Lecture: Colonial society in 1930s Cyprus and the dismissal of John Hilton,
first Director of Antiquities
by Nicholas Stanley-Price
Tuesday, 27 February 2024 | 19:00
Location: The CVAR
The lecture will be delivered in English.
The architect John Hilton started work as the first Director of Antiquities of Cyprus in November 1934. But only eight months later, the Governor of Cyprus dismissed him for his lack of administrative ability and failure to adapt to colonial society. In his talk, Stanley-Price will examine how Hilton was appointed, the difficulties that he faced in creating a Department of Antiquities, and his discomfort in British colonial society. Hilton’s own unpublished memoir and letters provide a vivid picture of Cyprus in the mid-1930s as he tackled the restoration of the monuments most in need of repair.
Nicholas Stanley-Price’s fieldwork in Cyprus on Early Prehistoric sites resulted in a D.Phil. degree from the University of Oxford and the publication of a gazetteer of sites. Ten years of archaeological administration and fieldwork in Cyprus and the Middle East convinced him to switch direction towards conservation, specialising in archaeological site protection. He spent five years at ICCROM, the intergovernmental organisation in Rome created by UNESCO for conservation of cultural property, before moving to the Getty Conservation Institute in California. After setting up a new M.A. (still thriving) in archaeological site management at University College London, he returned to ICCROM as Director-General. He still lives in Rome.
The lecture is made possible with the support of the Active Citizens Fund.
