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

Continued from p. 2

… on bases, to pillars or wooden columns. On the other hand, it is almost certain that

Handwritten: vers marginal "sly" above "columns"

the room opening to the west of the hall must have been hypostyle, judging from the pillar monolithic, still in place, and at the foot of which lay the ceramic vessels that had served

Handwritten: circled "ceramics"

in cult ceremonies, vessels which allowed the last period of activity of the sanctuary to be dated decisively and unexpectedly, i.e. the [handwritten: from] the Cypro-Geometric I or Protogeometric [handwritten: around 1150 to 950 in ch. ?]

Handwritten: marginal circled "pillar room"

It was in fact in this small room with central pillar that were uncovered successively, on three floors of beaten clayey and brown earth, strongly compacted, extending between 0 m 40 and 0 m 90 deep only below the present surface,

Handwritten: circled "Dia"

- a skyphos or bowl with deep basin and two horizontal handles

Handwritten: marginal "(stratigraphic section at wall)"

- a kylix or cup with swollen foot and two vertical handles

Handwritten: circled "Dia"

Handwritten: marginal "(drawing on the board)"

All these vessels with painted linear decoration belonged morphologically and stylistically to the category known as [handwritten: "group ... painted in blue"] Proto-White Painted and White Painted Ware of the Swedish classification established on the basis of the rich grave goods of the necropoleis of Lapithos on the north coast of Cyprus, and of Curium and Kition on the south coast. Although showing undeniable survivals of the Sub-Mycenaean style (notably the wavy lines or 'wavy line'), these vessels, hitherto unpublished at Enkomi, clearly date to the Cypro-Geometric I. They are directly comparable to those of tomb 420 of Lapithos and tombs 25 and 26 of Curium [handwritten: marginal "Swedish excavations ..."]

The stratigraphic and ceramic observations made shortly after in the large hall confirmed the existence of the three superimposed floors dating to the Cypro-Geometric I and covering the earlier strata of Late Cypriot III, also attested in a sounding.

Thus, the sanctuary, founded at the end of the Bronze Age, was restored several times in the course of Cypriot Iron I ( Cypro-Geometric I ) when it was at its height of prosperity, judging from the remains of offerings and sacrifices uncovered throughout the hall, during the XXIst, XIth and perhaps X e centuries before our era.

Indeed, 26 skulls or pairs of bull horns were found, distributed among the three layers identified, among the fragments of pithos, one of which bore a short inscription of five signs of the Cypro-Minoan script incised on the rim and two snakes with sinuous bodies modelled in slight relief on the shoulder, [handwritten: Here is a photo.]

Figure: circled "Dia" marginal annotation at lower left