Nea Paphos: Department of Antiquities clearances under George Eliades

Between 1955 and 1959 G. Eliades, honorary curator of Paphos Museum, cleared rock-cut chambers at Nea Paphos for the Department of Antiquities in three documented seasons, 1955, 1956 and 1959^1,2,3. The reports describe the reopening of blocked chambers and the clearance of rock-cut ones, and give no excavation method^1,2.

In 1955 Eliades reopened blocked chambers of the Ayia Solomoni catacomb. They yielded medieval glazed pottery in a range and quantity the annual report calls impressive, and the report asks whether the pottery was connected with the cult at the shrine¹. In 1956 he resumed clearance of a complex of rock-cut chambers near the northern limit of Nea Paphos, west of the road from Ktima. A. H. S. Megaw described groups of chambers, each with a circular adyton opening in its roof. He reported that the late Loizos Philippou had postulated an Apollo cult for them, drawing on the adyta and a comparison with the sanctuary of Apollo Hylates, and wrote that the dedication and the date of the larger northern sanctuary remained undetermined².

In 1959 Eliades cleared the three northern chambers of the rock-cut sanctuary at Toumballos and its northern entrance court, which was enclosed on all four sides by a fence³. A study of 2025 by Elvia Giudice, Giada Giudice and Leonardo Fuduli summarizes later readings of the Toumballos complex: K. Nikolaou proposed a military camp with a possible camp sanctuary, while J. Młynarczyk argued for a chthonic cult place with mysteries and rejected the camp interpretation⁴.