40. From Exploration to Exploitation: The Early History of Cypriot Archaeology with Luca Bombardieri

The history of archaeology in Cyprus started with a focus on collecting ancient objects, which influenced how archaeology was done on the island into the 1900s. In the 1800s and 1900s, foreign expeditions came to Cyprus to dig up artifacts, but this also led to illegal digging and private collections, both on the island and in the West. My guest this month, Luca Bombardieri (Director of the Erimi Archaeological Project in Cyprus) looks at the time when Europeans first became really interested in Cypriot history, moving from just writing about it to collecting actual objects. It focuses on three Italian travelers in the late 1700s (Giovanni Mariti, Domenico Sestini and Antonio Mondaini) exploring how their discoveries and actions shaped the way people understood and handled Cypriot artifacts over the next 200 years.