Conclusion.
 

How I carried on my excavations and specially wliat I dit at Marion-Arsinoe.

1.   Mr. Munro on my researches.

It is at once my right and my duty to tell in accordance with facts what use I sought to make of
my discovery of the cemeteries of Marion Arsinoe (already described under PL CCXVIII) and also how"
I and my discoveries which led the formation of the Cyprus Excavation Fund in 1887 were made use
of by others.

But first about Salamis.

It was just the same as to Salamis and my excavations there although, Munro in that case
did at least mention (J. H. S. 1891, p. 59) me and some of my publications. But neither he nor his
colleagues are acquainted with the Revue Archeologique and S Reinach's Chroniques d'Orient or they do
not choose to be acquainted with them, because S. Reinach speaks the truth based on what I told him.*)
But further what Munro does tell of my discoveries at Salamis is so misrepresented as to give the im¬
pression that the discovery of the interesting temenos of Zeus**) was due to a mere chance and to
peasants ■— a discovery which I am made to boast about — the words are (J. H. S. p. 59).

"Among the most important of Herr Richter's many services to Cypriote archaeo¬
logy may be reckoned the accidental discovery of two marble capitals under the sand near
the Forest Guard's house, which occurred while he was employed in theEorest Department
and which subsequently gave us the clue to one of our sites."

On p. 66 Messrs Munro and Tubbs explain in still more unmistakeable language one of the
principal services I have rendered to Cyprian Archaeology as follows.

"At two points, east and west of one another, the villagers had in digging for water
brought to light a couple of bluish-white marble capitals in Roman-Corinthian style toge¬
ther with a base and two dydXfjbaTa of limestone."

The principal service that I have rendered consists in the digging for water by the peasants who
chanced when they were doing it to light on antiquities. I happened to be the Government official. For
these gentlemen do not even say that the peasants were my workmen.

In company with Dr. Dorpfeld I visited the excavations when they were going on and at once
forwarded to Messrs. Munro and Tubbs at Salamis my paper on "The Museum and excavations in Cyprus"
that appeared in the ^^Repertorium fur Kunstwissenschaft" 1886.    In that I note as follows in 1886:

"Another great source of loss that eats like a cancer into the precious and irreplaceable treasures
of antiquities, in part below the ground, in part above, in Cyprus, is the search for blocks belonging to
ancient buildings which is scarcely now checked by Government.***) How often one or another of the
island officials has shrugged his shoulders when I drew   his attention to   the fact that  by this search for
 

*) Cf. S, Reinach.   Chroniques d'Orient.   Index sub.   Ohnefalsch-Eichter.

**) It is much to be regretted that Messrs. Munro and Tubbs did not at once excavate this site, which I had discovered, and in
which, towards the north, important finds and presumably of remote antiquity could be expected It is in general to be regretted that
these gentlemen did not complete any of the tentative excavations they began in seven places in the ruins of Salamis. This tentative work,
this "Prospecting and not excavating", as the English officials call it, is only justifiable in cases when the actual excavations are carried
out in the same or, at furthest, the following year and in cases where a trusty guardian is lett in charge. Up to the present time nothing
has been done, although three years have gone by, and there is no apparent intention of excavating these sites this year, which lie ex¬
posed to the will and pleasure of the peasants. The prohibitions in the Ottoman Code against employing- ancient ruins as stone for build¬
ing has indeed been revived under English auspices. But it will need a special body of police to make this prohibition a reality. The
fact that I am able to lay before the reader in Plates II and III an exact plan of an almost complete ring wall at Idalion is due chiefly
to the illegal search conducted by the peasants for building stones in the district of Ijlalion If anyone goes there now to check my state¬
ment they will find indeed some remains by help of which they will be able to appreciate the fact that my work is throughout reliable.
But many remains that I myself saw and was unable to draw in had disappeared before I left the island. If therefore the Exploration
Fund does not shortly^make a thorough and systematic excavation of the island, these tentative works, this "prospecting" will have done
more harm than good.   It would have been better to have left the place untouched.

***) I possess the official correspondence on this point with the government seal, carried on under Sir Robert Biddulph and Sir
Henry Bulwer.

65*