Nea Paphos Research Articles

In Search of the Module in the Architectural Design of the ‘Hellenistic’ House in Nea Paphos, Cyprus

Ancient Graeco-Roman architecture was designed with the application of mathematical harmony as a key compositional principle used in planning the dimensions and proportions of particular elements, larger parts of buildings or whole edifices. Therefore, application of metrology studies based on a cosine quantogram supports architectural analysis leading to an indication of the predominant stylistic influence on any particular building. Such a dual approach helps to establish the origins of the major artistic tradition in architectural design, especially of buildings excavated in a complex multicultural archaeological context. The aim of this paper is to determine the existence and nature of a module in the architectural decoration as well as in the general design of the ‘Hellenistic’ House, a spacious residence in Nea Paphos, Cyprus, erected in Roman times, but according to the artistic Ptolemaic tradition.

Understanding changes in the supply pattern of Roman cooking pottery from Morphou Bay to Nea Paphos: evidence from the Paphos Agora Project

The thin-walled cooking pottery of the early to late Roman period originating from the area of Morphou Bay in the northern part of Cyprus, excavated by the Paphos Agora Project of the Jagiellonian University in Kraków, is studied in this paper in order to shed new light on the nature of the supply patterns of this extraordinary class of pottery. The collected data—on the macroscopic characteristic of the ware and shape—and a chronological analysis as well as quantitative study of the assemblage have indicated a continuous presence of this group in Nea Paphos, reflecting perhaps some sort of special social requirements combined with an economic background.

A Weight of Seleucia in Pieria in Nea Paphos

Archaeological excavations carried out by a mission from the Jagiellonian University Institute of Archaeology on the site of the agora of Nea Paphos in Cyprus brought to light a lead weight with a Greek inscription giving the year 251 of an era and mentioning an agoranomos with the name Seleukos. On the basis of parallels, the author demonstrates that the weight must have been issued by the North Syrian city of Seleucia in Pieria, and the era used in the inscription is the civic era of Seleucia with the starting point in 109/108 BC, which allows one to date the object to AD 142/143. He argues that the structure where the object was found can tentatively be identified as agoranomeion of Nea Paphos.

The Temple and Its Surroundings on Fabrika Hill, Paphos: Preliminary Results of the French-Polish Excavations (2018–2019)

The field research conducted in Paphos in the framework of a joint project of the Université d’Avignon and the University of Warsaw focuses on the southern part of Fabrika hill with the aim to understand its role in the urban life of ancient Nea Paphos. Two seasons of the fieldwork (2018–2019) yielded evidence for the arrangement and chronology of a temple site of the Hellenistic and early Roman period. A preliminary exploration of underground chambers strongly suggests that they may have been a part of the same sacred area as the temple. Moreover, several burials as well as some walls and floors testify to the use of the site during the Byzantine and Medieval period.

PRODUCTION AND SUPPLY OF CERAMIC OIL LAMPS IN HELLENISTIC AND EARLY ROMAN NEA PAPHOS, CYPRUS: INTEGRATED TYPOLOGICAL, CHRONOLOGICAL AND PROVENANCE STUDIES

This paper presents the results of a multipronged approach to the study of the Hellenistic and Early Roman ceramic oil lamps excavated at the Agora of Nea Paphos in Cyprus. The assemblage was studied macroscopically, and selected samples were analysed through WD-XRF spectroscopy and thin section petrography, combined with refiring tests. The integrated results revealed that local production changed through time in terms of lamp shapes, manufacturing techniques and clay recipes, while imported lamps originated from a range of sources. The transformations seen in the local production correlate with changes in the origin of imported lamp supply and the impact of other centres on the local lamp manufacture. These patterns in production and supply could be most likely associated with political transformations and urban development.

The iconography on the Paphos IAEW-amulet may draw upon the apotropaic ‘All-Suffering Eye’ motif

The paper proposes that the Egyptian-style imagery on a 5-6th century CE magical amulet discovered at Nea Paphos in Cyprus (Inv. no. PAP/FR 44/2011) draws upon an apotropaic design against the Evil Eye known as the “All-Suffering Eye,” which dates

Portable ED-XRF as a tool for optimizing sampling strategy: The case study of a Hellenistic amphora assemblage from Paphos (Cyprus)

Provenance studies of archaeological ceramics based on their elemental composition illuminate the production and distribution of pottery vessels and, in the case of transport containers, of the commodities that they contained. A basic assumption is that the elemental composition of ceramics from a specific workshop or production area can be distinguished from other production groups, mainly because of the use of geochemically different clays, either singly or in combination. In some cases, however, the compositional differences between production groups are quite small. Thus, laboratory methods with high performance, in terms of precision and accuracy, such as neutron activation analysis (NAA) or wavelength dispersive X-ray fluorescence (WDXRF), are often preferred for analyzing archaeological ceramics, especially for effective comparison with reference groups and published data from other studies. Handheld portable energy dispersive XRF systems (pXRF), although increasingly used during recent years, offer lesser analytical performance, which may obscure compositional differences and currently do not offer the same potential for comparison to known reference groups. However, due to their potential for fast and non-invasive measurements, considerably larger numbers of samples can be analysed by pXRF, offering an array of advantages. We argue that pXRF offers the opportunity for an initial analytical survey of a large ceramic assemblage as the basis for efficient sample selection for laboratory analysis, covering a large number of samples and avoiding for the generation of redundant measurements. We present the application of such a stepped analytical approach to a well-studied assemblage of amphorae of the Hellenistic period at Nea Paphos, Cyprus. The analysis of 287 amphora fragments by pXRF, the grouping of that data to select samples for further analysis of 97 individuals by NAA, and the comparison of the grouping of data from both chemical techniques is presented. This leads not only to archaeological insights on the production and circulation of amphorae, but tests an innovative methodology that offers the chance to maximize and extend the application of geochemical techniques of high accuracy and precision on an assemblage-wide scale.

The Role of Archival Aerial Photography in Shaping Our Understanding of the Funerary Landscape of Hellenistic and Roman Cyprus

AbstractThis study deals with the investigation of the Eastern necropolis of Nea Paphos in western Cyprus, employing archival and recent aerial photographs for the identification of surface/near-surface ancient architectural remains. The analysis of the primary archival aerial photograph employed for this study reveals the archaeological visibility of the site as it had been captured approximately 15 years before its rescue excavation in the 1980s. The outcomes from the enhancement and interpretation of the archival aerial photograph supplement known archaeological information of the area and elucidate the understanding of the spatial distribution of the tombs as well as the geographic extent of the necropolis.

The God Aion in a Mosaic from Nea Paphos (Cyprus) and Graeco-Phoenician Cosmogonies in the Roman East

AbstractThis essay offers a new interpretive angle on a fourth-century CE mosaic from Nea Paphos in Cyprus, in which the central panel depicts the god Aion presiding over the contest between Kassiopeia and the Nereids. The mosaic, which has other mythological scenes, two of them focused on Dionysos, has been interpreted in an allegorical Neoplatonic key or else as encrypting an anti-Christian polemic narrative. Here I propose that Aion and the other cosmogonic motifs in the panels, including the birth and triumph of Dionysos, point rather to Orphic and Phoenician cosmogonies, which in turn had a strong impact and reception among Neoplatonists and intellectuals of the Roman and late Roman Levant.

New research in the sacred zone of the Fabrika Hill in Nea Paphos, Cyprus

New research in the sacred zone of the Fabrika Hill in Nea Paphos, Cyprus
 The rocky hillock of Fabrika in the north-eastern most part of ancient Nea Paphos, founded during the late 4th century BC, is of key importance for understanding the early phase of the town planning, but at the same time very difficult to be methodically explored. Both its eminent location and geology made it a natural source of building material throughout the ages, greatly hindering any accurate reconstruction of the site development. However, the data collected so far strongly suggest that the arrangement of the southern part of the hill was of a cultic nature. Therefore, on undertaking a joint project with Université d’Avignon, we decided to focus the research on the southern part of the hill where, near the top of an Early Hellenistic theatre, there are rock-cut outlines of atemple possibly devoted to Aphrodite Paphia. During two seasons of field work (2018-2019), we retrieved some important information regarding both an original Hellenistic arrangement of the sacred area and its later (Late Roman/Byzantine and Medieval) use. Some new observations were also made regarding the topographical details of the area.

Tomb architecture and distribution in the Eastern Necropolis of Nea Paphos, Cyprus

Tomb architecture and distribution in the Eastern Necropolis of Nea Paphos, Cyprus
 The Eastern necropolis of Nea Paphos is one of the most significant funerary landscapes of Cyprus, primarily because of its connection with the capital of the island during the Hellenistic and Roman times, and therefore of importance for the archaeology of the Eastern Mediterranean. The first systematic exploration of the site took place in the 1980s in the form of rescue excavations. Only limited research has been undertaken since then. This article discusses the necropolis based on unpublished material from the rescue excavations. It presents the tombs’ architecture; partially reconstructs the burial ground; reveals the extension of the necropolis; triggers questions related to the dynamics between nearby necropolis, and its potential correlation to satellite habitation sites.

Architecture of the Official Spaces of Selected Residences in Nea Paphos, Cyprus

This paper deals with public areas in ancient residences. These zones, emphasising the social status of the owners of the houses, are analysed in several large residences erected in the Graeco-Roman Period in Nea Paphos, Cyprus: the ‘Hellenistic’ House, the Villa of Theseus, and the House of Aion. Particularly, the special arrangement of the layout and the architectural decoration of three major public zones were studied: the entrance, the main courtyard, and the main room.

How Roman Are Roman Houses in the Eastern Mediterranean? The House of Leukaktios (Ptolemais, Cyrenaica) and the House of Orpheus (Nea Paphos, Cyprus) as Case Studies

Cyprus and Cyrenaica, two regions strongly influenced by the Alexandrian cultural heritage, which came under the Roman rule already in the 1st century BC, are simultaneously both typical and unusual examples of acculturation understood as a mixture of Hellenistic and Roman components. This is reflected in various spheres of life, including the architecture of the houses owned by members of the urban elite which are investigated in this article. Two residential units – the House of Leukaktios at Ptolemais in Cyrenaica and the House of Orpheus at Nea Paphos in Cyprus – will be presented to discuss different attitudes towards Romanisation from the perspective of an individual as reflected by particular dwellings.

A New Project in Progress: Residence as Self-Presentation of Urban Elites. Architecture and Decoration of the House of Orpheus in Nea Paphos, the Ancient Capital of Cyprus. 1 Potentials and Prospects

The so-called House of Orpheus, explored under the direction of Demetrios Michaelides a few decades ago, has so far been studied only fragmentarily. Since 2018, a new project began whose objective is to complete the studies on the site. To this end, non-invasive fieldworks (at Nea Paphos) are currently performed as well as library and archival research focused on gathering all published and unpublished information on the House. The results of the new documentation made on the site, supplemented with archival data, will enable a virtual, three-dimensional reconstruction of selected architectural units. The collected material will serve to re-define the house’s spaces from a historical perspective. The comprehensive evaluation of the architecture of the House of Orpheus will become an important point of reference in studies on the residential architecture of ancient Cyprus and other regions of the eastern Mediterranean.

Estimating Proportion of Vegetation Cover at the Vicinity of Archaeological Sites Using Sentinel-1 and -2 Data, Supplemented by Crowdsourced OpenStreetMap Geodata

Monitoring vegetation cover is an essential parameter for assessing various natural and anthropogenic hazards that occur at the vicinity of archaeological sites and landscapes. In this study, we used free and open access to Copernicus Earth Observation datasets. In particular, the proportion of vegetation cover is estimated from the analysis of Sentinel-1 radar and Sentinel-2 optical images, upon their radiometric and geometric corrections. Here, the proportion of vegetation based on the Radar Vegetation Index and the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index is estimated. Due to the medium resolution of these datasets (10 m resolution), the crowdsourced OpenStreetMap service was used to identify fully and non-vegetated pixels. The case study is focused on the western part of Cyprus, whereas various open-air archaeological sites exist, such as the archaeological site of “Nea Paphos” and the “Tombs of the Kings”. A cross-comparison of the results between the optical and the radar images is presented, as well as a comparison with ready products derived from the Sentinel Hub service such as the Sentinel-1 Synthetic Aperture Radar Urban and Sentinel-2 Scene classification data. Moreover, the proportion of vegetation cover was evaluated with Google Earth red-green-blue free high-resolution optical images, indicating that a good correlation between the RVI and NDVI can be generated only over vegetated areas. The overall findings indicate that Sentinel-1 and -2 indices can provide a similar pattern only over vegetated areas, which can be further elaborated to estimate temporal changes using integrated optical and radar Sentinel data. This study can support future investigations related to hazard analysis based on the combined use of optical and radar sensors, especially in areas with high cloud-coverage.

Evaluation of Landsat 8 OLI/TIRS Level-2 and Sentinel 2 Level-1C Fusion Techniques Intended for Image Segmentation of Archaeological Landscapes and Proxies

The use of medium resolution, open access, and freely distributed satellite images, such as those of Landsat, is still understudied in the domain of archaeological research, mainly due to restrictions of spatial resolution. This investigation aims to showcase how the synergistic use of Landsat and Sentinel optical sensors can efficiently support archaeological research through object-based image analysis (OBIA), a relatively new scientific trend, as highlighted in the relevant literature, in the domain of remote sensing archaeology. Initially, the fusion of a 30 m spatial resolution Landsat 8 OLI/TIRS Level-2 and a 10 m spatial resolution Sentinel 2 Level-1C optical images, over the archaeological site of “Nea Paphos” in Cyprus, are evaluated in order to improve the spatial resolution of the Landsat image. At this step, various known fusion models are implemented and evaluated, namely Gram–Schmidt, Brovey, principal component analysis (PCA), and hue-saturation-value (HSV) algorithms. In addition, all four 10 m available spectral bands of the Sentinel 2 sensor, namely the blue, green, red, and near-infrared bands (Bands 2 to 4 and Band 8, respectively) were assessed for each of the different fusion models. On the basis of these findings, the next step of the study, focused on the image segmentation process, through the evaluation of different scale factors. The segmentation process is an important step moving from pixel-based to object-based image analysis. The overall results show that the Gram–Schmidt fusion method based on the near-infrared band of the Sentinel 2 (Band 8) at a range of scale factor segmentation to 70 are the optimum parameters for the detection of standing visible monuments, monitoring excavated areas, and detecting buried archaeological remains, without any significant spectral distortion of the original Landsat image. The new 10 m fused Landsat 8 image provides further spatial details of the archaeological site and depicts, through the segmentation process, important details within the landscape under examination.

Optimal Spatial Resolution for the Detection and Discrimination of Archaeological Proxies in Areas with Spectral Heterogeneity

Subsurface targets can be detected from space-borne sensors via archaeological proxies, known in the literature as cropmarks. A topic that has been limited in its investigation in the past is the identification of the optimal spatial resolution of satellite sensors, which can better support image extraction of archaeological proxies, especially in areas with spectral heterogeneity. In this study, we investigated the optimal spatial resolution (OSR) for two different cases studies. OSR refers to the pixel size in which the local variance, of a given area of interest (e.g., archaeological proxy), is minimized, without losing key details necessary for adequate interpretation of the cropmarks. The first case study comprises of a simulated spectral dataset that aims to model a shallow buried archaeological target cultivated on top with barley crops, while the second case study considers an existing site in Cyprus, namely the archaeological site of “Nea Paphos”. The overall methodology adopted in the study is composed of five steps: firstly, we defined the area of interest (Step 1), then we selected the local mean-variance value as the optimization criterion of the OSR (Step 2), while in the next step (Step 3), we spatially aggregated (upscale) the initial spectral datasets for both case studies. In our investigation, the spectral range was limited to the visible and near-infrared part of the spectrum. Based on these findings, we determined the OSR (Step 4), and finally, we verified the results (Step 5). The OSR was estimated for each spectral band, namely the blue, green, red, and near-infrared bands, while the study was expanded to also include vegetation indices, such as the Simple Ratio (SR), the Atmospheric Resistance Vegetation Index (ARVI), and the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI). The outcomes indicated that the OSR could minimize the local spectral variance, thus minimizing the spectral noise, and, consequently, better support image processing for the extraction of archaeological proxies in areas with high spectral heterogeneity.

Were These Jugs and Colanders Made of Cooking Ware Fabric Intended for Cooking? Finds from the Polish Excavations of Warsaw University at Nea Paphos

The aim of the paper is to extend the standard set of ceramic vessels used for thermal processing of food with two forms: jugs and colanders. The paper presents the functional analysis of ceramic jugs and colanders made of cooking ware found in early Roman layers of the residential quarter of ancient Nea Paphos, excavated by the Polish Archaeological Mission of Warsaw University at Kato Paphos. The examination is based on the shape of the vessels, the fabric, as well as on specific traces of use visible on the pots, such as mineral deposit on the inside or soot on the outside surface.

DOCUMENTING NEA PAPHOS FOR CONSERVATION AND MANAGEMENT

Abstract. A cornerstone of the management and conservation of archaeological sites is recording their physical characteristics. Documenting and describing the site is an essential step that allows for delineating the components of the site and for collecting and synthesizing information and documentation (Demas, 2012). The information produced by such work assists in the decision-making process for custodians, site managers, public officials, conservators, and other related experts. Rigorous documentation may also serve a broader purpose: over time, it becomes the primary archival and monitoring record. Both scholars and the public use this information and interpret the site, and they can serve as a posterity record in the event of catastrophic or gradual loss of the heritage asset. In May 2018 the Getty Conservation Institute and the Department of Antiquities of Cyprus collaborated with the Carleton Immersive Media Studio in undertaking the documentation of Nea Paphos, a World Heritage site with very important mosaic pavements in the eastern Mediterranean. This contribution outlines the critical components of the documentation project: field study, field measurements, data processing, validation, GIS, and integration of external data. The paper summarizes the digital workflows and procedures used to produce the deliverables, as well as the equipment and technology employed.

The beginning of glazed ware production in late medieval Cyprus

This study presents the first characterisation of the early glaze technology that emerged in Cyprus during the 13th century CE, with the glazed ware assemblage recovered from the theatre site at Nea Paphos as the main focus. By framing the results of the technological study using SEM-EDS and thin-section petrography within the historical context, we are able to establish the link between local production and broader technological and socio-historical developments. The early glaze technology in Cyprus appears to have followed the established traditions characteristic of the eastern Mediterranean region during the late medieval period. This is reflected in the use of high lead glaze, the addition of iron and copper oxide as colourants, and the use of painting and sgraffito as principal decorative techniques. Although the introduction of glaze production in Cyprus coincided with the time when the island fell under the Frankish rule, there is no evidence indicating that the Frankish rulers directly controlled the production or the Franks were involved in the actual production process. However, we argue that the establishment of the Frankish influence had indirectly stimulated the beginning of glazed ware production in Cyprus by facilitating the movement of labour and creating the market and demand required for such production through its link to the Crusaders' campaigns in the wider Levantine region.