Admittedly, before coming on this dig, I had no idea what was in store for me. I vaguely knew Cyprus was an island, and it was somewhere in the Mediterranean. When I tried to picture it on a map in my mind, I kept picturing Crete, which I knew was wrong, but that’s as far as I got. Before I left Australia, I knew I had to do some research on the island, Paphos and the dig site, just so I knew what I was walking into. I still have not done this.

In this entry I will not be discussing the dig’s progress, as I’m sure everyone else will. I will instead offer my observations of a country of which I had absolutely no preconceptions of, and hopefully impart some knowledge along the way.

Here are some basic things I have noticed about Cyprus that I was either not expecting, or are just plain interesting.

1.     Cyprus has mountains.
        More than this, it has a ski resort.

The Picture does not do it justice. Although I can’t say that it really has anything to live up to anyway. There was no snow there when I visited, but the small ski town in the troodos was actually quite pleasant. You will get car sick, and a little scared, driving up the winding bends for hours and dodging cars that can’t stay in their own lane.

Which brings me to my next point:

2.     Cyprus road rules are defined by the size of your car.
There are no clearly marked lines anywhere. Which is just as well, because people would ignore them. Well that’s not entirely true, there do exist traffic lights in some built up areas, but generally its best to have good reflexes and pay attention on the roads if you are in one of the smaller cars.

3.     There are no sharks in the Mediterranean.
Actually there are no fish either. We saw a turtle though. This makes for some great snorkeling, especially with the crystal clear water and abundance of underwater sights ranging from sea caves to ancient shipwrecks. The weather is always good too, and there is usually little in the way of big swell.

The Scenery isn’t too bad either.

4.     Stray cats are everywhere.
Pretty self-explanatory. EVERYWHERE.

5.     Drinks are cheap.
So is food. You can get a good English breakfast anywhere for as little as €2. Drinks range from the €2-€5 mark, depending on your preferences.

6.     What is copyright? 

7.     The monks in Kykkos paint ceilings and build model boats.

8.     The History of Cyprus is amazing.

It is as long and complicated as the archaeology it left behind. Currently split in two, the island has had many different civilizations occupy it, too many to count. Touching on the subject of archaeology, the excavations are amazing. There is plenty to see and not too much disappointment for history buffs. 

1.     The sunsets are beautiful.

Especially in Paphos. The sun sets over the ocean, but also over endless backdrops of ancient sites or spectacular views.

I was going to try and make it up to 10 points about Cyprus, but I ran out of ideas.

The island really is a beautiful place. In parts it looks desolate and dry, but drive less than an hour in any direction and you could end up on the coast or in the lush green mountains. The weather is good, the history is rich, and the people are friendly. Definitely a recommendation of mine for a travel destination, be the reasons culture or pleasure.

To end, I have included some photos which I have taken in my time here, including a patchwork panorama shot I took to try and convey the mountain bends in photo (using my iphone, all I had on me at the time).

Enjoy!
Harry P.

At 7.15 am this morning, most of the trench members from 12B were recruited to 12A to help maneuver the bipod. What is a bipod you ask? It is a contraption made on site by our engineer Anthony designed to lift extremely heavy rocks from a trench using minimal effort. It looks like a triangle with two metal sides and rope as the third side connecting the metal poles together. More ropes come out of the top like a maypole. Very festive were it not for the sweaty dirty volunteers operating it – they lacked the required ribbons and curly hair.

Enough silliness, back to its operation:
Our strong men Harry, Harry and Anthony heaved the rocks out of the pit-trench and everyone else helped swing it to land in a coordinated tug-of-war. As the sun rose over the trees I couldn’t help but imagine in times past that much of our site was built in a similar way.

The long weekend has started and a bunch of us are off to Nicosia for two exciting days!

Wish us luck!

Fifi

After a hard working day, the team relaxes with an Australian BBQ on the site and watches the sun set.

It’s the end of week two at the Paphos Theatre site here in Cyprus, and I hardly know where to begin telling you all about the interesting discoveries we have already made.  This week included the discovery of our first coin of the season, a human tooth, new areas of painted plaster and what may be a hint of the Hellenistic phase of construction, way up at the top of the theatre.  All of these things are fairly rare finds on the site. Most of what we dig up on a day to day basis is pottery.

The results of each day’s digging present themselves as buckets full of pottery. Fragments of pottery ranging in date from pre-Hellenistic all the way through to today are collected from the trenches, washed and sorted each day. With such a volume of material being collected, all the archaeologists gain a general understanding of what pottery -even broken pieces- can tell us about our site. For example, the medieval pottery discovered on site has helped develop an understanding of the pottery making workshops that use to operate on the site after the Roman theatre was abandoned.

Every day, a hundred of more pottery shards might pass through my fingers, but it’s the medieval ones that make me want to know more. Their amazing colours and designs are a testament to the talent of Paphian potters. 

-Jillian Barteaux

Eat breakfast not once, but twice! 

In trench 12A we've got a plethora of nationalities getting down and dirty in the name of archaeology. Our home on site is located to the south-west of the theatre, providing us with an enviable view of the Paphos tourist bus, which drives past a number of times each day. Naturally we've named ourselves the A team; although we are but a small group, we more than live up to our name. With week two behind us we're all set to embark upon our third week of excavations. 

Having already uncovered an exciting selection of small finds, we thought our luck would have run out, but apparently luck is something we have in abundance as we've also uncovered some exciting structural features which may pre-date the Roman road running across the site, and give us a glimpse into the site’s early Roman - or even, dare I say it, Hellenistic - history! Team member Anthony (or Mr T) also uncovered a mason's mark, which has never been seen before on-site! 

As a newbie digger I wasn't sure what to expect, but I must admit the perks of field archaeology are many. Where else can you justify eating breakfast not once but twice? The Cypriot equivalent of Nutella (Mr Choc) isn't at all bad and is in ample supply on site. 

Now that we've all refined our shovelling, picking and troweling we should have week three in the bag! 
- Sarah Little 

N.B. What not to do on an archaeological excavation: Wear Nike trainers (these DO NOT make for fun dig attire); mistake an important marble sculptural relief for a rock and toss it into your spoil bucket; have bad spatial awareness; sing Phil Collins in your trench.

It is wonderful to be back in sunny Cyprus and working on the Paphos theatre site for my third season. This time I've been put in charge of my very own trench - under the supervision of extreme archaeologist, Kerrie Grant.  Over the next three and a bit weeks, a team of archaeologists and I will be strategically excavating trench 12D which is in the western most part of the site and just near the once-grand seaward entrance to the theatre.  The people hefting picks and wielding trowels in 12D are an international bunch, so far we have had a Pole, an Italian, two Germans, a Canadian, a Cypriot-Australian, an American and little old Aussie me.

While other trenches may be finding walls, bits of statue, coins and other fascinating stuff, we have been steadily working away at our trench. At the moment is just a nicely levelled rectangular area of soil with an annoying amount of rocks and a jumble of artefacts from varied time periods. Yesterday we excavated four buckets of artefacts, representing almost 2,000 years of history, which we then spent several hours washing and even longer sorting by function and time period. Today we were very efficient at moving a lot more soil but this area had far fewer fragments of pottery, glass, metal and bone which meant we didn't have as much to wash and sort (whew!).

One of the things I hope to do during this dig is to  clear up misconceptions about what archaeologists actually do. It is not just about finding statues or coins (and that's not just because I've never found one!) it is about making sense of the 'stuff' left behind and letting it tell you a story about people from the past.

As I look at the neatly excavated trench, I wonder what lies beneath the 20 cubic meters of soil that my team will soon be removing. What will the changes in sediment colour tell me? When will we stop having modern artefacts mixed up with Medieval pottery? Will we find a secure deposit of Hellenistic pottery to give us a firm date? Will there be a stone wall under there or even a mosaic or will there just be more sediment with nothing in it? Only time and a bit of careful digging will tell. Better get back to it!
- Peta Knott

What a terrific first week! Amongst many returnees and a few newbies (myself in the latter), we've gotten off to a successful start. Flying in just from Manchester, I was one of the few lucky ones not to require a day in the air getting here. But among rampant jetlag everyone was ready to go bright and early Tuesday to get going, and we're off to a great start to the season.
We've opened a new trench above the theatre across from the viewing turret, and were fortunate enough to find features within just inches of the initial cut. The sun's somewhat relentless but we're all getting bronzed (and burnt) as we're settling in, eating copious amounts of Cypriot food and swimming in the sea. It's hard to beat a workplace where you can take a post-excavation swim! Certainly an appeasement to the initial aches that always accompany the start of a dig. A day off now but anxious to begin the second week, we're thinking fantastical thoughts of mosaics; you never know!
-Gabrielle