Savvas Mavromatidis, a NetMAR ESR and member of CeMAR has been awarded a Henry Moore Foundation (HMF) Travel & Research Grant for the following project:

‘Medieval Tombstones in a Museum: Exploring Cypriot History and Cultural Heritage’

Project description

A significant number of Cypriot medieval tombstones are housed in the Medieval Museum of Cyprus (Limassol Castle). The surviving material is impressive, making Cypriot funerary sculpture one of the most important, both quantitatively and artistically, in medieval funerary collections. Through this collection, we can understand how people perceived medieval art over centuries. In a multicultural society like Cyprus, with different rulers from the Middle Ages to the 20th century, we trace these slabs’ journey from piety objects to tools of political and cultural interest, culminating as museum exhibits due to actions by British colonialists and post-independence Cypriots. The final stage in these medieval monuments’ life is a digital project within the NetMAR research programme (https://www.ucy.ac.cy/netmar/) that was coordinated by CeMAR. This is DiMeCy (Discover Medieval Cyprus), a digital application aiming to acquaint visitors with Cyprus’ complex history and cultural heritage, using the often-overlooked funerary slabs as a starting point. The whole project aims to explore the ways in which pieces of medieval sculpture, collected by the British colonialists, mainly during the Interwar period, can serve as a starting point for museum visitors to understand the various historical transitions of a multicultural state (Cyprus) over the centuries. These sculptural works bear signs of subsequent interventions, due to religious-political iconoclasm, while the historical narrative surrounding them can be linked to other similar works that were exported from Cyprus and are now in museums in Istanbul, Paris, and London.

Outcomes

Research at the Henry Moore Institute Archive is deemed necessary due to the particular role played by Ruppert Gunnis in Cypriot archaeology and the promotion of Cyprus abroad, holding the position of Inspector of Antiquities for the Cyprus Museum. His work remains largely unknown to the general public and the scientific community, something that the present researcher will seek to address through research in your Archive, which contains rich material from excavations he conducted at various sites in Cyprus. Moreover, his work includes the first exportation of grave slabs from the floors of mosques/churches in Cyprus, suggesting the first step towards their future museum exhibition. All of the above are intertwined with Mavromatidis’ endeavor to create a digital application to enhance the museum experience of visitors to the Cyprus Medieval Museum, offering them a comprehensive narrative of the history not only of the exhibits over the centuries, but also of the complex history of Cyprus, as it has been inscribed on the tombstones. Presenting his research at international conferences and workshops, as well as publishing its findings, will contribute to raising awareness among authorities in the Republic of Cyprus, so that they recognise the significance of material (medieval grave-slabs) that, despite the large quantity preserved, remains largely overlooked.