Schaeffer's report on the Enkomi excavation siteClaude Frédéric-Armand Schaeffer

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… nienne and later of the post-Mycenaean town, the ruins must have been plundered thoroughly or combed by the natives to recover everything that was precious or usable. The floors are as if swept, the burial chambers emptied except in rare cases, no hoards so far. Judging by 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. This quarter we have not yet found. The town is situated on absolutely flat ground, slightly sloping towards the river. Nothing allows its topography to be detected; the clearance must be extended in order to grasp the layout of the different quarters. So far, we have identified one residential quarter, another where the bronze workshops seem to have been located, a third area reveals an important building which perhaps constitutes a sanctuary.

Below the second town counting from the surface, or Mycenaean town, we encounter a stratum of desolation indicating a hiatus. Lower down, quite important Middle Bronze buildings (generally of the 19th and 18th c.) have been uncovered. Here the tombs are more often intact; the town of this perioddoes 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 with a view to searching for the tombs situated in the subsoil of the houses. Piercing the strata everywhere, these excavations appear as narrow shafts whose limits are nevertheless easy to distinguish and which affect only restricted areas.

The Middle Bronze town is set on the rock. The latter, formed by in places fairly large basins, so that the existence of a level earlier than the Middle Bronze is not excluded.

The Late Bronze town of Enkomi proves to be of considerable importance. As the wealth of the tombs excavated by some has proved, 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 broad lines of its history, during the 2nd millennium before our era. As far as we can say at the present time, the history of this town presents the same interruptions as those observed in the chronology of the urban centres of Syria and neighbouring Palestine. The town and the towns successive seem to have been plundered or emptied thoroughly. The finds are rare, but it is certain that the clearance promises, on condition of being sufficiently extensive. It will require several campaigns provided with means which should be at least equal to those we have this year or greater, if possible. It will be indispensable to operate with a network of Découvilles.

To speed up the clearance of the town without increasing the burdens 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 broad terms the main conditions would be the following: the general direction of the excavations would remain assured to the French Mission, as would that of the provisional and definitive publications. tive. 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 (foreman of the area

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