Ancient Cyprus in Leeds: Objects, networks and museums from 1870 to 1947

This thesis investigates the formation of the ancient Cypriot collection now belonging to Leeds Museums and Galleries over the period 1870 to 1947, focusing on the themes of Cypriot archaeology, collecting, and museums. Putting the objects themselves at the centre of this investigation, it classifies them according to modern archaeological systems, establishing a benchmark against which to assess earlier interpretations of them. It then traces their itineraries from Cyprus to the museum, exploring the people, places and ideas they brought into contact and their movements along intellectual and social networks. Examining the impact of objects on people, and people on objects, it analyses the different ways in which they were perceived, understood, valued, and used. Within the museum, it charts their changing classification, display and interpretation, and how they were used to create knowledge as part of the museum’s overarching objective of understanding the world through objects. It also examines the audiences of this project of knowledge creation, and the evidence for their responses. The thesis demonstrates that the formation of the ancient Cypriot collection in Leeds was highly contingent on changing social, intellectual and political contexts at local, national and international levels, and on the personalities, priorities and interests of collectors, donors, curators and their communities. Objects were set in motion, and brought into the museum by people with diverse objectives and motivations, in the context of British imperial and later colonial involvement in Cyprus. These objects’ participation in the changing physical and intellectual structures of the museum provides a lens to examine the development of its theoretical approaches and its practices. Through this analysis, the thesis challenges broadbrush narratives of the history of Cypriot archaeology and collecting, and offers a methodology, firmly rooted in material culture and primary sources, for studying underexplored historic museum collections.