Archaeology, Empire and the Field

In 1862 two Frenchmen, Henry William Waddington and Count Melchior de Vogue, visited Cyprus while travelling to the Levant as part of Napoleon III’s policy of sending nationally organised scientific missions to the Eastern Mediterranean. ¹ Waddington and de Vogue conducted the first systematic archaeological explorations on the island. Until then, Cyprus was rarely visited by European travellers. The island did not form a part of the Grand Tour, and was perceived as belonging neither to the ancient Greek civilisation, nor the Near Eastern civilisation. Thus, it was viewed as being of minimal importance in antiquarian pursuits. The discoveries made by the French explorers were, however, to change this, encouraging further attention to be paid to the island’s ancient remains and initiating a period of intense excavation and exportation of Cypriot antiquities. ² The excavations were mostly organised by travellers and settlers who came to the island in connection with the expansion of European Empires. ³ Indeed, excavating became a popular occupation among the foreign consuls stationed on the island. Among the most vigorous and prominent of these foreign consuls were Robert Hamilton Lang and Luigi Palma di Cesnola, whose collections were acquired by the British Museum and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York respectively.