Mervyn Reddaway Popham,
FBA,
FSA (14 July 1927 – 24 October 2000) was a British archaeologist and prehistorian.
Early life and education
Born in
Exeter
Exeter ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and the county town of Devon in South West England. It is situated on the River Exe, approximately northeast of Plymouth and southwest of Bristol.
In Roman Britain, Exeter w ...
, Popham was educated at the John Stacker School, Exeter and
Exeter School
Exeter School is a private co-educational day school for pupils between the ages of 3 and 18 in Exeter, Devon, England. The younger year groups are based at Exeter Pre-Prep School in Exminster, which was previously known as The New School. In 20 ...
. After
National Service
National service is a system of compulsory or voluntary government service, usually military service. Conscription is mandatory national service. The term ''national service'' comes from the United Kingdom's National Service (Armed Forces) Act ...
in the
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom ...
(1946–1948), he proceeded to the
University of St Andrews
The University of St Andrews (, ; abbreviated as St And in post-nominals) is a public university in St Andrews, Scotland. It is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, oldest of the four ancient universities of Scotland and, f ...
(1948–1952), he studied classics and he became interested in epigraphy. One of his professors was
Terence Mitford
Terence Bruce Mitford FBA FSA (sometimes known as Terence Bruce-Mitford) (11 May 1905 – 8 November 1978) was a Scottish archaeologist and classicist. He spent his whole career at the University of St Andrews, and had a special interest in t ...
.
Colonial Service in Cyprus
In 1952 he went to Cyprus where he worked as a photographer under the archaeologist Terence Mitford in his excavation at
Kouklia
Kouklia (, ) is a village in the Paphos District, about east from the city of Paphos on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus. The village is built in the area of "Palaepaphos" () (Paphos#Old Paphos, Old Paphos), mythical birthplace of Aphrodite, G ...
.
Joining the
Colonial Administrative Service in 1951, Popham served in Cyprus from 1953 to 1959, an experience which marked him. Beginning as assistant
district commissioner for Nicosia, he then worked in the Secretariat in Nicosia, where he served during the initial stages of the
Cyprus Emergency
The Cyprus Emergency was a conflict fought in British Cyprus between April 1955 and March 1959.
The National Organisation of Cypriot Fighters (EOKA), a Greek Cypriot right-wing nationalist guerrilla organisation, began an armed campaign in s ...
. He then served as district commissioner for the
Troodos area, where many
EOKA
The Ethniki Organosis Kyprion Agoniston (EOKA ; ) was a Greek Cypriot nationalist guerrilla organization that fought a campaign for the end of Cyprus#Cyprus under the British Empire, British rule in Cyprus, and for enosis, eventual union with K ...
insurgents were hidden.
During his time in Cyprus, Popham continued to read and write about classical archaeology. Despite being urged by
Sir Hugh Foot to remain in the Colonial Service and being offered a position as secretary to the
Governor of Malta
A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of a state's official representative. Depending on the type of political region or polity, a ''governor'' may ...
, Popham chose to resign from the Service in 1959 to return to archaeology. He completed a Diploma in Classical Archaeology at the
University of Oxford
The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...
. Among his professors were
John Boardman,
Dorothea Gray
Dorothea Helen Forbes Gray (1905– 3 July 1983) was a British classicist. For almost all of her career, she taught at St Hugh's College, Oxford, where she became known for her advocacy of pre-classical Greek archaeology (then known as "Homeric ...
and David Lewis.
Archaeological career
In 1961 he joined
Sinclair Hood
Martin Sinclair Frankland Hood, (31 January 1917 – 18 January 2021), generally known as Sinclair Hood, was a British archaeologist and academic. He was Director of the British School at Athens from 1954 to 1962, and led the excavations at Kn ...
and his team at
Knossos
Knossos (; , ; Linear B: ''Ko-no-so'') is a Bronze Age archaeological site in Crete. The site was a major centre of the Minoan civilization and is known for its association with the Greek myth of Theseus and the minotaur. It is located on th ...
. In 1962 with
Hugh Sackett
Leyland Hugh Sackett (13 August 1928 – 12 April 2020) was an archeologist credited with being among the discoverers of the Palaikastro Kouros.
Education
Sackett attended Merton College at Oxford.
Work
As an archeologist, Sackett co-dire ...
he excavated at
Palaikastro
Palaikastro or Palekastro (, officially ), with the Godart and Olivier abbreviation PK, is a thriving town, geographic heir to a long line of settlements extending back into prehistoric times, at the east end of the Mediterranean island Crete. T ...
and in 1964 at
Lefkandi
Lefkandi () is a coastal village on the island of Euboea, Greece. Archaeological finds attest to a settlement on the promontory locally known as Xeropolis, while several associated cemeteries have been identified nearby. The settlement site is loc ...
-Xeropolis.
In the 1960's he worked as Assistant Director of the
British School at Athens
The British School at Athens (BSA; ) is an institute for advanced research, one of the eight British International Research Institutes supported by the British Academy, that promotes the study of Greece in all its aspects. Under UK law it is a reg ...
.
His work contributed significantly to the study of Cypriot
White Slip Ware.
In 1960 he was elected a
Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries
The Society of Antiquaries of London (SAL) is a learned society of historians and archaeologists in the United Kingdom. It was founded in 1707, received its royal charter in 1751 and is a registered charity. It is based at Burlington House in Pi ...
,
and in 1988 a
Fellow of the British Academy
Fellowship of the British Academy (post-nominal letters FBA) is an award granted by the British Academy to leading academics for their distinction in the humanities and social sciences. The categories are:
# Fellows – scholars resident in t ...
.
Publications
* Popham, M. R. (1963). The Proto White Slip Pottery of Cyprus, in P. Åström and G. R. H. Wright, Two Bronze Age Tombs at Dhenia in Cyprus, ''Opuscula Atheniensia'', 4, 277–297.
* Popham, M. (1963). Two Cypriot Sherds from Crete. ''The Annual of the British School at Athens'', ''58'', 89–93.
* Popham, M. R. (1965). Some Late Minoan III Pottery from Crete. ''The Annual of the British School at Athens'', 60, 316–342. doi:10.1017/S006824540001399X
* Popham, M. (1967). Late Minoan Pottery, A Summary. ''The Annual of the British School at Athens'', ''62'', 337–351. doi:10.1017/S0068245400014209
* Popham, M. R. (1972). White Slip Ware. In: Åström, P. (ed.) ''The Swedish Cyprus Expedition'', ''IV. IC,'' Lund: The Swedish Cyprus Expedition, 431–471.
* Popham, M. R. (1972). A Note on the Relative Chronology of White Slip Ware. In: Åström, P. (ed.) ''Swedish Cyprus Expedition IV: ID'', Lund: The Swedish Cyprus Expedition, 699–705.
* Popham M, Touloupa E, Sackett LH. (1982). The hero of Lefkandi. ''Antiquity,'' 56, 169–174. doi:10.1017/S0003598X00054648
* Popham, M. R., Touloupa, E., & Sackett, L. H. (1982). Further Excavation of the Toumba Cemetery at Lefkandi, 1981. ''The Annual of the British School at Athens'', ''77'', 213–248. doi:10.1017/S006824540000513X
* Popham M. (1984). Rantidi 1910 and 1955, in T. B. Mitford and O. Masson, ''The Syllabic Inscriptions of Rantidi-Paphos''. Ausgrabungen in Alt-Paphos auf Cypern, 2, Konstanz: Universitätsverlag Konstanz, 3–11.
* Popham, M. R. and Lemos, I.S. (1995). A Euboean Warrior Trader. ''Oxford Journal Of Archaeology'', 14: 151–157.
Https://Doi.Org/10.1111/J.1468-0092.1995.Tb00391.X
* Popham, M. R. (2001). Problems Encountered in the Preparation of the Section on White Slip Ware for ''SCE'' IV. In: Karageorghis, V. (ed.) ''The White Slip Ware of Late Bronze Age Cyprus.'' Wien, 45–47.
Further reading
*
References
1927 births
2000 deaths
Place of birth missing
Place of death missing
Alumni of the University of St Andrews
Fellows of the Society of Antiquaries of London
Alumni of the University of Oxford
Fellows of Linacre College, Oxford
Academics of the University of Oxford
University of Cincinnati faculty
20th-century British archaeologists
Classical archaeologists
Colonial Administrative Service officers
People from British Cyprus
People educated at Exeter School
Fellows of the British Academy
{{UK-archaeologist-stub