The XXIst Campaign of Excavations of the French Archaeological Mission at Enkomi-Alasia (Cyprus) in 1970, a preliminary reportClaude Frédéric-Armand Schaeffer

Handwritten: Enkomi

in ashlar, its vast Cyclopean enclosure and its tablets in baked clay covered with long texts in an advanced script, but not yet deciphered, [handwritten: as well as] and the jewellery, faience, alabaster of the rich offerings grave goods discovered in the family burial chambers on [handwritten: in] the same site.

The Peoples of the North and of the Sea, who succeeded in the island, as in southern and Aegean Greece, to the Mycenaean civilisation [handwritten: to the Mycenaeans], drew their prosperity mainly from their metallurgical industry, and in particular from the manufacture of weapons, as attested by the recent discovery of four fine swords, [handwritten: (of the European Bronze Age type)] 60 cm long, in the hiding place of an armourer of Enkomi-Alasia containing a hundred or so other bronzes, including a small cult chariot, [handwritten: [illegible]]

[handwritten: on] [handwritten: 8/9 [illegible]]

Let us not forget that the island of Cyprus was renowned for its copper deposits since high antiquity, and even from the beginning of the second millennium, as attested by the texts found by Mr André Parrot at Mari, on the Middle Euphrates, and where copper is designated, according to Mr G. Dossin, as "Alashian" metal. The bronze founders and armourers of the Peoples of the North and of the Sea therefore had on the island particularly abundant mineral resources. [handwritten: they occupying from the beginning of the 12th c. had [illegible] at the same time]

Moreover, and this has not yet been reported until now, the ore of Cypriot copper belonged to the category of chalcopyrite, or copper pyrite (sulphide of copper and iron: Cu2 S1 Fe2 S3) and assayed [handwritten: assayed] the most often only 4% copper (cf. our Missions en Chypre, p. 97 ff.) . The treatment by the ancient founders consisted therefore in freeing the ore, by roasting and smelting, of a large part of the non-copper materials, and in thus enriching its copper content. [handwritten: [illegible]]

The chemical analysis of the pre-Roman ores and slags of the mines of Skouriotissa in the Troodos mountains of the island has shown (cf. our Missions en Chypre, p. 97)