Document·34 CDF art. 172·1962

Report 'A new sanctuary of the end of the Bronze Age and beginning of the Iron Age at Enkomi in Cyprus', annotated by SchaefferJacques-Claude Courtois and Claude Frédéric-Armand Schaeffer

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Typed in French. Every line is transcribed and translated, and the English sits beside the scan.

Scan 10 of document 34 CDF art. 172 (Report 'A new sanctuary of the end of the Bronze Age and beginning of the Iron Age at Enkomi in Cyprus', annotated by Schaeffer), typed in French. The transcription and translation follow.

Scan: Collège de France, Paris, 34 CDF art. 172, CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.

Unnumbered pageScan 10 of 14

With the combined aid of observations made in situ at the time of discovery and of the proportions of the other centaur, better preserved.

Handwritten: illegible annotation

The two centaurs originally lay in a niche arranged on the bench north, perpendicular to the wall, the heads facing south, as proved by several indications, notably the legs still in place, of the larger of the two monsters at the time of discovery. The centaurs lay face down on the earth, between 0 m 35 and 0 m 60 deep, in their fallen position at the time of the final ruin of Enkomi, in cours du X e siècle vraisemblablement. A noter la présence, au-dessus comme au-dessous of these strange idols, of a bull's skull. Beside the centaurs, one recovered a chalice in coarse red earth with a truncated foot.

Of the larger of the two bicephalous centaurs, whose restored height is 51 cm, for a length of 35 cm, one notes above all the extraordinary cylindrical head, flaring slightly towards the top, plano-convex with a median brow. The geometric decoration painted in red-brown outlines the features of this face with a large hooked nose in a quarter circle, with eyes with a projecting pupil punched with a bead applied, with deeply incised nostrils, a tiny mouth and a raised chin. On the neck and nape, three applied small tufts representing locks survive of horses' hair. Under the chin, the painted decoration may simulate a necklace ...

The second bicephalous centaur, in beige earth with painted decoration in black-brown, very faded, measures 31 cm in height and 25 in length. Of the four truncated legs with annular foot, only the two front legs survive. The two heads, almost identical, differ only in a few minor details: mouth pointed on one side, mouth pierced on the other, ears pointed to the right, as well as the neck. The nose and the eyes are also painted on both heads, whose nape bears small festooned bands simulating horses. On the forehead, note the curious arched 'visor'.

As for the flanks of the monster, they bear a painted geometric decoration which deserves attention, through its arrangement in metopes with a motif characteristic of the style Submycenaean of Greece or Argolid [illegible], a motif made of arcs concentric, the middle one filled in solid black. This motif also appears on vases from Asine in Argolid and from the Kerameikos cemetery of Athens, as well as at Tragana and in Subminoan Crete. The bands decorated with chevrons, common to the decoration of

65 figures hard to readstruck struck outadded written in above” jug ditto, and what it repeatsword reading not certain

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