Correspondence between Megaw and Schaeffer on the breakdown of collaboration between the French and Cypriot missionsClaude Frédéric-Armand Schaeffer and Arthur Hubert Stanley Megaw

Printed: Government crest

GOVERNMENT [printed: crest] OF CYPRUS

DEPARTMENT OF ANTIQUITIES, NICOSIA.

Tel. No.: Our Ref.: 36/36/3 Your Ref.:

16th August, 1951

Dear Dr. Schaeffer,

I have received your letter of 30th July and enclosures. [faint show-through text from reverse side, not transcribed]

I very much regret that my letter of 2nd July should have given you occasion to take steps to terminate our association with you in the exploration of Enkomi. I feel you have read in what I wrote implications that were not intended. I, on the other hand, may have been misled, as you suggest, by misunderstanding your final position on certain points. However, I accept the decision you have taken, though with regret, and will co-operate in all steps necessary to give it effect. I will do so satisfied that we shall have no reason to be ashamed of the contribution made by us during the period of collaboration.

If I wrote over-harshly, I apologize; but we could hardly overlook the absence of any reference to our work in the report you sent me, especially when we have been particular in acknowledging our status as collaborators and your prior position in the enterprise whenever anything is said or published about our work. I thank you for the assurance now given that suitable reference is being made to our collaboration in your forthcoming volume. In this connection I should perhaps point out an error in Syria XXVII p.377 where my colleague is referred to as Pierides Dikaios; his first name is Porphyrios.

There are points in your letter on which I could offer some explanation, but I have no wish to prolong this correspondence especially as there is no intention on our part to dissuade you from the decision you have taken. But one impression of yours I do wish to correct: that we are reluctant to excavate in the "temple" area down to the rock, in accordance with your suggestions and with the undertaking given in our agreement. It is true that at the time Dikaios' report was completed last year, we had made only restricted soundings below floor V and that in the two campaigns since then we have mainly concentrated on digging in the rooms surrounding and connected with the main building down to the level of that floor. Already, however, in substantial areas floor V has been destroyed and the underlying remains sealed by it have been examined down to the rock. In fact floor V remains in situ in only 40 per cent of the total floor area of the buildings we have uncovered. At the close of our recent season our intention was to complete the study of the remains as a whole in their original state (floor V) which only now is possible, and, that done, endeavour to complete the/picture of the underlying remains by further excavation below floor V, but in limited and selected areas in order to leave some scope for verification of our observations in years to come.

Meanwhile whenever we have destroyed floor V, we have gone down to the rock and recovered masses of stratified pottery, as well as considerable architectural remains. Some of these you have seen and the remainder you can see in October. All I wish to say now is that much has been found which seems to confirm Dikaios' opinion that the construction of the ashlar building and those connected with it belongs to early LCIII rather than to late LCII.

Dr.C.F.A.Schaeffer, M.A.,D.Litt., Le Castel Blanc, 14 Rue Turgot, St.Germain-en-Laye.

/As

[handwritten: /present] (marginal note, left margin beside "to complete the picture")