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Welcome to CAARI's summer of celebrations. This news flash is so full of celebrative events! First of all, with thanks to Dr. Gerald Carr for photos, it brings scenes of the new library extension and the halo of festivities surrounding its inauguration. Then we report on CAARI's Summer Archaeological Workshop, as always, the highlight of the summer archaeological season in Nicosia. And we close by introducing a new book by a CAARI alumna.
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The Events of the Inauguration, 8-10 June 2016
Here's the new look of CAARI. The glass façade encloses the handicapped access to the reading room, and the stairs to the underground stories. Below is a view of the heart of the enlargement effort: the upper floor of the underground extension. Its stacks are already filling, but there is plenty of shelf space for years of new acquisitions. State-of-the-art security and fire suppression systems guard it.
Below this story is another, soon to house our rare books and materials, and offering shelf-space for yet many more decades of accessions.
On top of the underground library is CAARI's freshly planted garden, with flowers, and queen palm and jacaranda trees. Above, you see it ready for the inauguration ceremonies on June 10. Below, the guests have arrived. They are seen over the roof of the glassed in stairs. The space accommodated well over 100 people easily.
There were splendid things to eat and drink, and words to accompany them: here Ingrid Larson, PAO of the Embassy of the United States in Cyprus, reads Ambassador Kathleen Doherty's message; Marios Demetriades, Minister of the Department of Transport, Communications and Works, reflects on the responsibilities of cultural stewardship; and in the center, CAARI's Cypriot trustee, Chris Christodoulou, receives our heartfelt thanks for shepherding the construction of the new building with unflagging care.
The inauguration on 10 June was preceded on June 8 by a magnificent evening at the Famagusta Gate, in which CAARI paid tribute to two great citizens and forces for good in Nicosia: Lellos Demetriades, long mayor of the city, and his son and now CAARI trustee, Achilleas Demetriades.
It was a privilege for CAARI to honor these men. Both have been formative friends of the Institute. In fact, it was Lellos-standing in the center in the photo below-who first suggested that CAARI should go underground to expand the library.
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Mrs. Yvonne Asprides (Mrs. Achilleas Demetriades); Manthos Mavrommatis; Andrew McCarthy, CAARI's Director; Eleni Mavrou, former mayor of Nicosia; Olga (Mrs. Lellos) Demetriades; Achilleas Demetriades, Ambassador of the U.S. Kathleen Doherty; Lellos Demetriades; Androulla Vassiliou, former first lady of Cyprus; Israeli Ambassador Yael Ravia-Zadok; Bryan Wilkins, CAARI's President; and Chris Christodoulou, CAARI Trustee and splendid MC for the event.
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Achilleas closed the evening with words that summed up the feeling of the inauguration festivities: he hopes that, just as we gathered in that 500-year-old building to share our enthusiasm for culture, so 500 years from now, others will gather there in festivity to do the same.
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An Unexpected and Wonderful Benefaction
The new library came with some wrenching farewells, above all to the majestic King Palm tree that had so distinguished the corner of CAARI's garden. A wonderful donor gave us funds for two young, beautiful Queen Palms. You see them in the photo below, unfurling their first fronds where the old tree had been. In time they will shade the garden as it had done.
After the inauguration of the library, the same donor gave CAARI a large and very generous bequest. Their gift, like the plants, will be a living, growing investment, which will make CAARI's life appreciably richer and more powerful. How warmly and sincerely we thank them for their wonderful investment in CAARI's future.
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The Summer Archaeology Workshop, 2 July 2016
Report by Zuzana Chovanak, 2016 CAARI/CAORC Fellow
The 35rd annual CAARI Archaeological Workshop, organized in collaboration with the Department of Antiquities and the Archaeological Research Unit of the University of Cyprus was held on Saturday, July 2, 2016 at the University Senate House on the University of Cyprus New Campus, followed by a reception held in the newly renovated garden of CAARI. The workshop was initiated by introductions from representatives from each of the organizing institutions:
Dr. Andrew McCarthy, Director of CAARI,
Dr. Vasiliki Kassianidou, Director of ARU, and
Dr. Marina Solomidou-Ieronymidou, Director of the Department of Antiquities Cyprus. Each highlighted the importance of the long-held collaboration between the three institutions to Cypriot archaeology. Several completed and pending projects were mentioned, including the completion of the CAARI library and the upcoming purchase of petrographic thin-section equipment that will be held in
cooperation by CAARI and the ARU.
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Dr. Pam Gaber presents her report in the CAARI Summer Archaeological Workshop
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The workshop highlights current archaeological work being conducted on the island, with presentations in chronological order of the material they treat. The discussion was opened with a report by Dr. Alan Simmons on the UNLV excavation at Ais Giorkis, now in its interpretative phase. Dr. Simmons gave an overview of the Neolithic site and how it has contributed to our understanding of the process of island colonization in the Mediterranean. In anticipation of the upcoming 2016 field season at Prastio Mesorotsos, CAARI Director Dr. Andrew McCarthy highlighted the strategic position of this Chalcolithic site in relation to evidence for intercommunity feasting, as well as the role of experimental methods as a means of engaging with the public. The significant role of salvage excavation was illustrated by the Leiden University's archaeological project at Chlorakas-Palloures and the University of Queensland's archaeological mission at Alambra-Mouttes, both of which provided new information about settlement organization in the Chalcolithic and Middle Bronze Age. Dr. Sturt Manning of Cornell University summarized the range of collaborative, interdisciplinary projects being investigated by the Kalavasos and Maroni Built Environment (KAMBE) project at various sites in the Maroni Valley. It is using a range of technological approaches, including but not limited to geophysical investigations and digital recording.
The second session opened with reports on continued excavations at the Iron Age cities of Amathus and Idalion by Dr. Thierry Petit
of the University of March Bloch (also known as Strassbourg II or UMB), and
Dr. Pamela Gaber
of Lycoming College, respectively, who addressed the delineation of founding levels of palaces and sanctuaries.
Dr. Joan Breton Connelly
of New York University provided an overview of the interdisciplinary research conducted during the 2016 field season at the excavations on the island of Yeronisos, including architectural reconstruction of the Late Ptolemaic temple, documentation of leisure activities, and epigraphic analysis.
Dr. Stella Demesticha
of the University of Cyprus, looking ahead to the upcoming 2016 field season, provided a summary of work and current interpretations of the Late Classical Mazotos Shipwreck over a period of nine excavation seasons, a project which also included the establishment of the Laboratory of Maritime Antiquities. Considering the large number of transport amphora that traversed the Mediterranean,
Agata Dobosz
discussed the potential significance of maritime trade as it pertains not only to the economic activities of port cities, such as Nea Paphos, but also to considerations of the local production of the commodities that were transported in such vessels.
Representing the Kourion Urban Space Project,
William Weir reported on excavations during the 2016 field season that concentrated on Areas A through D located southwest of the Earthquake House and included the reconstruction of episodes of building collapse.
Kevin Garstki discussed the application of digital technologies such as 3D scanning and printing to the study and publication of excavated material from the Athienou Archaeological Project, as well as to the mapping, documentation and digitization of ship graffiti on Medieval monuments like those presented by
Dr. Mia Gaia Trentin, who detailed the dynamic linkages that people living in and traveling through Cyprus maintained with the sea.
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Dr. Andrew McCarthy, CAARI Director |
In his final remarks, Dr. McCarthy echoed the broad chronological and geographic topics covered by the workshop presentations which range from the earliest colonizers to visitors to the island in Late Antiquity with an increasing number of projects incorporating a wide range of technological applications. As he brought out, the Summer Workshop gives a clear picture of the wide range of scholarly work, the wide range of methodologies, and the wide range of nationalities that characterize CAARI's life as an international center of research.
Following the workshop, both workshop participants, as well as numerous attendees from Cyprus as well as international researchers attended the reception held in the CAARI courtyard.
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Reception in the garden at CAARI after the Workshop
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A New Book by CAARI Alumna Gloria London, Ph.D.
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Museum of Traditional Pottery, Ayios Demetrios
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Gloria held both Fulbright and NEH fellowships at CAARI. Along with ancient pottery, she studies traditional potters, largely women. In 2014, she founded the Museum of Traditional Pottery in the Troodos village of Ayios Demetrios, with Father Dometios, a well-known icon painter. As he teaches icon painting, she gathers children of the neighboring villages for Saturday morning classes with the potters, women in their 80s. Generations bond, and traditions are passed on.
Forthcoming from Equinox Publishers, her book - Ancient Cookware from the Levant. An Ethnoarchaeological Perspective - clarifies the uses of ancient pots by studying traditional ones. Ancient clay cooking pots are rough in texture and not easily associated with meals known from ancient writings or iconographic representations. To narrow the gap between excavated sherds and ancient meals, the book examines the way that food is traditionally processed, preserved, cooked, and stored in clay containers, based on the cookware and culinary practices in traditional societies in Cyprus and the Levant, where a handful of people still make pots by hand.
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Reflections on a Summer of Celebrations and Significance and Thanks to ALL
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| Relaxing in the cool of the evening in the garden at CAARI |
The inauguration festivities mark a major threshold in CAARI's history. With its ample new spaces and expanded technology, CAARI is visibly a larger institution. Thanks to the care with which our Cypriot trustees oversaw the building process, CAARI's endowment, too, has been significantly enlarged by the project. We are proud as we move ahead into this new phase.
All of this has been possible because of CAARI's wonderful and generous friends. We thank you so sincerely for your help. To continue the forward path, and to exploit our new spaces fully, we will continue to need your generosity and support. Join us in our pride, and join us, too, in our ongoing effort to make CAARI great:
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