Letter from Megaw to Schaeffer on publications of the excavationsArthur Hubert Stanley Megaw

Printed: AIR MAIL

Handwritten: AIR MAIL

No. 90/48

Printed: TELEPHONE No. 61

Printed: DEPARTMENT OF ANTIQUITIES, CYPRUS.

Figure: coat of arms of Cyprus colonial government; labels: none

Nicosia, 3rd February, 1949.

Dear Schaeffer,

Thank you for your letter of 27th January addressed to Dikaios and myself jointly. I have not seen him to-day to show it to him, as his father died yesterday after an accident in which he broke his leg for the second time.

He will be thrilled, as I am, to hear of Dussaud's most exciting and convincing identification of Enkomi with Alasia, on which I offer my hearty congratulations to all concerned. We also may congratulate ourselves on our association with the excavations of the Island's ancient capital.

I must apologize for the delay in sending you more details and photographs of our first season's work at Enkomi. When I last wrote Dikaios was still at Enkomi and the statue in the Museum vault, awaiting cleaning, treatment and photography on his return. You will by now have received the photographs which he sent a few days ago; I need hardly add that you are the first person to receive them. I am sure he will also send as soon as possible the preliminary communication which you kindly offered to read to the Academy on his behalf. The plan of the building is now taking shape on the drawing board, but it must be revised on the spot. We have been most unfortunate in the weather: it has rained continuously since the excavation closed and Dikaios has been unable so far to return to Enkomi to do various clearing-up jobs which he feels he must complete before he starts writing his communication.

I appreciate your frank statements on the publication question. On this subject I shall write again after discussing with Dikaios, but I may say at once that there would never be any desire on our part to act independently except if you agreed that we should do so. In view of what you say I myself see no practical difficulty in including an account of the statue in Enkomi I and abstaining from any preliminary publication. A final account of the area which Dikaios has opened is another matter. I feel that two more campaigns may be required to do full justice to it. I hope Dikaios may return to Enkomi in the spring for his second campaign and for his third a year later. This would mean that his report would be completed at the earliest in the second half of 1950, which would be too late for Enkomi I, I presume.

If we divorced the statue from the account of the area in which it was found, by publishing the former in Enkomi I and the latter in Enkomi II, I do not think that would be open to criticism because my impression is that the statue was not found in its original context. The study of the pottery will decide this. In the meantime the depth at which it was found suggests to me that it survived from the hey-day of Alasia (as we must now call it), to which it must surely belong, into the years of its decline. It was found in a sort of trough constructed of mudbrick across the /corner

Dr.C.F.A.Shaeffer, M.A.,D.Litt., Le Castel Blanc, 14 Rue Turgot, St.Germain-en-Laye, (Seine et Oise).