The history of the relations between the French School at Athens and Cyprus has been evoked time and time again: overlooked during the second half of the 19th century, contact between the institution and the island of Aphrodite grew more intense under the direction of Théophile Homolle who entrusted Paul Perdrizet with the job of leading a study trip to Larnaca, Lapithos and Amathus. The First World War put an end to this kind of surveying, largely epigraphic, and we had to wait until the end of the 1960s before the Department of Antiquities proposed the area with the site of Amathus to the French School for investigation, terrain that had been coveted for years by a number of institutions and foreign universities.


A first campaign of prospecting and topographical surveys was conducted under the guidance of Pierre Aupert. According to the terms used by of the Director of the French School at Athens, this mission should not constitute a definitive commitment. It was all a question of funding!
The military intervention that occurred in the summer of 1974 and the long-lasting occupation by Turkish troops in the north part of the island where three French missions were established (Salamis, Enkomi and Cape Apostolos Andreas), brutally brought about a reconfiguration of archaeological activities at Cyprus. The first excavation at Amathus occurred in 1975. Since then, the fieldwork of the French School at Athens continues at Amathus under the favorable auspices of the Department of Antiquities.
L. Thély, trans. A.M. Schroth-Daskalakis