3500-YEAR-OLD "LETTER"

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27169, 13 October 1953, Page 11

3500-YEAR-OLD "LETTER"

Discovery Made On Cyprus CORRESPONDENCE OF PHARAOHS (By a Reuter Correspondent) NICOSIA. —World experts in hieroglyphics, who are now trying to read a letter written 35 centures ago, believe that it may be a letter sent to the King of Alasia by an Egyptian Pharaoh. The letter is inscribed on a piece of baked clay discovered towards the end of August at Enkomi, near Famagusta, on the site of Alasia. capital of Cyprus in the second millenium B.C. Discovery of the tablet was hailed by archaeologists as a “most sensational find,” and there is considerable speculation as to the message it carries. It is known that the Pharaohs and the Alasian rulers were in regular correspondence over the supply of copper and wines to Egypt. Several dispatches, ascribed to Alasian kings, have been discovered in Egypt, and archaeologists believe that somewhere in Alasia there exists an entire “library” of letters and archives which, when found, will shed valuable light on the history of the Middle East 3500 years before our times. The tablet found this year is the second turned up on the site of Alasia since its opening-up by an AngloFrench expedition in 1948. The first was unearthed last year, during a seasonal dig on the ancient city’s north wall. It was in a poor state of preservation, and the locality of its find suggests that it could have been a much-worn-out battle order. This year’s discovery, however, is in almost perfect condition, and Mr Porphyries Dikeos. curator of the Cyprus Museum, who found it in the ruins of Alasia’s temple, believes that it will throw important light on the cultural history of the period. To read Cypro-Mycenean script is not a hopeless task. Experts have recently scored successes in deciphering such script found elsewhere in the Middle East, and also at Mycenea and Pylos in Greece.

“Library of Records” It may well be that the cryptic marks on the piece of baked clay will provide the key to the location of Alasift’s elusive library of records which may prove to be the silent historians of the Mycenean age. This year’s digging, under the direction of Mr Dikeos, was concentrated on an area adjoining the city’s north wall. Here, a new group of buildings with exceptionally thick walls was unearthed, giving the impression of a fortress guarding the city’s coastal approaches. This defensive system was established as dating back to the 16th century B.C. In its various phases of construction and destruction, Mr Dikeos traced evidence of the island’s historically established turbulent past under successive invasions. It appears that the original defences were considered inadequate against stronger attacks. Hence an extension was built twd centuries later, extending the bastion westwards. Yet another hundred years later, the thickness of the city’s wall was doubled, to a total of four metres (just over four yards), and the entire bastion rearranged with new floors as though in preparation for some imminent danger. This steady reinforcement of the city’s defences coincided with or just preceded an important building programme within Alasia including the temple and the palace, both built with large ashlar blocks.