Page - 1 -Scan 1 of 8
The XXIst Campaign of Excavations of the French Archaeological Mission at Enkomi-Alasia (Cyprus) in 1970,(A Preliminary Report).
The excavation took place in November and October 1970, under the general direction of Mr. C.F.A. Schaeffer, Membre de l'Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres and Honorary Professor at the Collège de France.
Taking part in the research were : Mr. O. Pelon, chargé d'enseignement en archéologie orientale à l'Université de Lyon, director of the French Archaeological Mission of Enkomi-Alasia ; Mr. J.-C. Courtois, chargé de recherche au Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, co-director of the French Archaeological Mission of Ras Shamra-Ugarit, as well as Mr. and Mrs. J. Lagarce, attachés de recherche of the same organization.Mr. P. Garczynski, architecte D.E.S.A., was responsible for the topographical and architectural survey ; Mr. D. Anson, graduate student at Bedford College London, took part in the excavation as an invited member.
In the center of the city, two vaulted, domed tombs were examined. Their origin and supposed relationship with the Egean bee-hive tombs of the 2nd millennium (particularly those of Crete and Mycenae) has yet to be established.
In the same sector of the city, the exploration of the wells and cisterns used during the mycenaean (XIV-XIII c.) and the immediately post-mycenaean epochs (XII-XI c.) was taken up again. Amongst the stratified deposits of pottery which these wells contained, were found weights in haematite or in bronze, one of which is provided with a tare in lead, representing a mouse. Further on, excavations were carried out in a sector of the city, where seekers of tombs had abandoned their search, because of the depth of the archaeological layers. The constructions brought to light here, are a part of an industrial quarter of the city, where potters' kilns, bronzesmiths' workshops and hearths, could be studied in detail ; they date from the XIIth century B.C.
In a building which stands out because of the thickness of its walls, and because its entrance [obliterated] is flanked by wooden columns which once rested on cylindrical stone bases, a limestone gargoyle was found, engraved with a short inscription. The signs are of the latest of the Cypriot type, which bears witness that this writing, still undecipherable, was used in the city until the moment of its abandonment, as a result of a particularly
65 figures hard to readstruck struck outadded written in above” jug ditto, and what it repeatsword reading not certain