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… nienne and later of the post-Mycenaean town, the ruins must have been looted thoroughly or combed through by the natives to recover all that was valuable or usable. The floors look swept clean, the burial chambers emptied except in rare cases, no hiding places so far. According to the number of handles or of vessels bearing Cypriot signs or short inscriptions, the use of writing seems to have been fairly widespread. It is therefore permissible to hope that the official quarter of the town, when it is uncovered, will yield inscriptions. This quarter we have not yet found. The town is situated on absolutely flat ground, slightly sloping towards the river. Nothing allows its topography to be made out; the clearance must be extended in order to grasp the layout of the various quarters. So far, we have identified a residential quarter, another where the bronze workshops seem to have been located, a third area reveals an important which perhaps constitutes a sanctuary.
Below the second town, counting from the surface or Mycenaean town, we encounter a stratum of desolation indicating a hiatus. Lower down, quite important buildings of the Middle Bronze (gen. of the XIX and 18th c.) have been uncovered. Here the tombs are more often intact; the town of this period does not seem to have been destroyed by a sudden catastrophe, but seems to have ended slowly and gradually. The preservation of the buildings in this level as in the upper levels is excellent and allows a detailed study of the corresponding civilisations. The stratigraphic are also satisfactory, but complicated by the very numerous official and clandestine excavations having taken place during many long years with a view to searching for the tombs located in the subsoil of the houses. Piercing through the strata everywhere, these excavations present themselves in the form of narrow shafts whose limits are nevertheless easy to distinguish and which affect only restricted areas.
The Middle Bronze town is set on the rock. The latter form in places fairly large hollows, so that the existence of a level earlier than the Middle Bronze is not excluded.
The Bronze town of Enkomi proves to be of considerable As the wealth of the tombs excavated by the hundreds have proved, the town must have been very prosperous. It must have drawn from its situation as the nearest port of Cyprus in relation to the Asian coast, and from the export of Cypriot copper, both ore and manufactured objects, a great profit. We have determined part of its extent, traced its Cyclopean enclosure on the south side and fixed the main lines of its history, during the IIe millennium before our era. As far as we can say at the present time, the history of this town presents the same interruptions as those observed in the chronology of the urban centres of of Syria and neighbouring Palestine. The town and the towns successive seem to have been plundered or emptied out thoroughly. The finds are rare, but it is certain that the clearance promises, on condition that one be sufficiently extensive. It will require several seasons provided with the means which should be at least equal to those we have at our disposal this year, or greater if possible. It will be essential to operate with a Decauville network.
To speed up the clearance of the town without increasing the charges on the French excavation budget, I have put into study with the director of Antiquities of Cyprus a project for joint excavations which I shall submit to the Commission on my return. In broad outline the main conditions would be as follows: the general direction of the excavations will remain acquired by the French Mission, as will that of the provisional and definitive publications. The English Antiquities Service would provide a financial contribution corresponding to 2.000 pounds ( c. 960.000 frs at the official rate of the day) per annual season, as well as its technical staff (foreman, … continues
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