Letter from Schaeffer to Dikaios on publications and the resumption of excavationsClaude Frédéric-Armand Schaeffer

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to have him lend you everything you have available at the museum, for this equipment can serve you as well as us. It will be necessary, as you say in your letter, to arrange a kitchen outside in a tent, not directly against the house to avoid the smells and the coming and going of the staff, to prepare the equipment, etc. The equipment bought by me has been brought back to the museum, you will be kind enough to put it at the disposal of Pironin and to supplement it with museum equipment if possible. If Pironin has time left before my arrival, I have charged him with Forrer to continue the soundings along the rampart and to fix the record between this enceinte and the cliff, which we have not yet been able to establish.

As for Forrer, I would like to ask you to put at his disposal, to make drawings of them, all the cylinders in the museum of Nicosia which are in las salle 6, and which you mention in your guide p. 81.

I am in the process of finishing my Corpus of cylinder seals from Ras Shamra, for which the comparative pieces from Cyprus will be very useful, as I possess very similar pieces from Ras Shamra, Syria and Palestine. I would ask you to allow Forrer to first draw the cylinders found by the Swedes and reproduced in Cyprus Expedition, vol.1, pl. CI, fig.8 to 17. The reproductions by the Swedes are not sufficient for the detailed study of these cylinders. I would then like Forrer to draw all similar cylinders in your collection, with the exception of the Enkomi one found by myself and reproduced in Missions en Chypre. If you have made recent acquisitions of cylinders, you may also ask Forrer to draw them; he now has very good experience and knows how to reproduce the style exactly, and you may use these drawings for your publications if you would allow me to then reproduce them in my Corpus. I think this will take about a week, and I would be very grateful to you for helping him to make his work as easy as possible.

As I said, I shall meet you by the SS. Corinthia leaving Marseille on the 27th and due to arrive at Limassol probably Saturday the 3rd. I shall go immediately to Nicosia, where I look forward to seeing you and talking about our work. I hope you are in good health, as well as Madame Dikaios and your daughter. Awaiting the pleasure of shaking your hand, please believe in my very friendly sentiments.

P.S. Please hand the enclosed note to Mr Forrer. P.P.S. About a month ago I checked with the Illustrated London News regarding the delay in publishing our joint article. They assured me that the article will be published within the next five weeks.