Letter from Megaw to Schaeffer on Forrer's work, the publication of Enkomi I and the objects found at EnkomiArthur Hubert Stanley Megaw

18 Febrair 50

No...36/36/2

DEPARTMENT OF ANTIQUITIES, CYPRUS.

TELEPHONE No. 61

Nicosia, 18th February, 1950.

Dear Schaeffer,

Thank you for your four letters of 10th January from Port Said and of 23rd January and 7th and 13th February. I must apologize for not replying to the earliest of these before - but we have not been idle!

Forrer's work. I have paid the £50 to your account and enclose an official receipt. I have told Forrer to come along when he needs any money. He has been getting on quite well, I think, at the Khan, where we made some minor improvements to make him (and Michail) more comfortable while working there. We have also moved all your excavation tools, formerly kept in the Museum, into one of the lower rooms of the Khan. Georghios is working full time with Michail on the cleaning and mending. Tombs 2 and 5 are finished and they are hard at work on 11. When the latter is finished there remains only tomb 7 of the big groups to be dealt with.

Enkomi I. I am sorry in reporting the Scheme of Dikaios' chapter on his building I omitted to mention the statue. This has not of course been forgotten and Dikaios' presentation of this will in accordance with your previous proposal constitute a separate chapter. His plan is to complete the chapter on the building and then turn to the statue. I think this is the right order, since his discussion of the statue must fit into the chronology of the building in which it was found.

In the Chapter on the building he has reached the fourth section-description of the floors and account of pottery found on them. The preparatory work of washing, sorting, mending (followed by photography and drawing of the best pieces) and study of the pottery is a big task, on which Dikaios and the bulk of the Museum Staff are continuously engaged. The material from the central rectangle of the complex has now been dealt with (except for that from the small "sanctuary" at the south end where the statue was found) and Dikaios has nearly finished with that from the rooms south of the "sanctuary". His plan was to deal next with the material from the various levels in the "sanctuary" itself and then turn to that from some of the outer rooms of the complex, particularly those to the east which have yielded the best evidence of the destruction and the best "wavyband" pottery. However, after receiving your latest letters we have agreed that having gone through the pottery of the "sanctuary" Dikaios should then round off his chapter - at least provisionally - and turn to that on the statue which you are anxious to have first.

We very much hope that, having got the statue chapter off to you, some time will remain for Dikaios to go through the pottery from some of the outer rooms, and then make the necessary additions and revisions to the chapter on the building before it goes to press. Since the study of the pottery from the central area has not confirmed the first impressions regarding the chronology of the building - notably in that the date of its construction now seems to have been not earlier than the middle of the 13th century - it does seem important to seek confirmation in the adjacent rooms.

I have told Dikaios that I would write to you about these matters so that he can "keep his nose to the grindstone". I can assure you we are not allowing anything else to distract him from his Enkomi work, and as we have almost daily discussions about it I am in a position to say that steady progress is being made and at maximum speed.

/Bronze

Dr.C.F.A.Schaeffer, M.A.D.Litt., Le Castel Blanc, 14, Rue Turgo St.Germain-[illegible]ye (Seine et Oise).