The Paphos Theatre Archaeological Project recently conducted its 19th excavation season at the World Heritage listed site of the Hellenistic-Roman theatre of Nea Paphos. Nea Paphos was the capital of Cyprus during the Ptolemaic and Early Roman periods and the theatre was one of the grandest public buildings in the city. It was constructed in c. 300 BC during the foundation of the city, and was used for performance and spectacles for more than six centuries until its destruction by earthquake in around 365 AD. Considerable Late Antiquity, Medieval and post-Medieval activity on the site of the former theatre has also been subject to the investigations.
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Drone image of the Paphos Theatre site [Credit: Dr Rowan Conroy] |
A wide paved road of the 2nd century AD was the major decumanus [east-west running thoroughfare of a Roman city] of Nea Paphos. The road was paved, colonnaded and had a major drainage system running beneath it. It was also more than 8 and a half metres wide and wheel ruts suggest that it was used for vehicular traffic.
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Trench 19C [Credit: Dept. of Antiquities, Republic of Cyprus] |
The road was eventually covered by walls and structures collapsed as a result of earthquakes, and later filled with architectural elements taken from the theatre as it was stripped of stone in Late Antiquity. In 2019 another marble Corinthian capital and a three-metre length of a Troad granite column were recovered from above the road pavers.
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Drone image of the Decumanus [Credit: Dr Rowan Conroy] |
There were other important trenches opened during 2019, elsewhere on the theatre and nearby. As always with excavations as one question is answered, the soil reveals a dozen new questions. This season uncovered some exciting finds: our first ever example of egg-and-dart moulding on a Roman limestone architectural element, a fragment of a Roman inscription written in Greek, fragments of Late Hellenistic or early Roman painted plaster from the wall of a building, and an intact medieval vase which created much excitement amongst the team. We shall return in our next season to try and answer some of these new questions!
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Vase being excavated [Credit: Dept. of Antiquities, Republic of Cyprus] |
Source: Australian Archaeological Institute at Athens [December 17, 2019]
* This article was originally published here
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