Press Releases

It is a great pleasure to be here with you today for this event, whose aim is to present the most recent success of the Science and Technology in Archaeology Research Centre, namely securing, through an extremely competitive process, an ERA Chair for the Cyprus Institute. According to the website of the European Research Agency (ERA) the aim of the ERA Chairs funding scheme is to attract high-level researchers to a widening university or research centre, in an effort to increase its research capacity. The person who holds an ERA Chair is expected to establish a research team that is fully integrated within the coordinator's institution and to significantly improve its research performance in a scientific domain of choice.

Professor Patrick Degryse is the scholar who will set up the ERA chair titled “One Archaeological Science” and I would like to warmly congratulate him, as well as Professor Thilo Rehren, who holds the A. G. Leventis Chair in Archaeological Sciences at the Cyprus Institute, Dr Evi Margaritis and Dr Efi Nikita, who have worked together to secure this generously funded project from the European Research Agency. With Professor Patrick Degryse as a member of the team, STARC, and by extension the Cyprus Institute, comes to the forefront of archaeological material studies not only in Cyprus but also in the wider Eastern Mediterranean region.

I am particularly pleased because the ERA chair project focuses on analytical techniques and in particular Isotopic Analyses. In recent years isotopic analyses have made great contributions to the study of the human past, revealing among other things, nutritional habits, movements of populations - human and animal etc. 

However, one of the greatest contributions of isotopic analyses has been in the study of the trade of materials in Antiquity – namely metals, glass etc. Admittedly, the archaeology of Cyprus has benefited greatly from isotopic studies, specifically in highlighting the role of the island as an important source of copper, in some periods the most important source of copper, for the Eastern Mediterranean.

I would like to acknowledge the contribution of Noel Gale and Zofia Stos in highlighting the extent of the trade of Cypriot copper in the Late Bronze Age throughout the Eastern Mediterranean and beyond. In the late eighties this team from the Oxford Isotrace Laboratory embarked on a long-term research project, using Lead Isotopes to investigate the Late Bronze Age metals trade in the Mediterranean. To do so they analysed ore samples, ingots and bronze artefacts from all over the Mediterranean. Their analysis of oxhide ingots, from all over the ancient world, showed that all those, which date after 1400 BC, are consistent with a Cypriot provenance thus leading many scholars, including myself, to suggest that the oxhide ingot was the trademark of Cypriot copper in this period. 

However, there is still a lot more one can do: for example, defining better the isotopic fingerprint of specific copper ore deposits on the island. The benefit of this has been highlighted by new research projects thatf I coordinated and for which my team collaborated with Professor Degryse and his laboratory. For example, the isotopic analysis of metal samples conducted by Professor Degryse as part of the archaeometallurgical study of material from Professor Maria Iacovou’s project in Palaipafos, showed for the first time the internal circulation of copper in Iron Age Cyprus and the import of copper from the mines of Kalavasos and Asgata, which most likely belonged to the kingdom of Amathus, to the kingdom of Pafos.

But isotopic analysis can do so much more as it can be applied to many other fields of archaeological research. Thus, this new project clearly opens up great opportunities and I am personally very excited to see it launched.

An investment in the field of archaeological sciences insinuates an investment into objective and unbiased research, with archaeological arguments constructed using material evidence and scientific facts. The research activities, under the umbrella of the A. G. Leventis Chair in Archaeological Sciences, have been collectively contributing in such a way, to the history and archaeology of the eastern Mediterranean basin, a region of great historical, cultural and geopolitical significance. This new focus on isotopic analysis will most certainly have a far-reaching impact not only on Cypriot archaeology and the archaeology of the region, but also in other disciplines which are equally important, such as the study of Cypriot geology, and of course environmental studies.

In 2024 Cyprus celebrated 20 years since our accession to the European Union. Europe is where Cyprus has historically and culturally always belonged. Since ancient times the island was considered as the Eastern most boundary of Europe and always acted as the bridge between Europe and the Middle East. In the last year this has been made very poignant, as Cyprus took a leading role with the Amalthea project helping humanitarian aid from Europe and beyond to reach Gaza. Furthermore, last year studies placed Cyprus in second place among region's top three innovation economies. Finally, research on the island is thriving with great successes in securing funding, both from the European Research Agency for creation of centres of excellence, through the Teaming funding scheme, Era chairs such as the one we celebrate today, and ERC grants.

I would like to take this opportunity and reiterate that my aim is for the Deputy Ministry of Culture to be actively involved in research pertaining to our expertise but also to enable cooperation, research and innovation by acting as a supporting vehicle for the highest-quality research. To that end, our aim is to foster greater cooperation between academic institutions and research centres with our own departments.

Cyprus has always been a centre for archaeological research and always had an international aspect welcoming foreign missions from all over the world. In the last decades, through the research groups of the University of Cyprus, of the Technical University of Cyprus, and of the Cyprus Institute, always in collaboration with the Department of Antiquities, it has become a beacon of high-level research in all fields of archaeological science. This new ERA chair provides new opportunities for collaborations within Cyprus and with our neighbours, and thus greatly enhances this role of the island.

Concluding my address, allow me once again to express my warm congratulations for bringing to Cyprus Professor Degryse, as a prestigious ERA chair. I wish you every success in the new project and, I for one eagerly, await the results of this fascinating new project.

Thank you for your attention.

(EK/IA)