first time, it was possible to put reasonably accurate dates on discoveries such as bones. This in some cases led to a complete reassessment of the significance of past finds. Classic cases included the Red Lady of Paviland . It was not until 1989 that the Catholic Church allowed the technique to be used on the Turin Shroud , indicating that

529-417: Was temporarily housed in existing governmental offices. It moved to its own premises in 1889 on Victoria Street within the medieval walls of the city. Construction of the current building began in 1908 and was completed in 1924. It was funded by public money and private subscriptions. It was originally dedicated to the memory of the British monarch, Queen Victoria . It was designed by the architect N. Balanos of

#479520