Anaryta: salvage excavation of nine niche tombs (2009)

Nine niche tombs cut into the natural rock were excavated on Rodostheni Alexandrou Street in Anaryta in September 2009. A Water Development Department crew replacing pipes had observed three openings there, one with bones visible¹. Staff of the Paphos District Museum excavated on 16, 17 and 20 September, and nine tombs were done by the end of the third day¹. They measured and photographed each tomb, then labelled and removed the artefacts and human remains¹. Tombs 6 and 7, south of the trenching, had been disturbed: Tomb 6 held skeletal remains not in situ and plastic elements, and Tomb 7 a metal pipe and nothing else reported¹. Tombs 1 to 5, 8 and 9 were sealed and undisturbed¹. The report describes fairly well-preserved remains of single adult and young-adult inhumations, with amphorae, jugs, cooking pots and unguentaria among the artefacts, and dates the tombs to the Hellenistic and Roman periods¹.