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The Department of Antiquities,
Ministry of Transport, Communications and Works, announces the commencement
of the digitisation of ancient movable antiquities which are stored in the
Cyprus Museum in Lefkosia and are on display in other state museums under the
programme «Digitising the Museums of Cyprus» which is founded by the European
Economic Area Financial Mechanism (EEA) and Norway Grants (Programming Period
2014 - 2021) on the 4th of May 2021.
The Department of Antiquities
considers that digitization can play a significant role in the management and
protection of monuments, archaeological sites, and museums. It therefore
commenced a large-scale digitization project of cultural heritage in October
2009 that includes Ancient Monuments, Moveable Antiquities, Surveys,
Controlled Areas, Areas under Expropriation: the «Cyprus Archaeological
Digitization Programme» (CADiP).
CADiP began in October 2009 as a European Programme, co-funded by the
Norwegian Financial Mechanism and the Republic of Cyprus and ran until April
2011. Following the completion of the European Programme, the digitization of
Ancient Monuments, Moveable Antiquities, Archaeological Surveys and
Expropriations continues by Archaeological Officers of the Department of
Antiquities using state funds, and by contract archaeologists from the
private sector.
In the period November 2016
until November 2017, the Department of Antiquities employed two contract
archaeologists: one for the digitization of five archaeological sites and the
other for the digitization of 4.000 moveable antiquities, of which 3.000 were
from the inventory of the Cyprus Museum and 1.000 were objects that had been
declared missing as a result of the 1974 Turkish Invasion. The programme ran
for a period of twelve months and was financed by the budget of the
Department of Antiquities.
At present the entries in the
CADiP database consist of 20.217 moveable antiquities, 3.573 surveys and
1.595 ancient monuments.
The Department of Antiquities
continues to set the digitization of cultural heritage as one of its
priorities. In order to reach its goal to digitize the artefacts on display
as well as those kept in the storerooms of the state museums, the Department
has commenced a large-scale programme with funding from the EEA Financial
Mechanism and Norway Grands (Programming Period 2014 - 2021).
The aim of this research
programme «Digitizing the Museums of Cyprus» is the digitization of 96.000
artefacts in the CADiP database, of which 82.000 are stored in the Cyprus
Museum in Lefkosia and 14.000 are on display in other state museums:
Archaeological Museum of the Lemesos District, Archaeological Museum of the
Larnaka District, Archaeological Museum of the Pafos District, Ethnological
Museum of Lefkosia (The House of Hadjigeorgakis Kornesios), Local
Archaeological Museum of Ancient Idalion, Local Museum of Traditional
Embroidery and Silversmith-work at Lefkara, Fikardou Rural Museum, Cyprus
Medieval Museum (Lemesos Castle), Local Archaeological Kourion Museum at
Episkopi, Local Archaeological Museum of Palaipafos (Kouklia), Local
Ethnographic Museum of Geroskipou, Local Archaeological Museum of
Marion-Arsinoe at Polis Chrysochous, Larnaka Castle, Cyprus Railways Museum.
The work will be carried out by
eight archaeologists who have been employed for a period of 31 months.
(IK/ECHR)
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