Looking for the lost harbor. Role of non-invasive archaeological methods in the reconstruction of the seascape of an ancient city Paphos
Paweł Ćwiąkała, Kasper Jan Hanus, Karolina Matwij, Wojciech Matwij, Łukasz Miszk, Wojciech Ostrowski
Abstract Paphos, Hellenistic-Roman capital of Cyprus, was one of the most important trade centers in the East Mediterranean. Until recently, it was believed that only a singular harbor was located in Paphos in the east-south part of the city, the same place where the modern haven is now situated. When research on the Agora of the city has begun, the hypothesis about existence of the another harbor was formulated. It was primarily based on the analysis of the spatial organization of the city. Investigation of the layout of the city walls and gates gave assumptions that such hypothesis could be positively verified. The broad spectrum of non-invasive methods was implemented for reconstruction of the seascape of north-west part of the city where the harbor was expected to be found. At first, geoarchaelogical research has proved that terrain behind the north-west wall had been silted by geologic material transported by Koskinas river after deforestation of the Troodos Mountains during the ancient times. It explains why there are no visible remains of the ancient harbor infrastructure. As the next step aerial prospection was conducted. The orthophotoplan and DTM of the Nea Paphos Archaeological Park was created using UAV. Obtained data were post-processed using Agisoft software. DTM allowed to register remains of the dock or shipyard outside the wall. 3D model of the research area was also created using TLS. The model was used to simulate sea level in ancient era which was two and a half meters higher than presently. All data gave a strong proves to confirm existing of the harbor in the north-west part of Paphos and allowed to reconstruct seascape of this part of the city. To final confirm these arrangements geophysical and archaeological research will be also conducted. In this paper, the role of integrated approach in extension of the range of digital tools for modelling and reconstruction of the past seascapes will be shown.
