The Archaeology Committee feels privileged that the Honourable Michalis S. Firillas, Cypriot Consul General, addresses the National Arts Club in celebration of International Archaeology Day. The mythological island birthplace of the goddess Aphrodite located in the middle of the eastern Mediterranean, Cyprus is a crossroads between East and West, North and South. Over many millennia, this fascinating country rich in natural resources with three extraordinary UNESCO sites has greatly contributed to archaeological knowledge. Too important to be ignored by the dominant regional empires yet unable fully to assert itself independently, Cyprus nurtured a local synthesis of cultures, languages, politics, technologies.