With a team of 70 people this year we are constantly trying to find ingenious ways of feeding everyone meals.

So fig trees were a temptation to some of the team on kitchen duty and the fruits of their labour (pardon the pun) were enjoyed the next day by the team.

In 2019 the team has opened eight trenches so far.

Trench 19A is positioned above the Roman road and is a continuation of the trench begun in our last field season and designated as 17A. Trench 19A will reveal tumble collapse over the road. 

Trench 19B is a small area of the road's drain which has been revealed by lifting two small pavers. It will give us access to an area of fill of the drain approximately 50cm x 50cm.

Trenches 19C and 19D are both positioned on the eastern edge of the site close to a modern road and both are designed to pick up more of the road pavers. They will in all likelihood be expanded as the season continues.

Trenches 19E and 19F are both positioned on the top of Fabrika hill and both are designed to reveal more of a significant medieval structure revealed a number of seasons ago.

Trench 19G will expand upon the bedrock cuts associated with the foundations of the rear of the Antonine stage building, while Trench 19H is south of the theatre and deliberately positioned to attempt to pick up the next E-W road in this section of the ancient Roman city of Paphos.

There will be changes as the season progresses and there will be days of excitement in some trenches and days of frustration in some of the others, but the objective of this year is uncover a number of different aspects of Hellenistic, Roman and Medieval Paphos.

In a first for the Paphos Theatre project, a team of students from the University of New England (UNE), led by Dr. Melanie Fillios, joined the project to study the animal bones recovered from the site.

Eight students examined the bone recovered from trenches situated at the top of the theatre seating, with a view toward contributing information regarding the function of the structure from which they were recovered.It was a steep learning curve for the Advanced Zooarchaeology students, but an unparalleled opportunity for all involved to apply the knowledge learned in the classroom to the field. We all had a wonderful time, taking advantage of the unique opportunity afforded by  being on a working archaeological site. We look forward to many more of these seasons, and want to extend our sincere thanks to the project for extending this opportunity to us.

Dr Melanie Fillios
University of New England