Unnumbered pageScan 24 of 26
Handwritten: 11
or local Cypriot God indicated by the ideogram of Nergal
Did 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 for it is that "the hand of Nergal is upon the land and that the young wife of the king has died". 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 could be a small harpe which must have had [handwritten: Fig 15] formerly a wooden limb. At the moment of discovery it held on one side the right hand of the God and on the other the part of the censer. This view of inspiration [handwritten: Fig 5] Babylonian had become an instrument of power and whatever the God did not hold it in his hand it must have been offered as an ex-voto.
Before concluding I would like to present two other bronze statuettes recently acquired by the Cyprus Museum and according to reliable information coming from the town of Enkom. One represents the God Baal [handwritten: Fig 16]
65 figures hard to readstruck struck outadded written in above” jug ditto, and what it repeatsword reading not certain