Communication to the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, 6 August 1948Claude Frédéric-Armand Schaeffer

Printed: MINISTÈRE DES ... LIBERTÉ·ÉGALITÉ·FRATERNITÉ · RÉPUBLIQUE FRANÇAISE · PARIS

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ceramographic evidence, it was possible for us to identify the date of the earlier gate, which certainly goes back to the New Empire hittite. Elle semble avoir été détruite au cours du XIIIº s. but we still do not know the nature of the catastrophe. | Some indications favour a seismic destruction rather than a capture of the city by an enemy force.

However, we cannot hope to obtain certainty on this point before having continued the clearing of the palace of which the gate preceding the so-called Lion Gate was part, cleared by

Handwritten: found

Delaporte?

It is not within the scope of this communication to reclassify the reliefs of Malatya in the light of the observations I have just noted. | The essential points on this subject have already been stated here by Mr Dussaud; on the other hand, Mr Akurgal, lecturer at the University of Ankara, has devoted recently a comparative study to these monuments, in which, however, he was mistaken about the antiquity of several of these monuments. | We will present our conclusions in the definitive report which will follow the excavations that [handwritten: we] propose to resume in September next at Arslan Tepe.

On the southern part of the same tepe, which has not been examined by my predecessor, I have undertaken the complete clearing of the successive layers. Here the tepe presents an entirely different stratigraphy from that of the northern hill. The layers which outcrop at the surface are characterised by an abundant polychrome painted pottery, essentially geometric with the inclusion of certain human or animal figurations,