Page 4Scan 11 of 438
bare and before the evidence of all the deeper levels is available.
As Dr. Schaeffer has elsewhere explained (1) the townsite at Enkomi has suffered considerably by the digging of pits in search of tombs, not only by excavators who worked on the site before Dr. Schaeffer's brilliant discovery of the town in 1934, but also by the tomblooters who bored innumerable holes all over the site. The excavator of the town remains is consequently hampered at ever turn by these ubiquitous, refilled pits, which cut through the floors, destroyed stone walls, dislodged blocks and generally wrought deplorable destruction to the remains. The worst variety of such pits is that from the bottom of which tunnels were opened evidently by tomb-looters who could then, undisturbed by police patrolling, work underground in search of a breach in the bedrock which might lead to the discovery of a tomb-chamber. Such tunnels are now extremely treacherous, as floors
(1). Stratigraphie Compareé, 585 ff
65 figures hard to readstruck struck outadded written in above” jug ditto, and what it repeatsword reading not certain