THE ARCHAEOLOGISTS’ Association yesterday launched a scathing attack against the Antiquities Department, accusing them of being unorganised, after recently discovered finds in Paphos were dug up and left exposed.
In a news conference yesterday, the chairman of the Association of Cypriot Archaeologists, Andreas Demetriou, said the area had been dug up without the presence of an archaeologist, disturbing the finds’ original location and leaving them in heaps next to the holes.
“They went there and dug up holes to construct a shelter for the dig,” he said.
“But they dug more than 50 holes and there was no archaeologist present on the site at the time.
“The finds were torn out of their original location and left in heaps next to the holes without anyone drawing a sketch of their location and without anyone documenting their position and location when they were unearthed,” Demetriou added.
The site was discovered a few months ago. According to Demetriou, the findings date back from the early 3rd century to the Roman and Hellenistic periods.
But digging up the holes and leaving the antiquities piled up in heaps next to them left Demetriou fuming. He said the findings had now lost their archaeological value since they were removed from their original spot, losing archaeologists valuable information about life in ancient Paphos.
“All of these items are now useless,” he said.
“For example there is a piece of carved bone that was probably used by a boy for a game, and was probably hung around his neck.
“This item was found in a heap of dirt and broken pieces of pottery, but if it had been left undisturbed, we could find out valuable information, maybe about the person who wore it, the area around him, but now it’s nothing more than a piece of carved bone,” he added.
“When I went down, I also found melted metal and evidence of a fire, but that has also been disrupted now, and we might never know what exactly happened.
“It’s unbelievable that the Antiquities Department would act in such a way, digging up the entire area without an archaeologist documenting every piece of pottery and metal found.”
Demetriou said the Antiquities Department was trying to find ways to shelter the mosaics, by digging up holes to determine whether concrete foundations could be placed to support the structure.
“We agree that the mosaics should be sheltered, but the way they dug up the holes was completely unscientific,” he said.
“The only thing we can do now is to sieve the soil to see whether we find anything important. Other than that it’s extremely disappointing.”
Demetriou did not wish to be drawn in to a debate as to why there were no archaeologists present, but stressed that the Antiquities Department remained without a director and that it was still run with the same mentality as back when Cyprus was still a colony.
