Nea Paphos. Seasons 2012 and 2013

Abstract

Excavation at the site of the so-called Hellenistic House in Nea Paphos in 2012 and 2013 was focused on the main courtyard (1) and the southern portico (R.3). The architecture collapsed in an earthquake in the 2nd century AD. Blocks and architectural elements formed an oblong tumble extending across the courtyard, apparently already not in their original position save for some entablature blocks of the eastern peristyle, and two acroteria with symbols of Dioskouroi, a pilos with a superimposed star, and at least two column shafts belonging to the southern peristyle. The cistern under the southeastern part of the courtyard had two successive well-heads, one (the later one) uncovered earlier, the other 2.02 m to the northwest, the top of which collapsed into the cistern. The disturbed fill from the courtyard surface included a mold for sling bullets with decoration in the form of a scorpion in relief and fragments of “Nabatean” capitals belonging to a variant showing schematic volutes.