This Week in Cypriot Archaeology: 21–27 September 2026

The week brought guided visits to the art and antiquities of the Presidential Palace in Nicosia, a government meeting on how new prisons at Agios Sozomenos will keep clear of the Bronze Age sites there, and a University of Cyprus lecture on newly read inscriptions.

Map of Cyprus

This week's stories

• Ground above 200, 500, 1,000 m

N

50 km

Sites on this map

1. 1Agios Sozomenos

Museums

Members of the public can tour the art and antiquities of the Presidential Palace for the first time, under a pilot programme, "Presidential Palace Open to Citizens", announced on 23 September. The collection on show, "Cyprus: the World, the Place, the Word, the Matter", puts Cypriot figurines and sculptures of the fourth millennium to the first century BCE, lent by the Department of Antiquities, beside paintings by Adamantios Diamantis and other modern Cypriot artists. The first tours, in Greek, were set for 3 October: three groups of 50 adults, booked through the Deputy Ministry of Culture. A second visit is planned for International Museum Day in May 2027. A "Time Machine" app from the Cyprus Institute accompanies the display, and sixth-grade pupils can visit in school groups from October 2026 to June 2027.

Sites

The new Central Prisons planned at Agios Sozomenos, about 13 km south of Nicosia, are to stand apart from the antiquities there. The Minister of Justice and Public Order, Costas Fytiris, and the Deputy Minister of Culture, Clea Papaellina, met officials of the Department of Antiquities and the Police on 23 September to set the terms for a preliminary master plan, the Ministry of Justice announced the same day. The buildings are being considered for the northern part of the state-owned plot, at a distance from the archaeological site, and the plan is to separate the prison from the antiquities in both space and use. The ministries also want the project to make the site easier for the public to reach and visit, with the Department of Antiquities involved through the master plan and later stages. On the plateau and in the valley below lie Middle and Late Bronze Age forts, tombs and a settlement with a pithos (storage jar) storehouse, destroyed in the 12th century BCE.

The same meeting agreed to share the former Paphos Gate Police Station in Nicosia, beside the Venetian walls. Part of the building will become the new home of the Police Museum; the Department of Antiquities will turn the rest into cultural spaces for artists.

Events

The Archaeological Research Unit of the University of Cyprus held a free lecture on 28 September by Artemis Karnava of the University of Crete, "Unearthing the word: recent epigraphic updates to the archaeology of Cyprus", at the Old Campus and on Zoom. Her subject was inscriptions of the second and first millennia BCE found or re-read over the past decade, and what they show about how writing systems came into use and were given up.