 |
The sun is bright, the gate is open, and CAARI is welcoming its new class of fellowship recipients. Following the Message from the Director, we'll introduce this very international group of seven scholars. They come from five countries; they work in many fields; and their research ranges from early Bronze Age animal husbandry to postcolonial architecture in Nicosia. It is a particular pleasure to welcome among them Dr. Anna Spyrou, the inaugural recipient of CAARI's brand new postdoctoral Edgar Peltenburg Fellowship. Congratulations to all in the group!
After introducing the CAARI fellows, we introduce you to a different kind of person who is precious to our community. Have you sometimes wondered who CAARI's supporters are? Catherine Deans-Barrett is one of CAARI's staunchest and most articulate friends. She recounts how she came to know and value CAARI. Her belief in CAARI is radiant. See if she doesn't make you want to be a CAARI supporter, too!
Following her words, we offer each of you an opportunity to take action on CAARI's behalf, and help protect it from cuts to the U.S. federal budget.
|
Message from CAARI's Director
Dear friends and supporters of CAARI,
Since my last report, spring has bloomed and, along with the flowers, archaeologists are popping up all over the island! CAARI staff and our resident researchers have been out on some wonderful field trips to visit them. We had an excellent day with Prof. Simon James and his team working inside the British Sovereign Base Area on the Akrotiri Peninsula. We visited his excavations and saw other Late Roman-Byzantine remains as well as taking a glimpse over the edge of the cliff to the Epipalaeolithic site of Aetokremnos (braving the swarms of mosquitos trying to devour us). Our second day out was to see the excavations at Pyla Kokkinokremos. Professors Joachim Bretschneider, Athanasia Kanta and Jan Driessen showed us the exciting discoveries being made excavating the casemate rooms within the walls of this fortified Late Bronze Age settlement. We will also be visiting the Swedish team, directed by Prof. Peter Fisher, at Bronze Age Hala Sultan Tekke in the next weeks. It is one of the best parts of my job, having the opportunity to go around the island and see the exciting new discoveries being made, as well as taking along our junior scholars to get to know the sites and the archaeologists who work here.
|
|
|
209 Commerce Street
Photo: Marta Ostrovich |
Our other happy news is that CAARI has a beautiful new home in the US. ASOR had bought a lovely building of 1880 in historic Alexandria, Virginia. As seen in the photo, it is a fitting sister for CAARI's gracious historic building in Nicosia. We congratulate ASOR for the successful purchase and are grateful that they are willing to accommodate CAARI's office within their building. Our US Associate Director, Dr. China Shelton, is settling in. CAARI's new address and phone number are:
|
209 Commerce Street
Alexandria, VA 22314
USA
Phone: 703-789-9231
|
Early summer is our busiest time and the beginning of June is particularly busy this year! On the 6-7 June, we will be jointly hosting with Cornell University and the Archaeological Research Unit (ARU)
The Archaeology of Cyprus and the Wider Mediterranean: A Conference in Honour of A. Bernard Knapp
to be held at the ARU. Saturday the 8th June is the CAARI workshop. The programme is being finalised right now and it will take place in the Bank of Cyprus Cultural Foundation in Phaneromeni. All who will be in Nicosia are welcome to join us for these events.
As reported in the previous Newsflash, we are very grateful to Mrs Vedder for the donation for our Leica polarizing microscope. It is now on order and we look forward to its arrival in the near future and to have our laboratory up and running. On a related archaeological science note, CAARI will be collaborating with the Science and Technology in Archaeology Research Centre (STARC) of the Cyprus Institute on an Archaeological Science conference to be held in Nicosia on the 13-14 November this year. The call for papers is opening soon so please keep an eye on our website and social media if you would like to present or attend.
Lindy Crewe, PhD
Director, CAARI
|
Welcome CAARI's 2019-2020 Fellows!
The Three Graduate Student Fellows
Anita O'Donovan Fellowship
Brigid Clark, University of Haifa
Social, Economic and Political Aspects of Maritime Connectivity in Cyprus and the Southern Levant in the Middle and Late Bronze Ages.
This research will investigate the longue durée of the maritime interaction between Cyprus and the Southern Levant during the Middle and Late Bronze Ages (ca. 1950-1150 BCE), using Cypriot ceramics in the Middle and Late Cypriot periods in order to create a comparison of typologies, chronologies, and trade strategies between Cyprus and Levantine coastal sites. A creation of two datasets, one of Cypriot ceramics in Cyprus, and one of Levantine Cypriot imports, will help facilitate chronological comparisons. The accompanying photo shows the kinds of material evidence that will be crucial to the project.
Danielle Parks Memorial Fellowship
Matthias Metzger, Aix Marseille University (France) / University of Cyprus (Cyprus)
Relics and their Environment in the Basilicas of Cyprus (4th - 10th centuries) in the Context of the Eastern Mediterranean.
The study focuses on relics in the basilicas of Cyprus during the Early and Middle Byzantine periods. It aims to define the contours of a specific and unpublished cult of the relics in Cyprus. This project enters within the framework of an international guardianship PhD between Aix Marseille University and the University of Cyprus. In the second year (2019/2020) in Cyprus, the CAARI scholarship will facilitate: local accommodation arrangements by being a resident at CAARI, access to the numerous documents kept by the center, work in the archives of the Department of Antiquities for unpublished data and also visit the excavation sites and museums involved in the study. In the photo I am standing before the re-erected columns of the basilica at Kourion, with a plan of its site.
H
elena & Stuart Swiny Fellowship
Nathan Meyer, University of California, Berkeley
Testing whether temporal, functional and possibly provenience diagnosticity of survey ceramics will be improved via macroscopic, microscopic and portable X-ray fluorescence techniques.
While from the Cypriot Late Bronze Age enough data are available to engage in substantive interpretive studies, the same does not hold true for the earlier Iron Age (EIA). Of importance are gaps for EIA settlement patterns and the organization of pottery production across the island. Such data are necessary to support
critical to sociocultural interpretation. My doctoral dissertation will help close these gaps via research designed to improve the intelligibility of coarse and plain-ware ceramics collected on surveys. Re-analysis of survey ceramics will include macroscopic, microscopic and portable X-Ray Fluorescence analyses.
The Two CAARI/CAORC Postdoctoral Fellows
|
|
|
Dr. Herrmann (back right) working with students on a cremation from Larnaka.
|
Dr. Nicholas Herrmann
Texas State University
Cypriot Lives in Transition: The Bioarchaeology of Lefkosia and Larnaka.
This study, Cypriot Lives in Transition, focuses on the analysis of human remains from a series of Hellenistic through Early Christian period tombs from the Ayioi Omoloyites neighborhood of Lefkosia and from Ancient Kition in Larnaka. Individuals and families must have traversed Cyprus and interacted throughout this time, and these interactions likely influenced Cypriot lives and communities during these transformative years. To assess these
influences, bioarchaeological evidence from individual burials and commingled human remains from the Ayioi Omoloyites and the Larnaka tombs will be gathered. General demographic and health profiles will be constructed based on these data, and the two Cypriot communities will be compared.
University of Washington
Re-presentations of Antiquity in Colonial and Postcolonial Nicosia.
Both the British colonial and independent Cypriot governments strategically deployed Cyprus' ancient past to substantiate political and cultural power and to fuel tourism. Through neo-classical architectures, images of art, museum buildings, and other tourism facilities, both regimes ensured that antiquity maintained relevance through physical and visual references. Archival research and site documentation of key structures (Cyprus Museum, St. Paul's Cathedral, Presidential Palace, designs for the new Cyprus Museum) will facilitate the publication of an article on antiquity's afterlife through colonial/
postcolonial built environments in Nicosia, while also laying the foundation for a larger comparative study of Cyprus and Tunisia (the latter has been previously studied).
The Senior Scholar in Residence
Dr. Elzbieta Jastrzebowska
Polish Academy of Sciences
Painted Decoration and Function of the House of Aion in Paphos (Cyprus).
My research during my stay at CAARI in September 2019 will be devoted especially to the House of Aion. The House of Aion lies in the center of Nea Paphos, to the east of the so-called Villa of Theseus; it was constructed in the second half of the 4th century and demolished by an earthquake at the end of that century. Painted plaster fragments, fallen from the walls of three small rooms in the northern part of this house, have survived to this day. They come mainly from room 7, discovered 30 years ago and still not published. I will focus especially on 1) analysis of the wall paintings from room 7, which showed the figures of Apollo and muses, of which three muses and the god are partly restored; and 2) interpretation of the significance of individual rooms in this House, as well as analysis of the function of the entire complex. I will also search for analogies in Cyprus to Corinthian capitals discovered by the Polish Archaeological Missions in the Great Basilica of Marea and at Kom el-Dikka in Alexandria in Egypt.
The Edgar Peltenburg Postdoctoral Scholar
Dr. Anna Spyrou
The Cyprus Institute, Science and Technology in Archaeology and Culture Research Center (STARC)
Exploring the Human-Cattle Relationship in Early Bronze Age Cyprus: A Combined Archaeo-zoological and Isotopic Approach
This project aims to explore how the reintroduction of cattle during the Philia Early Cypriot Bronze Age (c. 2400-2200 BC) has impacted diet, cuisine, herd management practices, animal mobilization, ritual, and the organization of large-scale feasting events. In order to explore these components, an innovative multi-disciplinary approach is devised, which comprises archaeozoological and isotopic methods. Drawing on
cattle bones from selected archaeological contexts, this study's primary goal is
to understand the human-cattle relationship and, in a wider scope, to shed valuable light on the dynamics of economic and cultural transformations that occurred on the island during the mid-third millennium BC.
|
Impressions of a Cultural Icon: CAARI over 18 Years
"My initial impression of CAARI as a cultural icon has never diminished and my respect for its capable leadership, its truly constructive policies, and knowing its presence will be felt for decades to come, has given me much satisfaction."
|
|
|
| CAARI at King Paul Street |
|
I first became aware of CAARI in the summer of 1989: I found it located in a small store-front building on King Paul Street.
.
But when I revisited Nicosia in 1990, the new CAARI was in its permanent location at 11 Andreas Demitriou Street. As I walked through the front door for the first time, I realized I had not just entered a lovely, well-appointed building but had crossed over into a modern cultural icon.
|
|
| Coming through the front door of CAARI at 11 Andreas Demitriou Street |
I had arrived on the Island
|
|
|
Vathoulla Moustoukki
CAARI's all-time Administrator
|
as a member of Brock University's Archaeological Practicum in 1989, and had met Anita Walker and Ian Todd, CAARI's first directors. Now, I had the pleasure of meeting the third director, Stuart Swiny, an absolutely gracious host. As the years and seasons passed, there were more directors whom I came to know and respect, including Nancy Serwint, Robert Merrillees, and Tom Davis. This small but select cadre saw to it that CAARI functioned in myriad arenas. And one cannot ever forget Vathoulla and all the services she provided, and the continuity she afforded for one and all throughout the changes that occurred over the years.
|
|
|
CAARI's Library before 2016 |
CAARI offers one of the finest libraries on the Island for research, and I availed myself of this asset over several summers while I was taking classes at UIC (the University of Illinois at Chicago) and NEISU (Northeastern Illinois
State University). Students and archaeological directors ofttimes filled all available spaces in CAARI's library. The directors encouraged the students, offering pertinent advice and recommending venues for research. The library was also used for lectures. The hostel facilities allowed all who stayed there the opportunity and convenience for uninterrupted research, and the location made it easier to access other cultural assets such as museums and historical sites, as well as shopping and patronizing local dining spots. The modest cost of the hostel put it within the budget of students and scholars alike, and they often met informally for discussions and advice. It was a wonderful experience for me to stay there. I thoroughly enjoyed conferring with students and other visitors, and loved the occasional coffee with Vathoulla. Even though I was not a director of any site, but a recently retired high school history instructor cum volunteer immersed in further learning, I was never made to feel like an outsider.
CAARI is thriving as an absolutely essential center for those studying and excavating on Cyprus. It has been able to expand its facilities with the construction of additional levels for its library and storage and its directors and trustees have carefully husbanded funds to make this happen. Both directors and trustees have had the ability to carry through the process of planning for several years in order to make it possible.
|
|
|
|
Brian Shelburne, Chair of CAARI's Library Committee, surveying the new stacks
|
|
Under the auspices of CAARI, four fellowships have been created, and these grants contribute fundamentally to archaeological research. The graduate stipends make travel affordable to students-so important for ongoing development of the field. And the Peltenburg postdoc supports a young scholar's crucial early career development. They are funded through contributions, and those funding them have the pleasure of knowing they are encouraging scholarship.
I was able to spend a total of eighteen seasons on Cyprus, ranging from three weeks to three months each, and I worked at several sites, including Kalavasos under the directorship of Alison South and Ian Todd, at Athienou under Michael Toumazou, at Polis with Nancy Serwint, and under Bonny Bazemore at Rantidi, but it was CAARI that proved the anchor and centre for all those who worked on Cyprus.
It was my pleasure to serve briefly as one of the trustees for this institution and in a small way to support it financially. My initial impression of CAARI as a cultural icon has never diminished and my respect for its capable leadership, its truly constructive policies and knowing its presence will be felt for decades to come, has given me much satisfaction. I am so grateful to have had an opportunity to have experienced the CAARI culture and all things directly or indirectly involved in this institution. I will continue to support it now and for the future.
|
Help Secure CAARI's Future
Join friends like Catherine in supporting CAARI. It is up to us-professionals, friends, and enthusiasts of cultural inquiry-to assure its ever stronger future:
And here is a way every U.S. citizen can take action to support and protect CAARI. The President's budget for Fiscal Year 2020 proposes to drastically cut the budget for the Department of State's Bureau of Educational Affairs and to completely eliminate all funding for the Department of Education's Title VI programs. If these cuts are enacted by Congress, we would lose all of our funding from these two sources. This is a good third of CAARI's budget, enough to force our closure. The Council of American Overseas Research Centers (CAORC), which coordinates the U.S.'s 25 overseas centers-including CAARI-has drafted a letter for you to send to your members of Congress opposing these budget cuts. The letter can be downloaded from CAARI's website at:
CAORC-FY2020-Support-Letter.docx. To find contact information for your congressional representatives, visit
whoismyrepresentative.com. You are welcome to make changes to the letter. For instance, point out how important it is to have citizens who know the languages, customs, and histories of the countries with which the U.S. must interact on the international stage.
CAARI needs the financial contributions of people like you, who are enthusiastic about archaeology, who use CAARI's resources, and who understand the sensitivity of Cyprus and the eastern Mediterranean world. Don't neglect the opportunity to give:
But your voice in Congress will be deeply appreciated, too! Please send us a copy of your letter, to:
usa.office@caari.org.cy
.
Thank you for your participation!
Annemarie Weyl Carr
CAARI VP
|
|
|
|
|
|
