Late Roman Fine Pottery from North-Western Asia Minor Found in Nea Paphos: The Evidence from Maloutena

Abstract

This paper presents Eastern Sigillata C and Late Roman C ware vessels, discovered during the excavations in two residence buildings in the south-western area of Nea Paphos (Maloutena): the Villa of Theseus and the House of Aion. One of the buildings, the House of Aion, destroyed by an earthquake in the late fourth century, was subsequently abandoned and demolished. The much larger residential complex of the Villa of Theseus was repaired, enlarged and continued to be inhabited for several decades after the same disaster, but for unknown reasons it was abandoned by its regular dwellers shortly after the mid-fifth century, and gradually ruined afterwards. The studied materials were found in the contexts connected with the aforementioned, chronologically defined events. This gave us a unique insight into the ceramics used in Nea Paphos in the fourth and early/mid-fifth centuries, which is the least known time of production of the two fine wares imported from the Pergamene and Phocaean regions in north-western Asia Minor.