Academic literature on the topic 'Fabrika (Theater : Paphos, Cyprus)'

The Australian archaeological mission to Nea Paphos in Cyprus has begun exploring the remains of a structure to the rear of the cavea of the ancient theatre on the southeastern edge of the hill known as Fabrika. The preliminary results of this excavation suggest a significantly large post-medieval building constructed using stone taken from the former theatre. The building appears to have been used in some sort of industrial production, the precise nature of which is not yet determined, and is perhaps the source of the etymology of the name of the hill. This paper discusses a need for a reassessment of this area of the city of Nea Paphos in its more recent history, and discusses the needs for a better understanding of the urban relationship between Fabrika and the theatrical precinct during the Hellenistic and Roman periods.

New research in the sacred zone of the Fabrika Hill in Nea Paphos, Cyprus The rocky hillock of Fabrika in the north-eastern most part of ancient Nea Paphos, founded during the late 4th century BC, is of key importance for understanding the early phase of the town planning, but at the same time very difficult to be methodically explored. Both its eminent location and geology made it a natural source of building material throughout the ages, greatly hindering any accurate reconstruction of the site development. However, the data collected so far strongly suggest that the arrangement of the southern part of the hill was of a cultic nature. Therefore, on undertaking a joint project with Université d’Avignon, we decided to focus the research on the southern part of the hill where, near the top of an Early Hellenistic theatre, there are rock-cut outlines of atemple possibly devoted to Aphrodite Paphia. During two seasons of field work (2018-2019), we retrieved some important information regarding both an original Hellenistic arrangement of the sacred area and its later (Late Roman/Byzantine and Medieval) use. Some new observations were also made regarding the topographical details of the area.

The article presents some archaeological observations based on recent publications and the author’s survey in situ of the so-called “House of Aion” at Nea Paphos in Cyprus. The archaeological context (coins and pottery) dates the last phase of this building to the 320s, its partial destruction to the earthquake of 332/342, and its final annihilation by another quake to 365. The much-discussed mosaic with mythological decoration in the triclinium and the newly analyzed wall paintings in one of the rooms (No. 7), preserving the figures of Apollo and three of the Muses, are typical decorative elements of late antique Roman elite houses. And yet, the layout of the building, the triclinium located at the entrance to the house, and the presence of two rooms with a wooden floor, laid over an earlier water cistern converted into a cellar, possibly a treasury, suggest that the function of the complex was not residential at all. Indeed, the close proximity of the “Villa of Theseus”, which was rebuilt in the same period and converted into the praetorium of the governor of the island in the first half of the 4th century, suggests that the so-called “House of Aion” could have been the seat of a Roman association, probably a synodos of Dionysiac artists (ex-technitai) who presented themselves in the theater of Paphos. Therefore, it would be better to call this building the Synodeion of Late Roman Cyprus.

The paper concerns a fragmentary Latin inscription on a broken slab of marble, found in secondary fill in the residential villa excavated by the Polish team in Nea Paphos. It is dated by the type of script to the second half of the 3rd or the first half of the 4th century AD. A review of an updated collection of Latin texts (including some bilingual inscriptions in Latin and Greek) discovered in Cyprus demonstrated that they are either directly or indirectly connected with the Roman state and Roman institutions. The juncture cum porticibus indicates that it was either a building inscription or a honorific inscription for someone, possibly Divus Probus (although the text could be supplemented with the names of other divine or divinized figures), who was involved in some kind of building activity, either by giving money for the construction or by consecrating it. The commemoration could have concerned the construction of an important administrative building (praetorium), military installation, road station etc. or a municipal structure founded by a Roman or consecrated by a Roman state official and incorporating a portico (bath, market place, theater, temple, etc.).