Notes by P. Dikaios on Dr. Schaeffer's analysis of P. Dikaios' report on his "compound" at EnkomiPorphyrios Dikaios

Continued from scan 12

… centuries could have excavated the room down to the original floor and reconstructed it without leaving a trace? For on the analogy of the partition in Room XIV the rubble wall which rearranged the room relates not to the first 12th century occupation but to the second.

layers

As to the fragmentary=bowl under floor IV, which Dr.Schaeffer attributes to the initial erection of the building I must emphasize that they are not the result of occupation,in other words they contain no actual floors. These layers are composed a. of an upper stratum of limestone chips and gravel and b. of a lower one of debris (stones, ashes, fragments of pottery etc.). When Dr. Schaeffer inspected this room with me he was firmly of the opinion that this lower layer of debris belonged to a period anterior to the erection of the compound, chiefly, I think, because it is far below the level of the thresholds. Now he finds that it belongs to the original erection of the compound. But I must warn him that this layer contains no floors or other evidence of domestic or other use and that therefore it cannot be taken as proof of fourteenth century life in this building. What I think is that both the lower layer of debris (probably from the destruction of earlier remains) and the layer of limestone chips and gravel (from the dressing of the blocks) are extraneous fillings placed there at the time of erection of the south building to raise the internal level and bring it up to that of the floors of the main building. This is a matter of interpretation but the conclusion is one with which Dr. Schaeffer seems to agree, taking the LCI-LCII sherds in the fillings as evidence that the erection of the compound, when the fillings were introduced, must be placed in those periods. But if the layers below floor V are extraneous fillings, they cannot be used to date the compound, except in so far that its erection must be later than the latest material in them. The latest material in them

/was … continues