Filenews 10 July 2022 - by Dora Christodoulou
The recent financial contribution of the Municipality of Pafos to the archaeological university mission of Avignon France, which for years has been excavating the treasures of Lower Paphos and in particular the Hill of Fabrica, brings back to the fore a part of the archaeological wealth of the city that by many experts is considered equal to those of Petra in Jordan.
The Municipal Council of Paphos has decided that the Municipality of Paphos will proceed with the conclusion of an agreement with the University of Avignon in France which will conduct a scientific study entitled "The Acropolis of Nea Pafos: Archaeology and History of Fabrica Hill". The agreement will be valid for a period of at least five years and the Municipality of Paphos will financially support the mission with €5000 per year.
The first cheque of this amount was given a few days ago by the Mayor of Paphos, Phaedon Phedonos, to professor of the University Avignon Claire Balladier, who is the head of the university's mission to Paphos.
The Archaeological Mission of the University of Avignon has been conducting excavations in Paphos since 2008. During this time it brought to light great archaeological findings which date from the 4th century BC, up to the Byzantine and Frankish periods. The most important are considered the underground quarries of the area, which were used from the Hellenistic period until the 20th century AD, a large residential complex of the Roman period, as well as an underground aqueduct and temple of the same period.
The hill of Fabrica, on the road leading from the centre of Paphos to the coastal front of the city, was for ancient times the Acropolis of Pafos. This results from the ongoing excavations in the area for 12 years by a French archaeological expedition, led by Dr. Claire Balandier, Professor of Archaeology and Ancient Greek History at the University of Avignon, France.
Dr. Balandier described the quarries that existed in antiquity on this hill as the most important to have been discovered, after those in Petra, Jordan and Sicily. Now, more and more visitors come to Paphos informed about the great archaeological importance of this area, while from the point of view of the scientific community, the hill of Fabrica occupies a dominant position in studies and excavation developments.
The importance of the work of foreign excavation missions in the city was also pointed out by the Mayor of Paphos. Phaedonas Phaedonos stressed that in Paphos an archaeological excavation mission of the University of Krakow - Poland is also conducting archaeological excavations, headed by Professor Of Greek origin, Evdoxia Papoutsi-Wladyka, who has been conducting excavation work in the Ancient Agora of Pafos for many years with important findings and the most important find is that of the ancient agora, while he described as invaluable the contribution of Polish archaeological expeditions dating back to the 1960s, when the excavation team of the University of Warsaw under the direction of Professor Andreas Dazevski brought to light the famous mosaics in the Houses of Theseus and the Century.
Also important, he stressed, is the work of the Australian university mission of the University of Sydney with the discovery of the Hellenistic Theatre, the largest theatre of antiquity with 8,000 places. The excavations are carried out under the direction of Dr. Craig Barker.
Digging for the ancient agora
Since 2011 in the wider area, archaeological excavations have been working to bring to light in its entirety, one of the most important periods in the long history of the city of Pafos: Its Hellenistic and Roman phase, with the ancient market of the city as its "flagship". An area with an area of about 110 hectares is enclosed by the walls of the ancient city, according to the project manager, which was designed according to the Hippodamian urban planning system, on the basis of which a grid of vertical and rectangular streets defined the residential units, leaving large free spaces for public buildings and temples.
"Paphos acquired a port, the oldest theatre on the island, temples and possibly palaces on the hill of the acropolis, which would be in Fanari, on the hill of the Lighthouse", explains the head of the Polish archaeological expedition, Evdoxia Papoutsi-Wladyka. "To the east of the citadel, below the hill, protected from the strong westerly winds was the Agora along with the Odeon, which would also serve as a Bouleuterion for the assemblies of the Municipality."
Archaeological research by the University of Warsaw and the Department of Antiquities has even revealed areas to the west of the city with residences of wealthy people of the Roman period, while other buildings are known from the inscriptions and ancient texts, such as the Gymnasium, but none of them have yet been identified.
