The abandonment of the Sanctuary of the Horned God and the desertion of Enkomi: problems of chronology and stratigraphy

In this conference paper, delivered in Greek at the annual review of the archaeological work of the University of Cyprus, Georgios Papasavvas re-examines the stratigraphy and final phases of the Sanctuary of the Horned God at Enkomi. He opens with a recording of George Seferis reading his poem on Enkomi, inspired by visiting the site in 1953 and 1954 during the excavations of Porphyrios Dikaios. The paper arises from a University of Cyprus research project studying the metallurgy and metalwork of the now inaccessible Late Bronze Age town.

Papasavvas first outlines Dikaios's published sequence for the Ashlar Building, erected shortly before 1200 BC. After an initial destruction attributed by Dikaios to the Sea Peoples, the building was reconstructed with Floor III, dedicating the southern sector around Hall 45 and Rooms 9, 10, and 13 to the cult of the Horned God, where bucrania, deer antlers, and gold-foil horns were found. On Floor III of Room 10, Dikaios found three piles of 276 inverted bowls and a 15-centimetre layer of sand that he attributed to flooding, followed by Floor II, an earthquake destruction layer 80 centimetres thick in the late 12th century BC that killed three children in Rooms 8 and 2, and a final reduced reconstruction on Floor I (Level IIIC) lasting until c. 1075 BC. Dikaios argued that the survivors dug blindly through the debris to recover the 55-centimetre bronze statuette and reburied it in a pit in the corner of Room 10 to revive the cult.

Re-evaluating Dikaios's plans, sections, and photographs, Papasavvas proposes a different sequence. He identifies the 276 vessels in Room 10 as wheelmade Base Ring ware bowls commissioned deliberately in a traditional shape rather than the prevailing Mycenaean-type skyphoi. He argues that these deposits represent a final communal feast held to close the sanctuary before the population moved three kilometres northeast to Salamis around 1100 BC as the Pedieos river silted up Enkomi's harbour.

In this reading, the sterile sand above Floor III was windblown sand from the decaying roof, and the reddish earth of Floor I was collapsed packed earth from the roof rather than a floor of use. The antlers in Rooms 9 and 13 had fallen from the walls, the supposed hearths in Hall 45 were collapsed wall superstructure resting on a fallen doorjamb, and the pit around the Horned God was created by Dikaios's workmen when extracting the statuette, which had been left standing in situ at the closing ceremony. Papasavvas concludes that Floors II and I and Level IIIC were phases of gradual natural collapse in an already deserted building, where the children died while playing in the ruins, while the Sanctuary of the Ingot God remained in use slightly longer.