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

Handwritten: handwritten annotation at top left, partly illegible

Handwritten: handwritten annotation at top right, partly illegible

A NEW SANCTUARY of the end of the Bronze Age and the beginning of the Iron Age at ENKOMI in the Island of Cyprus.

During the last excavation campaign (autumn 1962) of the French Archaeological Mission directed by Mr Schaeffer on the inhabited site of Enkomi-Alasia in the Island of Cyprus, to the north of Famagusta, near Salamis, a new and very interesting place of worship, situated in a central quarter made of the ancient city, which flourished in the Bronze Age and at the beginning of the Iron Age, was uncovered immediately below the present surface of the site.

This new place of worship had already been identified during the previous campaign in autumn 1961, following the discovery of very numerous ex-voto: anthropomorphic figurines of men and women, groups of animals and musicians, in earthenware roughly modelled by hand and painted. These figurines and various objects closely resembling those of the small sanctuary ... discovered ... in the village of Ajia Irini, ... [illegible] similar ... recovered ... by the mission ... in ... previous in the village of Ajia Irini, ... before the beginning of the Iron Age.

The clearing of the new sanctuary at Enkomi only began in November 1962 and could not, for this reason, be completed before the end of the campaign; it is requested that today's account be considered as very provisional. But it seems fitting to present without further delay the main discoveries and the unpublished results obtained at Enkomi at the end of last year. These results concern not only the chronology and history of this site but also the ancient Cypriot cults and their relations with those of the Aegean world prehellenic, in the obscure times and have as ... of the transitional period between Mycenae and Homer, at the passage from the Bronze Age to that of the Iron Age, from the 12th to the 9th centuries before our era.

Situation of the new sanctuary at Enkomi:

Thanks to the gridded plan of the ancient city of the Bronze Age, one can easily locate the new sanctuary whose southern façade gave onto the reference street (or buildings 16) the ... of the streets oriented … continues