A Current Late Roman Site in Nea Paphos, Cyprus.pdf

A Current Late Roman Site in Nea Paphos, Cyprus

Author(s): Andrea H. Rowe

Source: Near Eastern Archaeology, Vol. 61, No. 3, The Frankish Period: A Unique Medieval

Society Emerges (Sep., 1998), p. 179

Published by: The American Schools of Oriental Research

Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3210693

Accessed: 28/08/2009 06:36

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region. M. Besonen (University of Massa-

chusetts) and U. Dogan (Ankara University)

are conducting geomorphological surface

surveys and coring programs in order to

reconstruct the ancient landscapes of the

Demirci and Karasu valleys and other parts

of the region. Together these projects will

investigate the role of Sinop in the newly

emerging Black Sea interaction area from

the Chalcolithic period (ca. 3500 BCE) to

the present.

the Museum staff, and Ministry of Culture

Representatives C. Sevinq (DenizliMuseum)

and E. Kaya (Trabzon Museum) for their

invaluable assistance in carrying out the

1996-97field surveys.

TurkishBlackSea Coast. Pp. 93-108

in Ocean Pulse, edited by J. Tancredi.

New York:Plenum.

n. d. Foreland and Hinterland: Sinop,

Turkey. In Forelandand Hinterland,

edited by J.M. Fossey. McGill Uni-

versity Monographs in Classical

Archaeology and History. Amster-

dam: Gieben. In press.

Kassab Tezgbr, D. and Tatlican, I.

1997 Sinop-Demirci Anfora Atolyerinin

1995Kazisi.Kazi Sonuflari Toplantisi

18:353-65.

0. Doonan

Universityof Illinois, Chicago

Bibliography

Doonan, O., et al.

1998 Survey of Sinop Province, Turkey,

1997. American Journalof Archaeol-

ogy 102:367.

Hiebert, F., et al.

1997a From Mountaintop to Ocean Bot-

tom: A Holistic Approach to

Archaeological Survey along the

Acknowledgments

The author extends heartfelt thanks to

I. Tatlican, Director of the Sinop Museum,

A Current

Late

Roman

Site

in Nea

Paphos, Cyprus

The archaeological study of the Late

Roman period in the Eastern Mediterranean

region has been largely static over the last

thirty years. The reason for this appears to

lie in a continued dearth of excavated sites

which combine two important elements.

The firstis an uncontaminated stratigraphy

preferably with sealed contexts.The second

is a concurrent density of artifactsfrom such

deposits. Withboth these elements present,

it becomes possible to construct current

typologies of the artifacts which canbe com-

pared to those proposed in the past.

There are many published sites which

have remains of the third, fourth and fifth

centuries CEin the EasternMediterranean.

However a survey of the results makes it

clear that ceramic typologies and relative

dating arebased almost solely upon analy-

sis by J. W. Hayes as detailed in LateRoman

Pottery (1972), a work which is generally

cited as the unquestioned foundation upon

which the study of most Late Roman arti-

facts is based. Careful analysis of both this

and the Supplement (1980) suggests that

Hayes's own work was not based upon a

large numberof stratigraphicexamples from

sealed contexts.

In the late 1990s it would be true to say

thatthe chronologicaldevelopment of nearly

every category of artifact found on Late

Roman sites is poorly understood. Intervals

of 150-200 years and more are accepted as

reasonable dating ranges for ceramics, glass,

metal, and bone objects. Yetat the same time

as this rather vague artifactual typology,

thereexists a finely-datedsequence of Impe-

rial Roman coins, which arefound on most

EasternMediterraneansites. In LateRoman

archaeological studies however, the coin

sequence is viewed with suspicion by ceram-

icistsand so is rarely used to refinetherelative

dating of any pottery typology.

The problems for today's field archaeol-

ogist on Late Roman sites can often be the

same as those encountered thirtyyears ago.

The stratigraphy can be reliable but there

arenot the number of artifacts present to be

useful. Alternatively, there can be plenty of

artifactsbut the stratigraphy is contaminated

and of doubtful usefulness.

The 1996 excavation in Nea Paphos,

Cyprus of a series of trenchescould present

an opportunity to surmount current prob-

lems. A two-and-a-half meter deep

stratigraphy, whose occupation surfaces

have been sealed by an earthquake, was care-

fully excavatedin theNE comer of theancient

city. Of most interest is the huge amount

of pottery, glass, bone, and metal that has

been collected from these deposits. Approx-

imately 200 coins have also been recovered,

the majority in readablecondition aftercon-

servation. Preliminary study indicates dates

from the early third to late-fourthcenturies

CE for the coins from the sealed levels.

The architecture uncovered includes a

three-meter wide paved road, probably a

majorarteryleading out of the city through

the NE gate. Running alongside the road

is a covered drain with side tributaries.

Underneath the paving is the packing used

to prepare for the new road and possibly an

earlier earth-packed road. The collapse of a

high wall, made up of very large cut lime-

stone blocks, has sealed all the deposits. The

susceptibility of this region of Cyprus to

earthquakes suggests this may be the rea-

son for such a major collapse episode. The

coins found in the collapse level would indi-

cate a date around the very end of the fourth

century for the destruction. The area was

never cleared or rebuilt after the collapse,

and seems to have remained unoccupied

until the late Medieval period.

Preliminary study of the ceramics from

the excavation, particularly the Cypriot Red

Slip Ware, suggests that the commonly

accepted date ranges for some of Hayes's

types cannot be sustained. Types generally

assigned to the middle to late sixth centuries

are present in levels which the coin sequence

would place in the middle to late fourth.The

major aim of the present study of the arti-

facts from Paphos is to present a detailed

typology of the Fine, Cooking and Plainwares

of the thirdand fourthcenturies CE.This will

be based upon materialfrom sealed deposits

with a detailed coin sequence to back up the

relative chronology. Such an opportunity for

the Late Roman period in Cyprus is so far

unique. The results will have implications

for many other sites in the EasternMediter-

ranean.The possibilities for refining current

ceramic typologies and challenging long-

held dogmas is exciting.

Andrea H. Rowe

Universityof Sydney

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