1937

Continued from scan 30

… -2-

arly interesting. They fit in with the inscribed spindle whorls from Enkomi and give further proof of Evans' and Persson's theory that a variety of Minoan Linear script was in use in Cyprus in the Late Bronze age, closer to the Cretan than to the mainland Greek varieties of this writing, and much closer to the Cretan than to the later Cypriote. Of our nine letters (three examples of one combination of two, [handwritten: onpithosrims] and two examples of one other letter), only three were [handwritten: previously] known in Bronze Age contexts in Cyprus, but five have derivative forms in the later Cypriote writing. All but one of them, however, exactly duplicate early Cretan forms; of these one is found in Caria as well, and one went over into Phoenician and early Greek. All together fifteen Minoan letters were known in Bronze Age Cyprus before now; we can bring the number to 19, and give five new examples of three letters which were already known. We can also show that this writing was in use in Cyprus at the very beginning of the L.C.III period, and probably in the L.C.II period, for one piece (unstratified) was on a handle of L.C.II ware. The exact context of the Enkomi whorls was not known.

So far as I can tell now, the sub-Mycenaean ware of the Kalorizi-ki tombs 25 and 26A belongs to period 2 of the L.C.III period. There is Sub-Mycenaean in period 1, but it is different. Of course most of the fine pottery is in sherds, which I don't have photographed yet, so I can't do any detailed work on it yet. I also found three sherds of the unique hand-made incised ware of tombs 25 and 26A in a closed L.C.II context, our deepest pit, which went down nearly four meters.

I suppose that there is no point to my saying more about this in this letter, since I will be seeing you before long and we can talk about it then.

If you have returned to Greece I will be very glad to know your plans, so as to make mine accordingly.

Do give my best wishes to Mrs. Hill and Mr. and Mrs. Blegen, and, of course, to yourself.

Yours truly,

Handwritten: Pete

P.S. [handwritten: Do you know of any orientalist or gem expert who would be willing to tell us about our cylinder seals? I can send casts and photographs.]