Page 200Scan 406 of 438
on floor II it would have been buried under the debris. How is it that we did not find it there but in a pit dug in the topmost floor through the layer of decomposed mudbricks? We may suppose that after the collapse a good quantity of debris must have been cleared away, particularly in the rooms which were to be re-used, and treasured possessions dug out (1). That this was done is suggested by the disturbed positions in which the trough and the fragments of a large vessel were found in the destruction layer, indicating that the latter had been dug into and thoroughly disturbed. If, as I suppose, the pre-earthquake cult was connected with the statue, what would be more natural than to unearth it, repair its sanctuary and re-instal it on the new floor? (2)
\ It
(1) It will be recalled that at the time of the fire on Floor V the debris was entirely removed and the floors cleaned before rebuilding began.
(2) We may compare the suggestion that the oval stone, which was the fetish in the Bronze Age sanctuary at Ayia Irini excavated by the Swedish Cyprus Expedition, was preserved in the later Archaic area of the sanctuary (Stqvist, Arch. Ttir Reliqi- omwias. XXX, 1933 p. 347).
65 figures hard to readstruck struck outadded written in above” jug ditto, and what it repeatsword reading not certain
