Letters from Schaeffer to Dikaios on the credits allocated by the CNRSClaude Frédéric-Armand Schaeffer

Printed: MUSÉES NATIONAUX

Printed: CHATEAU DE ST-GERMAIN-EN-LAYE (S.-et-O.)

Printed: MUSÉE DES ANTIQUITÉS NATIONALES

Printed: Tél. : RÉGIONAL 22

Le 15th of June 1945. 193

The Director of Antiquities Nicosia, Cyprus

Dear Director,

With reference to your letter dated July 18th, 1944, I have the honour to inform you that the French Centre of Scientific Research (C N R S) has put at the disposal of the Ras Shamra Mission the necessary funds in order to restart its research and excavations as from this year.

It is therefore my desire and hope to reopen as soon as pratically possible the research undertaken by the expedition at Enkomi in 1934. We than had found the first traces of the Bronze Age town which had existed there during the IIIrd and IInd millenia B.C. (see my Missions en Chypre,p.83) and to which belonged the important necropolis, the theatre of excavations of several consecutive expeditions.

During my excavations at Ras Shamra opposite Enkomi on the syrian shores, we have discovered positive evidence of Cypriote Copper ore and other island products which have been imported from Enkomi. It is therefore quite likely that Enkomi was an important trade and shipping centre for the traffic between Cyprus and Syria, the coast of which is here only about 55 miles distant from the island.

Among the cuneiform inscriptions of the XVth c.B.C. found at Ras Shamra, several refer to Cypriote families which seemed to have lived in Syria (see Syria, 1940, p.267). There is some hope that we might find among the ruins of Enkomi inscriptions or cuneiform letters of a similar kind.

The research the Ras Shamra Expedition intends to carry out would consist in a extensive excavation of the grounds near and in the Bronze Age necropolis, for I have some reason to believe that the ruins of buildings accidentally discovered by the previous expeditions during the tomb digging belong actually to the Bronze Age settlement (see Missions en Chypre, p.84). The fields I therefore propose to explore to begin with would be the numbers 260 to 265 and 330 to 334 of the cadastral plan published in my volume (Missions en Chypre, p.64, fig.27) already tested during the research of the British, Swedish and French excavations.

As date for the general survey and the first trial trenches I would suggest the autumn of this year after the harvest so as to avoid all damage to cultivation. The Expedition has its own experienced architect for the survey, Mr.Pironin who worked with me at Ras Shamra for several years and was also in charge of the technical direction of the excavations. I would be glad of the Cyprus Museum could put at my disposal, as in 1934, one of its trained foremen and I hope also to find a draftsman in Cyprus, perhaps Mr.Christodoulides, the artist who is the author

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