Pafos Live 6 February 2026
A rich set of artifacts, including stone tools, beads, shells and bones, was highlighted by the 2025 excavation season at the archaeological site of Drouseia-Skloinikia in the northwestern part of the Akamas Peninsula, according to the Department of Antiquities, of the Deputy Ministry of Culture. As noted, the objects date to about 8,000 years before today, according to preliminary dating.
The research was conducted under the direction of Dr. Theodora Moutsiou, special scientist of the Archaeology Research Unit of the University of Cyprus, in collaboration with Dr. Christian Reepmeyer, archaeologist of the German Archaeological Institute. Undergraduate and postgraduate students from the Universities of Cyprus, Athens, Cologne and Roma Tre participated in this year's mission.
As stated in the announcement of the Deputy Ministry, the 2025 excavation season continues the work of the previous year, during which the geophysical survey conducted by the Laboratory of Geoinformatics of Digital Humanities of the Department of History and Archaeology of the University of Cyprus, under the supervision of Professor Apostolos Sarris, mapped a series of peculiar magnetic anomalies/characteristics of the subsoil investigated through systematic excavation. Five trenches excavated to a maximum depth of 60 cm revealed a rich set of artifacts, including stone tools, beads, shells, and bones.
The main objective of this year's excavation season was to continue the excavation of the 2024 trenches until the revelation of the natural background and the opening of new trenches, in order to examine the stratigraphic sequence and the processes of formation of the archaeological site, as well as the systematic georeferencing and collection of archaeological material for specialized analysis, with the aim of determining the extent, nature and chronological context of the site.
