‘Libyan Ptolemais, a large port city of ancient Cyrenaica on the Mediterranean coast that rose to prominence as the capital of a Roman province in late antiquity, is again becoming the object of our research’, announced researchers from the Faculty of Archaeology at the University of Warsaw (UW) on Facebook. 

After a 13-year hiatus forced by the civil war in Libya, the mission of the UW’s Department of Archaeology has returned to Ptolemais. 

Archaeological research at the site was initiated by Professor Tomasz Mikocki of the Faculty of Archaeology of the UW in 2001. It covered a quarter of residential buildings located in the centre of the ancient city. The researchers discovered several houses, including the House of Leukaktios – richly decorated with wall paintings and mosaics with mythological themes, also known as the Villa with a View. 

‘We are now looking below the surface – scanning the seabed with sonar is the first stage of the new work’, announced the Warsaw archaeologists.