Cyprus Exploration Fund

The Cyprus Exploration Fund (CEF) was formed in the summer of 1887. The circular explained:

It has long been felt by students that systematic archæological researches ought to be undertaken in Cyprus and it has often been made a subject of reproach against this country that no such researches have been attempted since the island came under English government. Private and casual excavations at various sites have already yielded results of the greatest importance for the study both of Greek art itself and of the foreign influences which surrounded its cradle. Such excavations have lately been prohibited by authority, but not until their fruits had convinced those interested in the subject that regular and scientifically-conducted researches should, if possible, be set on foot under official sanction without delay.

The CEF committee consisted of:

• Sidney Colvin (1845-1927), keeper of prints and drawings in the British Museum (chairman)
• George Augustin Macmillan (1855-1936) (hon. secretary)
• Dr Walter Leaf (1852-1927) (hon. treasurer)
• Edward A. Bond (1815-98), principal librarian of the British Museum
• John Evans (1823-1908), treasurer of the Royal Society and President of the Society of Antiquaries
• Arthur John Evans (1851-1941), keeper of the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford
• Professor Percy Gardner (1846-1937), Oxford
• Rt. Hon. Sir William H. Gregory (1816-92)
  
• Edward I'Anson (1811-88), president of the RIBA
• Henry Jackson (1839-1921), Trinity College, Cambridge
• Professor Richard Claverhouse Jebb (1841-1905), University of Glasgow
• Rt. Hon Sir Austen Henry Layard (1817-94)
  
• Sir Frederic Leighton (1830-96), president of the Royal Academy
• Rt. Rev. Joseph Barber Lightfoot (1828-89), Lord Bishop of Durham; President of the Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies
• Lord Lilford (1833-96)
  
• Professor John Henry Middleton (1846-96), Slade Professor of Fine Art, University of Cambridge
  
• Alfred Morrison (1821-97)
  
• Alexander Stuart Murray (1841-1904), keeper of Greek and Roman Antiquities, British Museum
• Henry Francis Pelham (1846-1907), University of Oxford
• Sir Frederick Pollock (1845-1937, Secretary of the Dilettanti Society
• John Edwin Sandys (1844-1922), University of Cambridge
  
• Rt. Hon. Sir John Savile (1818-96), Ambassador at Rome
• Rev. Archibald Henry Sayce (1845-1933), Deputy Professor Comparative Philology, University of Oxford
• Rev. Henry Fanshawe Tozer (1829-1916), Exeter College, Oxford
  
• Edward Maunde Thompson (1840-1929), keeper of manuscripts in the British Museum
• Charles Waldstein (1856-1927), Director of the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge
  

The CEF was supported by the BSA, the Hellenic Society, the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge - each gave £150 to the Fund - as well as private subscribers.

The initial permit was given to excavate at the temple of Aphrodite at Paphos. The second season included work at Poli and Limniti, and the third at Salamis. The balance of the Fund was given to the BSA to support work on Cyprus; J.L. Myres was awarded a grant for excavations on the island in 1894.

Finds from the excavations were shared between:

• The British Museum
• The Ashmolean Museum, Oxford
• The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge
• Eton
• Harrow
• Winchester
• Rugby
• Charterhouse
• Westminster
• Marlborough
• Clifton

Excavation Reports
Gardner, E. A., D. G. Hogarth, M. R. James, and R. Elsey Smith. 1888. "Excavations in Cyprus, 1887-8. Paphos, Leontari, Amargetti." Journal of Hellenic Studies 9: 147-271. [JSTOR]
Munro, J. A. R., and H. A. Tubbs. 1890. "Excavations in Cyprus, 1889. Second season's work. Polis tes Chrysochou. Limniti." Journal of Hellenic Studies 11: 1-99. [JSTOR]
Munro, J. A. R., H. A. Tubbs, and W. W. Wroth. 1891. "Excavations in Cyprus, 1890. Third season's work. Salamis." Journal of Hellenic Studies 12: 59-198. [JSTOR]
Munro, J. A. R. 1891. "Excavations in Cyprus. Third season's work - Polis tes Chrysochou." Journal of Hellenic Studies 12: 298-333. [JSTOR]
Myres, J. L. 1897. "Excavations in Cyprus in 1894." Journal of Hellenic Studies 17: 134-73. [JSTOR]
Ohnefalsch-Richter, M. H., and J. L. Myres. 1899. A catalogue of the Cyprus museum: with a chronicle of excavations undertaken since the British occupation, and introductory notes on Cypriote archaeology. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

Accounts of travels
Hogarth, D. G. 1889. Devia Cypria: notes of an archaeological journey in Cyprus in 1888. London: Henry Frowde.
Smith, R. Elsey. 1890. "Report of a tour in Greece and Cyprus." Transactions of the Royal Institute of British Architects.