Letter from Megaw to Schaeffer about objects found by DikaiosArthur Hubert Stanley Megaw

Printed: GOVERNMENT OF CYPRUS

Printed: DEPARTMENT OF ANTIQUITIES, CYPRUS.

Handwritten: 29.IX.52

Tel. No.:

Our Ref.: 50/52/3

Your Ref.:

Nicosia, 29th September, 1952.

Dear Dr. Schaeffer,

Your cable of 28th August asking for arrangements to be made for you to see all the Department's Enkomi finds during your visit in November arrived a few days before I left for Istanbul. Your letter of 5th August came in my absence and Dikaios feels on the same day that I returned. Consequently, as he was much occupied by my duties in my absence, he was not able to give much time to the arrangements of the Enkomi finds before he left.

The washing of the many bag-fulls of pottery, their marking (where possible) and their arrangement in numbered trays has been in steady progress since our first Enkomi season, but it has not kept pace with the inflow from the dig. We are now trying to speed up this work, and though it cannot be completed for several months, a substantial proportion of the pottery and other finds from each of our campaigns will have been arranged by squares and levels at the time of your visit. How far this material in that state will furnish a satisfactory picture of the results and significance of our excavations without the guidance of the excavator is another matter. However, you will at least be able to assess the quantity and quality of the material to be divided in due course.

As regards the inventory, Dikaios asked me to explain his system, which is to record during the excavations only a small part of the pottery, that is to say individual vases and occasional significant sherds noticed during the digging. When he subsequently goes through the bulk of the pottery after it has been washed, marked and set out in trays, he adds to the inventory many additional items that seem to be interesting or important. His inventories are consequently complete only in respect of the rooms and layers from which he has studied all the pottery, that is to say those covered in his report on the 1948 and 1949 seasons. They are not at present a satisfactory guide to our material.

Dikaios reminded me that during your very brief visit last year he produced for you to see the selected sherds registered during his last campaign in the sanctuary area (he did not work there at all this year), including some found in and below Floor V. The rest of the material collected, which you had then asked to see, has still not been examined by Dikaios.

The loaned items returned in the suitcase taken over from Thronin at Limassol have been checked and found in order. In addition there were two copies of Enkomi-Alasia I, not one as we were expecting. One has been added to the library as the second of the two copies required to be furnished under the terms of your permit.

The

Dr. C.F.A. Schaeffer, M.A., D.Litt., c/o Institut Fr. d'Archéologie, B.P. 1420, Beyrouth.