Report on the excavations at Enkomi, 1955–1958Claude Frédéric-Armand Schaeffer

Handwritten: 44

Handwritten: 191

Layer 3 (c): Very abundant pottery of the Iron I intermediate phase: small "wavy lines" bowl with black decoration; jars of "Canaanite" type; basalt bowl; in the S.E. corner; stone loom weight and spindle whorl; trough in sun-dried earth in the N.W. corner.

Layer 2: no pottery.

Layer 1: Abundant pottery of the Iron I final phase: "wavy lines" bowls of standard or evolved type; handle with double roll or figure-of-8 section; jar handle with incised +; jug with cylindrical spout and vertical decoration (Pt 35); bronze point and steatite spindle whorl (Pt 36); stone seal (Pt 37); bone stopper (Pt 38); stone weight and loom weight.

Conclusions -

Traces of an occupation of the Middle Bronze III or Late Bronze I in a cavity in the virgin soil. Floor and use layer of the middle of Iron I, with well (C.4). A little later, but still in the same phase, construction of an grand architectural complex and installation of considerable furnishings which will form layer 3; then, destruction of this habitation by fire, collapse of the bricks belonging to the upper parts of the walls, and crushing of the pottery "in situ". Around 1100 B.C., a floor is laid over the whole surface of the sounding at 50 cm; at Pt 25, however, owing to the settling of the underlying rubble, this floor is at a depth of 60 cm; the upper parts of the stone walls of layer 3 are reused; the floor of which one has just spoken remains in use until the abandonment of the town.

During the excavation, it had first been considered to see in the Pt 25 a potter's kiln. This hypothesis was refuted in the course of work: where a round structure was expected, we cleared a hall [handwritten: kiln] square, provided with a door in the S.W. corner; instead of a kilnload of identical vessels, with misfires and firing faults, one found a very diverse furnishing, with varied ceramic forms and a tool kit in all sorts of different materials.