Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranean (15.2003(2004))

NEA PAPHOS

CYPRUS

responds to the top of the great pit. The
floors in the eastern and western sections
ended abruptly at one vertical cut, which
seems to precede and be unrelated to the
great stone-filled pit discussed above. At
this point, the red virgin soil had been ex-
cavated deeper, down to the present bot-
tom of the trench at 1.4 m depth, but a level
of small stones corresponds to its level
elsewhere. The fill north and above is homo-
geneous up to the level of the uppermost
floor. Perhaps it was made for the purpose
of constructing a massive structure that was
dismantled from the later pit. The latest
piece of evidence from the lowermost layer
was an African Red Slip Ware plate F 67
decorated in style A I/II, datable to c. AD
360-420.4l) This, and other less obviously
dating fragments suggest that the great pit
was dug in Late Roman times, probably
just before the storage and liquid-proces-
sing installation was established in R.10.42^
A majority of the pottery was Hellenistic
and it is tempting to see in it finds from the
floor levels in the southern part of this trench.
A 12
Trench situated in and north of NEH R.4,
against a wall dividing the room and the
corridor to its east. The trench is only 1.3 m
wide (E-W) but enlarged southward to
measure 3.7 m in length. Two E-W walls
were found and possible remains of a third,
dismantled. In the northern section a late
wall is to be observed, corresponding to
a similar one found in trench HA 1/95.43)
Another wall is situated at a lower level
more (0.45 m) to the south, with remains of
a doorjamb and a threshold at 0.87 m below

the datum. This wall corresponds to the
earlier wall in trench A 11, as well as
eastwards, a wall closing the corridor. The
door must have been blocked, since there
are stones placed on the threshold and
otherwise the door would have to be less
than 0.6 m wide. This wall was built in
a trench, which seems to cut two floors, the
upper at 0.9 m below the datum. The upper
floor probably corresponds to the earlier
phase of the wall with door. In front of the
threshold, there is a small strip of floor at
a slightly higher level, possibly simply
closing the pit. A trench, 1.5 m south of the
wall with door, cuts these floors. It is filled
loosely with stones, being what remains of
a third, robbed out E-W wall. Finds from
the bottom layer (below the upper floor cut
by the E-W wall) included Roman pottery
(amphorae of type Mau 27/28 of the late 1st
century AD at the earliest and Kapitan II of
the late 2nd century AD at the earliest).
A 13
Trench north of NEH R.12E, on the south
side connected to the old trench HA1/90W
(Fig. 9).44) The southern, northern and
eastern sections of this trench consisted of
walls. The southern E-W wall continued
a wall (dismantled) found in trench HA
1/95-45) Another one appeared 1.65 m to
the north, at 0.65 m above the datum, cor-
responding to the north (late) wall in the
same trench (and similarly almost without
foundation). Both were superimposed on an
N-S wall, constituting the eastern section.
The southern E-W wall had a narrow
leveling layer of flat blocks 0.2 m thick.
Double vertical blocks on the east probably

41) J.W. Hayes, Late Roman Pottery (London 1972), 112-116, 218, pi. XII B right.
42) Lichocka and Meyza, op. cit., 163-166, 183, 188f, 197-199, fig. 8, 9: 2-3, 14.
43) W.A. Daszewski, “Nea Paphos Excavations 1995”, PAM VII, Reports 1995 (1996), 99; Lichocka and Meyza, op. cit.,
178, fig. 3:9, 4:11.
44) Lichocka and Meyza, op. cit., 172-176, fig. 10, 11:1-6, 8-9; E. Papuci-Wladyka, “Nea Pafos, studia ...”, op. cit., 86-93,
fig. 5.
45) Cf. note 37.

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