Unnumbered pageScan 23 of 26
Continued from scan 22
… a local Cypriot God indicated by the ideogram of Nergal
Would the bronze statue represent this God Nergal of Alasia? In a letter from Tell-el-Amarna the king of Alasia apologises to the Pharaoh for having detained one of his envoys for three years and says that the reason is that "the hand of Nergal is upon the land and that the young wife of the king is dead".It is therefore not impossible that the author of the passage in question had in his mind the image of our statue with the right hand advanced and the palm turned towards the earth.It must further be added that with the bronze statue we recovered an object of xxx bronze which appears to be a small harpé which must have had formerly a wooden handle. At the moment of discovery it touched on one side the right hand of the God and on the other the wall of the corner.This weapon of Assyro- Babylonian inspiration had become a symbol of power and what- [handwritten: lui] although the God did not hold it in his hand it must have been offered as an ex-voto.
Before concluding I should like to present two other bronze statuettes recently acquired by the Cyprus Museum and according to reliable information coming from the town of Enkomi. One represents the God Baal
Figure: harpe or sickle-shaped bronze object and statue fragments in margin; labels: Fig 15, Fig 9, Fig 16
[handwritten: 11] (top left) [handwritten: 11] (top right)
65 figures hard to readstruck struck outadded written in above” jug ditto, and what it repeatsword reading not certain