Our First Year in Review: AncientCyprus.com

As I reflect on 2024, I'm amazed at how far we've come. What began as a mere concept in late 2023 has blossomed into a comprehensive digital archive of Cyprus's rich archaeological heritage. Let me share our journey through this transformative year.

In Late 2023, I couldn't have dreamt of what 2024 would bring. ancientcyprus.com was barely an idea in my head. Bringing such a large-scale project to reality was daunting but over the course of the last 12 months we have made great strides into making this dream a reality.

Writing

In 2024 we published almost 50 articles. Our website now contains a staggering 400,000 words of information, primarily spread across the catalogue. Looking ahead to 2025, we're expanding our focus to develop a comprehensive compendium of Levantine history and culture, with Cyprus at its heart. Our vision is to create the definitive digital resource for understanding the ancient Levant by year's end.

Curation

The past year marked significant expansion in our collections, with over 20 carefully selected artifacts joining our archive. Each piece adds depth to our understanding and appreciation of ancient Cypriot culture. As always, all pieces make their way to our catalogue and we strive to make them all available in 3D. Some of our favourite pieces acquired this year can be seen here:

We are tentatively looking to expand our collection into Bronze Age material culture, as well as solidifying our collection of Iron Age pieces.

Travel

Our work took us across three countries, documenting collections in prestigious institutions including the British Museum, multiple Cyprus Museums (Kourion, Limassol, Larnaca, and Nicosia), and the Cycladic Museum in Athens. These trips resulted in over 1,500 high-quality photographs, now integrated into our digital catalogue.

A particular highlight of our trip included our visit of David Johnson and his collection in London.

Photogrammetry

Our photogrammetry initiative kicked off with a storm in 2024. We took over 6,000 images and produced over 400gb of data. Beyond our photogrammetry setup, we also developed custom code to help deliver these high quality 3D models and textures to our readers over the web: Oinochoe 3D Model.

We're pushing boundaries further by exploring Unreal Engine applications, aiming to create immersive, interactive experiences that bring ancient Cypriot culture to life in unprecedented ways.

Analytics & Outreach

Our organic growth has been remarkable, reaching over 2,800 unique visitors throughout the year and achieving monthly peaks of 500+ users—all without paid advertising. This approach aligns with our primary mission: building a robust knowledge base before expanding our outreach efforts.

We are also committed to keeping the website and all data available for free, without adverts.

Our users were spread far and wide, with users from the United States making up the majority, closely followed by the United Kingdom and then fellow Cypriots.

The majority of our users found the site organically, through search engines. The most popular searches were various versions of "cypriot pottery".

Interestingly, most of our users browsed our website on Desktop devices, which is in great contrast to the general trend of mobile browsing.

Our current focus is on growing our data and knowledge base, as such we did not undertake many social media campaigns. We did however do a little outreach which resulted in over 240,000 views across posts. Our posts related to mortuary culture, our cypriot 3D models, and our free field art.

Cultural Heritage Protection

Preserving Cyprus's cultural heritage remains central to our mission. We've enhanced our commitment by launching a dedicated heritage protection page and actively collaborating with the Department of Antiquities. In 2024, we identified and reported numerous potentially looted artifacts, contributing to ongoing recovery efforts.

Looking ahead to 2025, we're developing machine learning solutions to better identify and track potentially looted artifacts in the art market, strengthening our role in cultural heritage protection.

Final Words

I would like to thank everyone who has supported us in 2024. We have had a great year and I am looking forward to what 2025 will bring. We have some big plans for the year ahead and I hope you will join us on this journey. I believe we have laid down strong foundations upon which we can build a comprehensive resources and tooling related to Cypriot archeology.