Alexis Kyriacou and Dr Mark Merrony read Cyprus as a meeting point of Greek, Phoenician and Egyptian traditions at Cyprus House, from Archaic sculpture to Byzantine mosaic.
The archaeologist Alexis Kyriacou gave a half-hour paper on Cypriot art between East and West at Cyprus House in St James’s on Tuesday 19 May 2026. Dr Mark Merrony, Editor-in-Chief of ANTIQVVS, gave the second.
Kyriacou, also an art dealer and doctoral researcher, spoke first, on Sculpture and Identity in Archaic Cyprus (740 to 475 BC). He drew on limestone votive figures from sanctuary sites at Kition, Amathus, Tamassos and Marion.
He read the figures as hybrid forms in which Greek, Phoenician, Egyptian and native Cypriot traditions meet. His argument was that the island’s Archaic sculptors shaped a shared Mediterranean visual language of their own.
Merrony, a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries and of Wolfson College, Oxford, followed with the mosaics of Kykkos Monastery. He carried the same East and West argument into the Byzantine centuries and after, when the island’s art kept a distinct voice while absorbing wider currents.
Both papers are due to appear together in ANTIQVVS. The Cultural Section of the Cyprus High Commission hosted the evening at its own address on St James’s Square. Discussion with the room and a reception followed the talks.