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

concerning the earthquake and especially whether in the deep layers of your areas you have observed analogous stratigraphic evidence. Which would prove that there were two shocks.

Here then are some details on the course of the research. They 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 course of the work may yield new documents that contradict the observations already made. But I think we are entering a stage where things are stabilising a little.

In the sanctuary you already know that we have brought to light two heaps of wood of "base-ring" shape but late and made on the potter's wheel. Under the floor of the small room west of the sanctuary, which corresponds exactly to that of the wood, I found an 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 provides a terminus post quem for the floors in question and for the statue which was found in a hole dug into floor I, which comes after the demolition. You will notice that I have changed my theory on the sheath of the statue. After examining the stratigraphy of the room in question (which was less than half excavated) I found that the statue was in a hole dug into the layer of decomposed pisé which rested on floor II. In fact there exists an intermediate "floor" which I call IIa and which was of very short duration. This is because on this floor rests a thick layer of decomposed pisé in which the hole of the statue was dug. We have here again the evidence of the catastrophe after which the cult of the statue continued for a short time. This is proved by the skulls of bovines found on floor I north of the sanctuary and in the small room west of the sanctuary.

the pottery is abundant and quite a lot of floors are partly destroyed by the soundings or the holes of peasants searching for tombs, many or rather enough, have 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.