Completion of the joint expedition of the Warsaw and Jagiellonian Universities in Nea Pafos

TMHMA_ARXAIOTHTWN

The Department of Antiquities, Deputy Ministry of Culture, announces the joint expedition of the University of Warsaw and the Jagiellonian University in Kraków operating in Pafos has completed another excavation season in October 2025.

The collaborating institutions are the Warsaw University of Technology, the University of Hamburg, the Wrocław University of Science and Technology, as well as the National Museum in Kraków. In 2025, both study and excavation campaigns were carried out. The spring campaign (April-May) with a small team was devoted to the study of the material excavated in previous years and preparation for publication. The excavation campaign took place between 7th September and 7th October with the participation of staff and students, as well as some volunteers (altogether around 30 people).

Director: Professor Ewdoksia Papuci-Władyka

Excavations were conducted in two areas: the Maloutena area and the Agora.

In the first area, work continued on the Trial Trench MAL TT.X located in the western part of the city, west of Fanari Hill, under the crossing of the streets 11 running to the NS, and K running to the EW, the exploration of which began in 2022. Excavations focused on three sections of the trench. First was the northern extension (N2025) measuring 3.0m x 3.0m (in the corner between Wall 1 and Wall 2 uncovered in previous years). The work in the western part of this extension was completed by reaching the level of the stone paving, located at the same height as the paving on the canal and street uncovered last year to the east. Also, numerous finds of crucibles for melting metal made from the lower parts of storage amphorae were noted, indicating the existence of some kind of production site here.

In the second area (the eastern part of the trench, east of Wall 2), the exploration continued within the street and canal, reaching the level of stone slabs or bedrock throughout the trench and confirming the results of last year’s excavation. Very interesting was the continuation of the exploration of the layers in Room 1 (south of Wall 1, near the western profile) which is the third area of the MAL TT.X in which we worked this year. Here, in the foundation trench of Wall 1, among other objects, a well-dated stamped amphora handle of the Rhodian eponym, Aristombrotidas was discovered, dated around 117 BC. This confirms the assumption, put forward last year, that we are dealing with, the unique for Pafos, remains of quite well-preserved architecture from the late Hellenistic period.

In the Agora, research was conducted in the northern part of the Eastern Portico, i.e., within T.II, bounded from the NE by the modern technical road leading to the Odeon. It was not possible to complete the research, i.e., reach the bedrock, in most of the excavation. The only place where research was completed was the southeast corner, where a structure in the form of a settlement basin was discovered: a shallow water reservoir functionally connected to Well S.233, discovered in previous years and dated to the first half of the 2nd century BC. A ceramic pipe led to the basin from the north, embedded into its northern part. In the western part of the excavation, north of the basin, a fragment of a previously unknown stylobate was uncovered, along with the remains of two preserved lower sections of fluted column drums without bases. Exploration of the area adjacent to the stylobate and columns revealed traces of burning and a fragment of a terracotta pipeline, but no bedrock was reached in the area. At the current state of research, it is difficult to determine the chronology of these discoveries; it appears that the colonnade fragment was associated with the portico’s operation in one of its phases preceding the final phase, dated to the first half of the 2nd century AD. Research must continue in this area in the next excavation season to answer emerging questions regarding the chronology and function of the structures and objects discovered.

Work on architectural details in Maloutena was done by Dr Aleksandra Brzozowska-Jawornicka from Wrocław University of Science and Technology with the assistance of one student from this University. The aim was the verification of the resources and spatial distribution of pieces of architectural decoration in Maloutena. During the field inspection, 350 elements were identified within the houses uncovered by our mission i.e. the Villa of Theseus, the so-called “Hellenistic” House, the Early Roman House, the House of Aion, and the North-East House, as well as in the lapidaria located in their vicinity. The elements were inventoried, photographed, and their basic characteristics were recorded in the dedicated database. Future works have also been planned.

In the premises of the Archaeological Museum in Pafos, work on numismatic material has been done by Prof. Jarosław Bodzek from the Institute of Archaeology, Jagiellonian University and the conservation of the metal objects by Dr Barbara Zając from the National Museum in Kraków. Conservation was performed on 71 coins, of which only one was silver, the rest bronze. Additionally, a small fragment of gold foil and the handle of a bronze situla were preserved.

Finally, it is worth recalling that 2025 was a special year, marking 60 years of research by the University of Warsaw Polish Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology (UW PCMA) at Maloutena and 15 years of research by the Jagiellonian University at the Pafos Agora. In May, the 4th international conference in the Nea Paphos Colloquium series titled: “From Past to Present: Reflections on Six Decades of Excavations in Paphos,” took place in Warsaw and Krakow in Poland. In June, a photographic exhibition titled: “From Maloutena to the Agora: 60 Years of Polish Archaeology in Nea Paphos, Cyprus” opened in En Plo Gallery, in the harbour of Pafos, and the UW PCMA Research Centre in Pafos was officially inaugurated.

Fig. 1. Mal.TT.X 2025 General view from south, E. Papuci-Władyka