Archaeologists in Pafos

Wednesday 14.9.2016

Our boat troubles continued, and we had another day off from diving. Rupert, Hana, Andrzej and me took advantage of this and made a day trip with Rupert's car to archaeological sites in Pafos. It was a great trip. I must be an archaeologist now, because I was allowed free to two museums in one day. It probably did not have anything to with Professor Rupert leading the pack...

We first stopped at beach where Aphrodite may have come to the beach in Pafos. On that beach is The rock of the Greek. It refers to mythology, where The Greek saved Pafos by throwing this rock on the enemy. That Greek was a strong one! The same rock is also called Aphrodite's Rock. It is handy to combine legends.

Aphrodite's Rock

Lovers seemed to believe that this place had romantic powers and have made lots of stone hearts all around the beach. They still keep making new ones.

Couple making a heart in Aphrodite's Beach

After taking a stroll at the beach, we moved on and went to the Sanctuary of Aphrodite, where the cult of Aphrodite was born and where the Aphrodite's temple was. It was not so romantic as it first sounds. All maidens had to go there and prostitute themselves to visitors from abroad. Only once they had found their 1st customer, were they allowed to leave and marry. Not so big love story.

This stone was the symbol of Aphrodite in the sanctuary. Maybe there is some hidden female form in it, but I could not find it.

The houses in the area still had many mosaic floor remaining, though many of them are now protected with fabric and sand. This mosaic of Leda and the swan is from the Roman period, maybe 200-300 AD. This is a copy - the original is in museum in Nikosia.

Leda and the swan

Rupert was great guide. He seemed to know all the sites, and had lots of stories to tell of them. And you got the feeling, that there were many stories left untold.

Rupert and Hana in Pafos

We continued our trip to Pafos, which has a huge archaeological site. It has many ongoing archaeological digs going on, which the visitors can observe in addition to the actual ruins. More ruins are excavated continuously. It was nice to notice photogrammetry control points in many of the excavations. One month ago I would not have seen them at all, or at least known what they were.

Archaeological field work in Pafos seems easy as compared to our Mazotos site. One person can excavate all day, and not only 20 minutes. On the other hand, I do not know if my back would last all day excavation like that! Maybe 20 minutes is enough...

The Pafos site had structures spanning for centuries. At one time the walls were also reinforced against trebuchet attacks. The outer stones in the wall might break, but the smaller rocks inside the wall would absorb the impact, and keep at least some of the wall still operational.

Trebuchet-resistant wall structure

The area is so large, that you easily get a feeling that you are walking in a city. There are temples, houses, and fortifications of different centuries all mixed up. Some material from earlier sites have been used to build some more recent structures.

Rupert, Teemu and Hana in Pafos

After touring Pafos under Rupert's guidance for an hour, we met with Agata, who works as an archaeologist here. Agata had spent one weekend already at the Mazotos site, and she probably will come this weekend again. How else would an archaeologist spend her free weekends?

Agata, Rupert, and Hana (and Andrzej far away) look at 7m deep well newly excavated by Agata. She also found stamped amphorae, glass containers, and gold in the same area. In another well she found human remains. 

After a tour Agata took us to her workshop, where (mostly?) students were sorting out zillions (boxes and boxes) of sherds, and doing impossible 3D-puzzles of putting together amphorae from a selected collection of similar thickness sherds, that may or may not belong to the same amphora. They use glue than can be dissolved with acetone when/if needed.  Agatha had many amphorae already partly assembled this way. She also showed us the almost 2000 years old glass finds they had found. Each one was packed well into its own plastic container. Metallic ones were in conservation elsewhere.

Our RIB is still not doing so well. But Spyros will come with his boat, and we have also another small RIB helping us. So, diving will continue tomorrow - unless the weather decides something else.