Unnumbered pageScan 17 of 19
Continued from p. 2
… same and later from the post-Mycenaean town, the tombs must have been looted thoroughly or partly, by the natives to recover everything that was precious or usable. The floors are as if swept, 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 discovered, 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 detected; the clearance must be extended to understand the layout of the different quarters. So far, we have recognised one residential quarter, another where the bronze workshops seem to have been located, a third area reveals an important building which perhaps constitutes a sanctuary. Below the second town, to be compared with the surface or Mycenaean town, we encounter a stratum of desolation indicating a hiatus. Lower down, quite importants bâtiments du Bronze Moyen (fin. des XIX et XVIIIe s.) ont été mis 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 conditions are also satisfactory, but complicated as a result of the very numerous official and clandestine excavations which took place during many years with the aim of reaching the tombs situated in the subsoil of the houses. Cutting through the strata everywhere, these excavations appear in the form of narrow pockets whose limits are nevertheless easy to distinguish and which affect only limited areas. The Middle Bronze town is set on the rock. The latter forms, in places, fairly large basins so that the existence of a level earlier than the Middle Bronze is not excluded.
The Late Bronze town of Enkomi proves to be of considerable importance. As the wealth of the tombs excavated by the hundred has proved, the town must have been very prosperous. It must have drawn from its situation as the nearest port of Cyprus to the Asian coast, and from the export of Cypriot copper, as ore and as manufactured objects, a great profit. We have determined part of its extent, traced its enceinte cyclopean on the south side and fixed the main lines of its history, during the 2nd 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 neighbouring Syria and Palestine. The town and the towns successive seem to have been looted or emptied thoroughly. The finds are rare, but it is certain that the clearance promises, on condition that it is sufficiently extensive. It will require several campaigns provided with means which should be at least equal to those we have this year, or greater if possible. It will be indispensable to operate with a network of Decauvilles. To speed up the clearance of the town without increasing the burdens on the budget of the French excavations, I have studied with the director of Antiquities of Cyprus a project of joint excavations which I shall submit to the Commission on my return. In broad outline the main conditions would be the following: the general direction of the excavations would remain assured to the French Mission, as would that of provisional and definitive publications tive. The 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 campaign, as well as its technical staff (foreman of the area
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