Correspondence between Megaw and Schaeffer on organising the forthcoming seasonArthur Hubert Stanley Megaw and Claude Frédéric-Armand Schaeffer

Institut Francais d'Archeologie B.P.14.24 Beyrouth, 26.october 1948.

Handwritten: Sept.25

Dear M.Megaw,

I hope you have received my letter from Arslan Tepe which has been written before I got your two letters of September 24th for which I thank you.

I have written since to Paris to press the tresorerie but my funds have not yet received and I must ask you to wait a bit before I can send you the 305 pounds needed for the acquisition of the plots. I think it will only be a matter of a few weeks. I informed the French Consul in Lar-naca to send you immediately 500 pounds as soon as my funds arrive. That will leave another balance in my favour at your department.

I have come over from Malatya here for a week to negotiate with the Syrian Government permits for digging and I am off now again to Ankara to finish my work there. I shall be back here in a week or so and shall then proceed to Ras Shamra.

My plans for Enkomi are still not ripe for I dont know yet the exact amount of my this years credit in pounds. I fear that the new value of the franc will again reduce my funds. Anyhow, we shall make a step forward.

Pending that all this is settled, I am sending over to Nicosia Coche de la Ferte (by plane on nov.4.). He will study there the poteric found last year in view of the classification of the late Mycenaean series and at the same time complete our records. I would be grateful to you and Dikaios to allow him access to our Enkomi material both last years and from the previous diggings.

He will then leave Cyprus by the Corinthia on November 14th direct to Marseilles.

I have asked my bank in Famagusta to send you 50 pounds which I would ask you to keep ready for Coche. He will ask you what he needs for his visit to Nicosia. Please keep the balance if there is one. Thank you very much.

My wife who joined me here a few days ago, asks me to send you both her best souvenirs to which I add mine for your wife and yourself.

Yours sincerely

P.S. thank you very much for the nice article on the Enkomi discoveries and future combined operations. It is a perfect statement.