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Continued from p. 2
… same and later of the post-Mycenaean town, the tombs must have been plundered thoroughly or emptied by the natives to reuse everything that was precious or usable. The floors are as if swept, the burial chambers emptied except in rare cases, no bodies [illegible]. According to the number of handles or of vessels bearing Cypriot signs or short inscriptions, the use of writing seems to have been fairly widespread. It is therefore permissible to hope that the official quarter of the town, when it is discovered, will yield inscriptions. We have not yet found this quarter. The town is situated on an absolutely flat site, slightly sloping towards the river. Nothing allows us to guess its topography; the clearance must be extended to understand the layout of the different quarters. So far we have recognised one residential quarter, another where steatite bronzeworking seems to have been cited, a pavement (?) in Area reveals an important building which perhaps constitutes a sanctuary.
Below the second town counting from the surface, the Mycenaean town, we encounter a stratum of desolation indicating a hiatus. Lower down, fairly important Middle Bronze buildings (gen. of the XIX and 18th c.) have been uncovered. Here the tombs are more often intact; the town of this period does not seem to have been destroyed by a sudden catastrophe, but seems to have ended slowly and gradually. The preservation of the buildings in this level as in the upper levels is excellent and allows a detailed study of the corresponding civilisations. The stratigraphic conditions are also satisfactory, but complicated as a result of the very numerous official and clandestine excavations which took place during many long years in search of the tombs situated in the floor-zone of the houses. However, everywhere the strata these excavations present as narrow pockets whose limits are nevertheless easy to distinguish and which concern only restricted areas.
The Middle Bronze town is set on the rock. Ruined and forming, in places, fairly large patches, so that the existence of a level anterior to the Middle Bronze is not excluded.
The Enkomi Bronze town proves to be of considerable importance. From the wealth of the tombs excavated by some, it has been proved that the town must have been very prosperous. It must have drawn from its situation as the nearest port of Cyprus to the Asian coast, and from the export of Cypriot copper, both as ore and as manufactured objects, a great profit. We have determined part of its extent, traced its enclosure cyclopean on the south side and fixed the main lines of its history during the 2nd millennium before Jesus Christ. As far as we can say at the present time, the history of this town presents the same features as those observed in the chronology of the urban centres of Syria and neighbouring Palestine. The town and the successive towns seem to have been plundered or destroyed thoroughly. The finds are rare, but it is certain that the clearance, quick on condition of being effectively extended. Several campaigns remain, provided with means which should be at least equal to those we have this year, or greater if possible. It will be essential to work with a network of Decauville lines.
To speed up the clearance of the town without increasing the charges on the French excavation budget, I have studied with the director of Antiquities of Cyprus a project of joint excavations which I shall submit to the Commission on my return. In general the main conditions would be the following: the general direction of the excavations would remain reserved to the French Mission, as would that of the provisional and definitive publications . The English Antiquities Service would provide a financial contribution corresponding to 2.000 pounds (c. 960.000 frs at the official rate of the day.) per annual campaign, as well as its technical staff (area foreman
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