Contribution to Enkomi I, Text, Preliminary Report on the Cyprus Department of Antiquities excavations at Enkomi, The Bronze Statue of a Horned God, annotated and commented by SchaefferPorphyrios Dikaios and Claude Frédéric-Armand Schaeffer

104.

V. CERAMIC EVIDENCE AND CHRONOLOGY. ------

Before proceeding to the examination of the ceramic evidence for the dating of the compound it is well to recall the irregularities affecting the stratification. First the original level of the ground on which the building was erected sloped considerably towards the south, while the surface of the rock seems to have sloped down even more steeply in the same direction. This is seen on the north-south section running through the whole of the compound (Pl.VII,2). In trial soundings in the area of this southward depression we uncovered below the strata associated with our building remains of walls and other material which belong to the LCI period, ie. to a period much earlier than that to which the

Handwritten: notes/proves at the top of the account

compound belongs (LCIII). Moreover in several parts of the excavated area we found tomb-chambers of which some are dated to the Middle Cypriot and others to the LCI and II periods. Of these mention will be made in due course.(1)

The presence on the site of earlier remains _________________________ /and

(1) A pit in room XXVII ie. in the eastern wing of the Main Building contained, apart from the two ivory gaming boards on Pl.LXX.34, pottery of the LCB-C period, which means that the pit belongs to an earlier period than the compound. This is confirmed by the fact that the lining of the pit was embodied in rubble masonry belonging to destroyed remains antedating the continu- [handwritten: e]ation of the compound.