Five letters from Dikaios to Schaeffer about the excavations at EnkomiPorphyrios Dikaios

the pottery is abundant and although many floors have been partly destroyed by soundings or by the peasants' holes at the search for tombs, many or rather enough have survived, with pottery in place to give the date of each floor. Evidently 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 brought to the light 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 west 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 in 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 a motife excavated) I found that the statue was in a hole dug in the layer of compound track which rested on the floor II. In reality there is an intermediate "floor" which I call IIa and which was of very short duration. It is on this floor that rests a thick decomposed layer in which the hole of the statue was dug. Here again we have the evidence of the catastrophe following which the cult of the statue had continued for a short space of time. This is proved by the bovid skulls found on floor I north of the sanctuary and in the small room west 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 evidently they are very fresh. This is dangerous because the progress of the work may yield new documents which contradict the observations already made. But I believe that we are entering into 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 sections of your areas you have observed stratigraphic evidence similar. Which would suggest that there were two shocks.