12/22/2021
Via Agade:
It is with great sadness that I write to inform you that Prof. Emer.
Vassos Karageorghis passed away yesterday. Here is the text I prepared
with Giorgos Papasavvas and Demetris Michaelides on behalf of the
University of Cyprus.
The University of Cyprus bids farewell to Emeritus Professor Vassos
Karageorghis, the first Professor of Archaeology, and founder of the
Archaeological Research Unit of the university. Hard-working and
tireless, charismatic, with unparalleled leadership skills, generous,
resourceful and imaginative, a man of works and deeds, a profound
connoisseur of Cypriot, and not only, archaeology. A man whose great
vision for the promotion and study of the cultural heritage of his
country, leaves behind a tremendous and long-lasting oeuvre. A man of
high education and paideia, and an unsurpassed scientific and academic
output, he leaves behind a work that will remain indelible in the
memory of all of us.
Vassos Karageorghis studied archaeology at the Institute of
Archaeology of the University of London (1948-1952). He received his
doctorate from the same university in 1957. After completing his
studies, he returned to Cyprus and began a brilliant career as an
archaeologist at the Department of Antiquities, which he served for 37
years. In 1963 he succeeded Porphyrios Dikaios as the Director of the
Department of Antiquities of the newly established Republic of Cyprus.
He held this position until his retirement in 1989. During this period
the Department of Antiquities flourished. Many monuments of Cyprus
were uncovered and brought to the fore during his leadership, while
archaeological museums were established in all districts of the
island. With the power given to him by the Antiquities Law, Vassos
Karageorghis fought many battles to save archaeological sites which
were under threat by the burst in building development brought by the
booming tourism industry after the island’s Independence.
But the biggest battle he fought, and won, was the promotion of
Cypriot Archaeology within the international scientific community.
Through his archaeological excavations and the consequent, impressive
discoveries (e.g. the royal necropolis of Salamis, the monumental
temples of Kition, the settlements of the Late Bronze Age in Pyla and
Maa, and many others), the unsurpassed high number of publications,
monographs and scholarly articles, and the many lectures he gave
abroad on subjects of Cypriot archaeology, Vassos Karageorghis
succeeded in elevating and promoting the status of Cypriot archaeology
at an international level.
At the same time, he kept the scientific field open by inviting
eminent foreign archaeologists to conduct excavations in Cyprus. In
turn, these archaeologists expanded the archaeology of our island even
more, taught it in their universities and discussed it in
international conferences and scientific publications, consolidating
its international character and orientation. Many colleagues remember
the warm hospitality he always extended together with his wife
Jacqueline Karageorghis, herself also a prominent archaeologist. In
1974, when, after the Turkish invasion, many of the foreign missions
found their excavations under Turkish occupation, Karageorghis found
and proposed new sites so that they could resume their work already in
the following year. Their successors continue to work on the island to
this day. This alone would be enough to demonstrate the great
contribution of Vassos Karageorghis to his country.
But Vassos Karageorghis did not stop there. He organized a series of
international scientific conferences that dealt with a wide range of
topics, and brought distinguished archaeologists from all over the
world to Cyprus. They thus formed long lasting relationship with the
island and promoted its cultural heritage in their own countries. He
was always willing to meet young archaeologists and support them in
the early years of their careers. He launched the publication of the
annual "Chronique des fouilles et découvertes archéologiques à Chypre"
in the French scientific journal Bulletin de Correspondence Hellenique
of the French Archaeological School at Athens, and upgraded the Report
of the Department of Antiquities, Cyprus, making it a well-respected
international scientific journal. At the same time, he published more
than 125 books in various languages, and more than 485 articles, which
were widely read and will continue to be read in the decades to come.
In 1989 he was appointed Director of the "Anastasios G. Leventis"
Foundation, which he served until 2010. His contribution from this
position was just as ambitious and inspired. During his tenure at the
foundation, many important collections of Cypriot antiquities, that
were kept in the largest and most important museums in the world
(British Museum, the Louvre, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, etc.),
were re-exhibited and published. With the support of the Leventis
family, Vassos Karageorghis established the Foundation’s scholarship
scheme which supported many young archaeologists, both Cypriot and
foreign, and enabled them to complete their postgraduate studies and
doctoral dissertations, often with topics around Cyprus, thus
promoting once again the archaeological research on the island.
From 1989 to 1992, Vassos Karageorghis served as an advisor to the
President of the Republic of Cyprus, Mr. George Vasileiou, and from
this position he played an important role in the establishment of the
Archaeological Research Unit (ARU) in 1991 at the newly founded
University of Cyprus. His relationship with the University Cyprus has
always been very tight, and in many ways it is thanks to him that
archaeology has become such a successful discipline in the first
academic institution of the country. In 1992 he was elected Professor
of Archaeology at the University of Cyprus and appointed director of
the Archaeological Research Unit, a position he held until 1996.
Today, almost thirty years later, there are ten members of academic
staff and 17 postdoctoral researchers working at the ARU, which since
1996 is also a part of the Department of History and Archaeology.
Although he retired from the University of Cyprus in 1996, his
relations with the country's highest academic institution, of which he
was elected Emeritus Professor, remained close. That is why he decided
to donate his personal library, one of the most important
archaeological libraries on the island, to the University of Cyprus.
He continued to collaborate with many of the members of the ARU in
research programs, conferences, and publications.
Vassos Karageorghis served archaeology and culture from other places
as well. From 2013 to 2019 he was an Associate Professor at the Cyprus
Institute. In 2016 he was appointed as one of the four founding
members of the Cyprus Academy of Sciences, Letters and Arts, of which
he became, in 2019, one of the four Transitional Regular Members.
For this brilliant career and his contribution to the archaeology of
Cyprus but also to the discipline of archaeology in general, he was
widely recognized and received the highest awards by many universities
and research institutes, as well as by foreign Academies, such as the
Academy of Athens, the British Academy, the French Academy, the
Swedish Academy, and the Academia dei Lincei (Italy). He was also
honored with the prize of the Société des Études Grecques de la
Sorbonne (1966), the RB Bennet Commonwealth Prize (1978), the Onassis
Prize "Olympia" (1991), and the International Prize of Venice "I
Cavalli d'Oro di San Marco” (1996). In May 2008, the President of the
Hellenic Republic, Karolos Papoulias, awarded him the Brigadier
General of the Order of Honor, and in 2011 he received the State Award
for Archaeology of Cyprus, the highest award given by the Republic of
Cyprus for the Preservation and Promotion of the Cultural Heritage.
Cyprus and the University of Cyprus are poorer today because they lost
one of the most important people of culture. Vassos Karageorghis,
however, has left behind a tremendous oeuvre and has contributed
greatly to the consolidation of Cypriot archaeology both locally and
internationally. The University of Cyprus owes him a lot and will
always recognize the legacy he leaves behind.
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