Thursday, April 4, 2019

Matthew Harpster on "Maritime Heritage in Northern Cyprus: The Kyrenia Shipwreck Collection Restoration Program"

Saturday, April 13, 2019 at 11am in the Pillsbury Auditorium at the Minneapolis Institute of Art
++ Free but all Mia talks are now ticketed - call 612-870-6323 or register online

++ Also note that this talk coincides with the closing of the Sunken Cities exhibit AND
 Art in Bloom - please see the latter link for parking information for this busy weekend!




Found by a local sponge diver in 1965 and later surveyed and excavated by a team from the University of Pennsylvania Museum between 1967 and 1969, the 4th-centuty BC shipwreck found off the coast of Kyrenia, Cyprus, has become a symbol of the island to the world..  It has been displayed on coinage, tourism posters, passports, and stamps.  Yet, due to military interventions on Cyprus in 1974 and the ongoing presence of the Turkish military, the care, management, and curation of this collection has been inadequate.

Begun in 2010, the Kyrenia Shipwreck Collection Restoration Program is an international effort to revitalize the care and management of this irreplaceable example of seafaring in the Mediterranean Sea.  This presentation will discuss the tangible and intangible problems impacting the collection, as well as the successful and ongoing efforts by the program to generate local and international support.


Short bibliography and/or website on lecture topic (for lay reader):

Susan Katzev, 2005. “Resurrecting an Ancient Greek Ship: Kyrenia, Cyprus” in Beneath the Seven Seas.

Michael Katzev and Susan Katzev, 1974. “Last Harbour for the Oldest Ship” National Geographic #146.

Matthew Harpster, 2015. “Protecting Maritime Heritage in Disputed Territory: The Kyrenia Shipwreck Collection Restoration Program” Journal of Eastern Mediterranean Archaeology and Heritage Studies 3, pp. 156-65.


No comments: