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collections. In 1954 he became the Honorary
Curator of the Nicholson Museum and was
appointed the inaugural Professor of Middle Eastern
Archaeology at the University of Sydney in 1960,
again the first such position in Australia. He was a
dedicated teacher, and as one of his former students
has written, “none of his students will ever forget the
practical lessons held in the museum, when cases
were opened and students allowed to handle the
objects for themselves.”
Stewart realised that students needed fieldwork
experience too, andwas keen to renewexcavations
in Cyprus. He oversaw the organisation and
funding of a joint Sydney-Oxford project at the
Late Bronze Age sanctuary at Myrtou
Pighades
on the northern coast. A side excavation of this
project was the excavations of a Bronze Age
cemetery at nearby Myrtou
Stephania
conducted
by Stewart’s student Basil Hennessy in 1951, who
would many years later take on Stewart’s position
as Professor at the University of Sydney.Amongst
the interesting finds at the Stephania tombs now in
Sydney are the pair of White Painted V tankards,
both with animal handles (c. 1750-1550BC) (NM
53.100 and NM 53.101).
Stewart realised his excavation ambitions in 1955,
by leading his own excavations at the cemetery
sites of Vasilia
Kafkallia
on the north coast of the
island, and Nicosia
Ayia Paraskevi
on the outskirts
of the island’s capital with his second wife Eve. He
continued this work in 1961 after Cyprus had gained
independence,witha seasonof excavations of tombs
at Karmi
Palealona
andKarmi
Lapasta
, where finds
include the fascinating Red Polished plank figurine
of the Middle Bronze Age (NM 2009.120). These
anthropomorphic figurines are well attested in
Cyprus, but their function is still not certain. By the
end of the Karmi excavations Stewart was ill, and
in 1962 he passed away, aged only 48. His legacy
was not only the collections of Cypriot materials
held in the Nicholson Museum and otherAustralian
museums, but also in the work of his students,
including Basil Hennessy and Robert Merrillees
who continued to investigate the archaeology of
Bronze Age Cyprus, which would continue with
subsequent generations ofAustralian academics.
As well as the excavations by James Stewart, the
NicholsonMuseum acquired Cypriot material from
other sources too, including a large permanent loan
organised in 1947 of material from the University
of Cambridge. Over 160 items were sent to Sydney,
describedina letterbythe thenProfessorofClassical
Archaeology at CambridgeA.W. Lawrence (brother
of the famed T.E. Lawrence ‘of Arabia’) as “not a
brilliant collection, but fairly representative”. This
additional material gave the Nicholson Museum
collection a selection of items from later periods
than Stewart’s Bronze Age excavations to use for
teaching. Amongst the items sent from Cambridge
was a Late Cypriot II (c. 1450-1200 BC) terracotta
figurine of a female with child (NM47.347), which
demonstrates close cultural ties with contemporary
North Syrian Astarte figurines. The exquisite
figurine was at one stage owned by the British
diplomat Sir Henry Bulwer, the nephew of the
famed Victorian novelist Edward Bulwer-Lytton,
author of
The Last Days of Pompeii
. Also part of
the Cambridge loan was a terracotta classical head
(c. 475-325 BC) (NM 47.426) with a moulded
face and a high headdress. The Greek influence
Late Cypriot terracotta figurine of a female with child (NM 47.347)
(Photo: Phil Rogers Photography - Nicholson Museum)