Copy of a letter on discoveries made during excavationsClaude Frédéric-Armand Schaeffer

Pottery is abundant and although many floors are partly destroyed by soundings or the holes of peasants searching for tombs, many or rather enough, has survived with pottery in place to give the date of each floor. Obviously the detailed study of this pottery will be of great importance for the history of Enkomi.

In the sanctuary you already know that we have uncovered two heaps of bowls of "base-ring" form but late and made on the potter's wheel. Under the floor of the small room to the W. of the sanctuary, which corresponds exactly to that of the bowls, I found a Egyptian scarab and a stone seal with a warrior wearing a headdress identical to that of the "Philistines" on the temple of Medinet Habu (13th 12th century). This is very important because it offers a terminus post quem for the floors in question and for the statue which was found in a hole dug into floor I which is after the demolition. You will notice that I have changed my theory on the hiding place of the statue. _After examining the stratigraphy of the room in question (which was less than half excavated) I noted that the statue was in a hole dug in the layer of decomposed pisé xxxx which rested on the floor II._ In reality there exists an intermediate "floor" which I call IIa and which was of very short duration. It is on this floor that rests a thick layer of decomposed pisé in which the hole of the statue was dug. Here again we have the evidence of the catastrophe following after which the cult of the statue continued for a short space of time. This is proved by the bovine skulls found on floor I north of the sanctuary and in the small room to the W. of the sanctuary.

Here then are some details on the progress of the research. These are the result of the latest observations made after the resumption of work in April and obviously they are very fresh. This is risky because the progress of the work may produce new documents which contradict the observations already made. But I believe that we are entering a stage where things are stabilising a little.

I would very much like to know what you think of my observations on the earthquake and especially whether in the deep layers of your areas you have observed stratigraphic evidence similar. This would prove that there were two shocks.