Palaepaphos: Cesnola's diggings at Kouklia

Luigi Palma di Cesnola says he directed digging at Palaeo-Paphos for several months in 1869 with a score of diggers and found nothing of importance¹. Maier cites Hogarth's contrary report that Cesnola stopped at Old Paphos for only one day, and argues that Cesnola exaggerated the extent of his work². Cesnola's account also mentions visits in 1870, 1874 and the winter of 1875¹.

In 1870, by his account, he repeated the experiment with Dr. Friederichs and a larger workforce, without better results¹. Marangou identifies a return to Kouklia in 1870³. Maier notes that Friederichs himself records only a one-day stay and does not mention digging². Cesnola repeatedly claimed to have purchased the temple area and the part of the peribolos not occupied by houses in 1870^1,3. He says he hoped for important finds connected with the sanctuary and was disappointed³. At the temple, by Marangou's account, he found a mosaic pavement, inscriptions and pottery, and Maier notes that the pattern he describes suggests he saw part of the mosaic floor still in place^1,2,3. The 1888 excavation report rejects his published temple plan and says that the 690-foot south side he claimed for the peribolos was not supported by surviving evidence⁴.

In the winter of 1875, Cesnola writes, he made borings and dug beneath the castle, whose owner Osman Aga watched the work¹. He describes large stones that he thought might be foundations of the royal palace of the kings of Paphos or of another important building, broken jars at 47 feet, painted terracotta fragments two feet deeper, and what he called virgin soil at 52 feet; Maier says the account of the 52-foot shaft sounds fanciful^1,2. Cesnola recounts that he arranged for two Heraclius coins to be presented to Osman Aga as finds¹.

Maier reports that the Berlin Museum bought votive terracottas said to come from the Sanctuary of Aphrodite through Friederichs. Cesnola does not disclose whether he acquired them by digging or by purchase, and Maier cautions that their provenance is uncertain².