Digital reunification of Swedish Archaeological Mission

Academics from Cyprus and Sweden intend to digitally reconnect the findings of the Swedish Archaeological Mission, undertaken on the island from 1927 to 1931, but the items are held in separate collections.

According to the Cyprus University of Technology (CUT), half of the Cypriot archaeological finds are exhibited in Stockholm and the other half in Nicosia since the mission took place.

CUT said “the exciting proposal” for digital unification of the divided collection is a collaboration of Dr Marinos Ioannides, UNESCO Chair at CUT for the Digitisation of Cultural Heritage, with Dr Mina Silver, a Swedish archaeologist and Dr Kenneth Silver, Finnish archaeologist and historian, who works at the Museum of Mediterranean and Near Eastern Antiquities in Stockholm (Medelhavsmuseet), where valuable Cypriot antiquities are exhibited.

The two Scandinavian academics were recently in Cyprus for an event organised by the Swedish embassy in collaboration with the Pierides Museum and the Bank of Cyprus Cultural Foundation.

After contacts between the two sides, CUT adds, it was decided that half of the findings exhibited in Stockholm and the other half exhibited in a hall of Cypriot antiquities at the Leventis Foundation be reunited as a single digital collection.