While the Global Financial Crisis has turned some industries around the world to financial ruin, archaeology on Cyprus has boomed.

The Director of the Cyprus American Archaeological Research Institute (CAARI), Dr Thomas W. Davis, told a lunchtime lecture at The University of Melbourne that the crisis has slowed development on the island.

“Rampant development threatens the architectural heritage of Cyprus,” he said. “I for one was glad for the economic downturn.”

He told an audience of 25 that the battle between developers and archaeologists was the most pressing current issue in Cypriot archaeology.

“The Department of Antiquities is hard-pressed to stay ahead of the bulldozers,” he said.

But he said the bulldozers can unwittingly help unearth some remarkable discoveries, including a 500BC sarcophagus with depictions of Homeric myths.

The ancient funeral receptacle, found near Kouklia in the south-west of Cyprus, raised some interesting questions.

“What does this tell us about the spread of the Homeric tales?” he said.

“You can find some wonderful things by accident.”

The past 12 months have also seen a boom in underwater archaeology, Dr Davis said.

In the past year, the University of Cyprus has added a nautical archaeologist to its staff and there are five active locations for underwater digs around Cyprus.

Dr Davis reported on a nautical expedition off the south coast of Cyprus, near Zygi, where a team is striving to uncover a shipwreck 43m below the surface.
“This is life-threatening, this is not easy discovery,” he said.

Dr Davis said the Mazoitos Ship was from the Persian period, around 350BC, and archaeologists had so far found some wood from the anchor.

While this made it easier to get funding to look for the whole ship, he said the team were weighing up the potential cost of the expedition against the value of what they might find.

“This is a very difficult technical expedition,” he said. He said other investigations included looking at remains of pygmy hippopotamuses found on the island, trying to work out whether the ancient Cypriots used them as dinner or fuel.

“My Cypriot friends say Cypriots will eat anything,” Dr Davis said.

As political turmoil in the Middle East continued, Dr Davis said more universities were sending teams to Cyprus instead, including the first ever Georgian team excavating outside its own borders.

But he had a warning for aspiring archaeologists, particularly after a small fire swept nearby one of the excavation sites.

“Don’t get too caught up in the dirt,” he said.