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

Mycenaean amphoras found in Cyprus and at Ras Shamra and why it seems to resemble those of Late Helladic II.

According to a remark of Furumark cited by Sjöqvist,[handwritten: 30] the amphora of Tomb 17 is difficult to classify "as it shows so many peculiar features." The two authors end up by attributing it to the second half of Sjöqvist's Late Cypriote II B period, that is to say between 1325 and 1275, approximately. This date is about a century later than the one proposed by me, and seems to me to be contradicted also by the association of the amphora in question with a vase of Base-Ring II type described above.

Late Cypriote III (1350-1200). I have already said that the Mycenaean amphoras with representations of chariot scenes are, at Ras Shamra, characteristic of Late Ugarit III (1350-1200). Several of these have been found in the great corbelled tombs of cut stone characteristic of that period. The earliest burials in these tombs belong to Late Ugarit II (1450-1365). The skeletons and offerings are usually heaped up in the ossuary. Among the latter are Cypriote vases of the Late Cypriote II period, notably Base Ring and White Slip II ware intermingled with a certain number of Mycenaean vases, most often stirrup-jars. In the tomb chambers proper there are more examples, usually of the Late Ugarit III (1365-1200) type, which correspond to middle and late, to the exclusion of the latest, types of Late Cypriote II (1400-1200) in Gjerstad's classification and Late Cypriote II B (1350-1275) and II C (1275-1200) in the classification of the Swedish Expedition.[handwritten: 31] Mycenaean pottery abounds; of certain types such as plates and dishes decorated with various motives arranged in concentric circles, stirrup vases, amphoras and kraters, we found as many as fifty, sometimes more than a hundred in a single tomb.

The amphoras and kraters bearing chariot-scenes are usually of the same quality as those found in the tombs of Enkomi by the English and Swedish Expeditions.[handwritten: 32] A typical specimen, found isolated at Ras Shamra, has been published by me in the Annual of the British School at Athens (vol. xxxvii)

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