Enkomi C.F.F Schaeffer Plates IV-VIIClaude Frédéric-Armand Schaeffer

Continued from scan 13

… time obtain for the stratigraphy and chronology of Enkomi a landmark of rare exactness in the middle of the Late Bronze Age strata.

With the walls damaged up, the city continues its course through the second half of the fourteenth century and the beginning of the thirteenth. In fact, the stratum and the tombs of this period reflect great prosperity. This is the period of the abundant Mycenaean pottery and the great amphorae and kraters painted with chariot scenes, perhaps made in the ceramic workshops which were so active on the island.

The end of the Bronze Age and of the Mycenaean Period at Enkomi came toward the middle of the thirteenth century and not about 1200 as was the case with most of the sites in Western Asia. If one connects this event with the movement of the Peoples of the Sea, this would be a new reason [handwritten: 16] to doubt the exactitude of the date 1180 currently accepted for the overthrow of Troy. After this catastrophe, which is represented at Enkomi by the burned strata at the top of the Late Bronze Age level, the city entered its last period. This was certainly under new masters, as is shown by the burial customs which are quite different from those practiced earlier on the island, some new architectural types, a class of pottery previously unknown in Cyprus, and, finally, the appearance of everyday implements made of iron. [handwritten: 17] Frequency of amulets and an Egyptian style of attire also characterize this final period of Enkomi; and at the same time the style of certain objects and jewels is plainly reminiscent of the end of the Mycenaean Age. The newcomers had time been in contact with the Mycenaean and Egyptian civilizations with which Enkomi, as the whole Syro-Palestinian zone, was saturated.

We do not know the cause of the final abandonment of the site, which fell somewhere between 1250 and 1100. This involves questions which we hope to solve in the course of future excavations at Enkomi. [handwritten: 18]