167 Roman granite column fragments trace the main streets of ancient Paphos

The University of Sydney's mission to the theatre of Nea Paphos spent 11 to 19 September 2015 surveying instead of excavating, and located 167 fragments of Roman granite columns visible around the town. All are reused, in the Crusader-period fort of Saranda Kolones ("forty columns"), the Early Christian basilica of Chrysopolitissa, and modern walls and gardens.

The project director, Craig Barker, reported the season in the 2016 bulletin of the Australian Archaeological Institute at Athens. Plotted by Total Station and GPS, most cluster along two lines, which Barker suggests were the colonnaded main streets of the Roman city: a north–south cardo followed by today's Odos Ayias Kyriakis from the harbour to the theatre, and the east–west road, about 8.4 m wide, that the team had excavated just south of the theatre. The granite had earlier been traced to the Troad, in Turkey, by Olwen Williams-Thorpe. No column has yet been found in place, and Barker considers a 2nd-century CE date for the colonnades likely.

The team also photographed the theatre and Fabrika hill from a pole for the first time, joining over 2,000 images into a model measurable to ±10 mm. The Sydney excavation has worked at the theatre since 1995; the building was in use from c. 300 BCE until earthquake damage in the late 4th century CE. A French team works on the top of the same hill. The Sydney team returned to excavate in October and November 2016.