A Modern Approach to the Ancient Necropolis of Nea Paphos: GIS Applications in Archaeology

Vasiliki Lysandrou of the University of Cyprus presents the first results of the two-year postdoctoral research project SPACE, which applies Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to the study of the eastern necropolis of Nea Paphos. The talk is given in Greek. Coordinated by George Papasavvas in collaboration with Demetrios Michaelides and Athos Agapiou, the project works from the excavation diaries kept by Michaelides during extensive rescue excavations conducted for the Department of Antiquities between 1983 and 1990.

Lysandrou outlines how the team catalogued and archived roughly 500 tombs recorded in the diaries and digitised their architectural plans in scale. These records indicate that the eastern necropolis extended for about 700 metres along the coastline outside the eastern city wall. Simple rock-cut shaft tombs predominate, alongside a smaller number of underground rock-cut chamber tombs, a single built chamber tomb, wells and pyre pits. By combining the database with 1:5000 topographical maps, diary sketches and published plans, the project georeferenced 163 tombs across three main clusters along modern Poseidonos Avenue. Most have since been lost to hotel development or backfilled, though a few chamber tombs survive beneath modern buildings. Spatial analysis shows that most tombs measure under seven square metres and follow a north-south or northeast-southwest orientation, while the chamber tombs tend to lie east-west.

Because modern urbanisation obscures the ground, the project also turned to historical aerial photography. Alongside Department of Lands and Surveys photographs from 1957 and 1963, the team located a clearer 1968 aerial photograph in the National Collection of Aerial Photography in Scotland, taken twelve years before the rescue digs began, when the area was still agricultural. Rectangular features visible in the 1968 image match several tombs excavated in the 1980s and point to other possible tombs in unexcavated plots that may have been destroyed by agriculture prior to archaeological intervention.

In the discussion afterwards, Michaelides notes that the three clusters reflect where hotel foundations were dug in the 1980s rather than separate cemeteries, and asks how the spatial data might relate to the chronological spread of the single unified necropolis.