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

Continued from p. 346 (handwritten, red, top right)

… the tomb of the following period, found especially at Enkomi, are lacking in Mycenaean pottery. This is replaced by some new pottery types, including a late category of Bucchero ware; large knives are also found there. These tombs clearly belong to the initial period of the Iron Age, called by us Cypriote Iron I, which follows immediately after the late Cypriote III period. This is attested by the fact that the shape and the decoration of numerous objects are still clearly inspired by Mycenaean prototypes. The frequent use of stone vases and the presence of copies of scarabs in certain tombs bear witness, besides, to the influence exercised by the contacts which were established following the invasions toward the south across countries profoundly influenced by the Egyptian civilisation, notably the region along the neighbouring coast of Syria and Palestine. But since, on the other hand, the tombs of the beginning of the Iron Age at Enkomi have not revealed any pottery types characteristic of this period, nor any fibulae, I have had to conclude that they date back chronologically to the transitional period from Bronze to Iron. For these reasons we have fixed the extreme terminus ante quem of Cypriote Iron I toward 1050 B.C.; Tombs 6, 13, and 16 at Enkomi and similar finds are probably older than this terminus.

Cypriote Iron I (1250-1050) thus corresponds with the late Cypriote III (1200-1050) of Gjerstad's first classification. More recently, following the excavations by the Swedish Expedition, the same author has proposed a tripartite division for this period. This is valid for the particular history of this one site, but I think it should not be applied, at least for the moment, to the whole of the finds of the beginning of the Iron Age on the island. [handwritten: 37]

More recently still, Gjerstad, a member of the same Expedition, reduced the three subdivisions distinguished by Gjerstad at Idalion to two: Late Cypriote III A (1200-1150) and III B (1150-1050). He has tried to support his scheme by the results of the American excavations at Kourion directed by Mr. Daniel. But it seems to us that the preliminary report of this excavation does … continues