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

Continued from p. 330

… location of the city. Forming the eastern outlet for the vast central plain of the island, the Mesarea, the granary of Cyprus, Enkomi is stationed at the centermost point on the well-sheltered bay of the east coast, out of which sailed the ships destined for the Asiatic continent. On the neighboring coast of Syria, just barely visible from Cyprus in clear weather, the receiving port was Ugarit, the rich metropolis of the kingdom bearing the same name as the city, the ruins of which have been uncovered at Ras Shamra.

We might add that/epigraphical monument has yet revealed to us the ancient [handwritten: no inserted above "epigraphical"] name of the city at Enkomi. However, we can anticipate its discovery in the course of future investigations, for the frequency of graffiti in Cypriote characters incised on the handles or sometimes painted on the vases, attests that the use of writing was widespread.

In summary, here is the general picture and history of this hitherto unknown city of Enkomi, such as it is possible to piece them together after the first campaign of excavations devoted to its exposure.

Following a prehistoric establishment not yet localized, of the end of the third millennium, a city developed at Enkomi during the Middle Bronze Age, contemporary with the Egyptian Middle Kingdom. Few traces have yet been found, but the pottery, bronzes and scarabs retrieved at Enkomi can be attributed with certainty to the period between 1900 and 1700 B.C. The end of this first city does not seem to have been violent nor sudden. Having fallen into ruins, the abandoned habitations were buried under a stratum of desolation, sterile in archaeological remains and indication of a hiatus which extends from 1700 or 1650 to about 1550 B.C. This sterile stratum at Enkomi separates quite distinctly the remains of the Middle Bronze from those of the Late Bronze age. Only in places where the rocky subsoil lies close to the surface do the ruins of the Middle Bronze Age come into direct contact with those of the Late Bronze … continues