Enkomi ( el, Έγκωμη; tr, Tuzla) is a village near
Famagusta in
Cyprus. It is the site of an important
Bronze Age
The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second prin ...
city, possibly the capital of
Alasiya
Alashiya ( akk, 𒀀𒆷𒅆𒅀 ''Alašiya'' -la-ši-ia uga, 𐎀𐎍𐎘𐎊 ''ẢLṮY''; Linear B: 𐀀𐀨𐀯𐀍 ''Alasios'' -ra-si-jo, also spelled Alasiya, also known as the Kingdom of Alashiya, was a state which existed in the Middle ...
. Enkomi is under the ''de facto'' control of
Northern Cyprus.
In 1974, Enkomi had about 800
Greek Cypriot inhabitants. They all fled to the south of the island after the
Turkish invasion, in the aftermath of the
July coup. , Enkomi has a population of 2,645. It comprises displaced
Turkish Cypriots
Turkish Cypriots or Cypriot Turks ( tr, Kıbrıs Türkleri or ''Kıbrıslı Türkler''; el, Τουρκοκύπριοι, Tourkokýprioi) are ethnic Turks originating from Cyprus. Following the Ottoman conquest of the island in 1571, about 30,00 ...
from
Larnaca
Larnaca ( el, Λάρνακα ; tr, Larnaka) is a city on the south east coast of Cyprus and the capital of the district of the same name. It is the third-largest city in the country, after Nicosia and Limassol, with a metro population of 14 ...
and Turkish settlers from
Adana Province
Adana Province ( tr, ) is a province of Turkey located in central Cilicia. With a population of 2.26 million, it is the sixth most populous province in Turkey. The administrative seat of the province is the city of Adana, home to 79% of th ...
and
Trabzon Province.
History
Enkomi was settled in the
Middle Bronze Age, near an inlet from the sea (now silted up). From about the 16th century BC to the 12th, it was an important trading center for
copper, which was smelted at the site, with strong cultural links to
Ugarit on the facing coast of
Syria.
The complicated and badly disturbed stratigraphy of the site has in four major phases, with many subdivisions:
* Level A, a poorly represented preliminary stratum on bedrock;
* Level I A, and B, at the beginning of the Late Bronze Age, when fortifications were twice destroyed;
* Level II A, and B, with many subdivisions, covering the elaborate expansion of the 14th and 13th centuries and ending in a mass destruction about 1220;
* Level III A, B, and C, with
Mycenaean settlers, with a destructive attack, possibly related to the
Sea Peoples
The Sea Peoples are a hypothesized seafaring confederation that attacked ancient Egypt and other regions in the Eastern Mediterranean, East Mediterranean prior to and during the Late Bronze Age collapse (1200–900 Common Era, BCE).. Quote: ...
in IIIA, culturally continuous with IIIB, ending in a destruction about 1125, and IIIC, a final, Mycenaean phase with dwindling population.
During the 13th century BC, Enkomi was inhabited by Greeks, like most of the cities of Cyprus. From the 13th century, other towns along the southern coast of Cyprus competed with Enkomi. After an earthquake ca. 1050 BC, the site was abandoned, leaving an opening for the rise of
Salamis.
Alasia
René Dussaud
René Dussaud (; December 24, 1868 – March 17, 1958) was a French Orientalist, archaeologist, and epigrapher. Among his major works are studies on the religion of the Hittites, the Hurrians, the Phoenicians and the Syriacs. He became curator ...
said that Enkomi is the ''Alasia'' of the
Amarna correspondence
The Amarna letters (; sometimes referred to as the Amarna correspondence or Amarna tablets, and cited with the abbreviation EA, for "El Amarna") are an archive, written on clay tablets, primarily consisting of diplomatic correspondence between t ...
and other texts, including
Hittite texts. Long after the town disappeared,
Hellenes recalled it in the cult title of
Apollo Alasiotas, recorded in a Cypriote inscription as late as the 4th century BC. In 1900 the
archaeologist
Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...
Joseph Offord suggested that Apollo Alasiotas was a Syrian god identical with
Resheph
Resheph (also Reshef and many other variants, see below; phn, 𐤓𐤔𐤐, ''ršp''; Eblaite ''Rašap'', Egyptian ') was a deity associated with plague (or a personification of plague), either war or strong protection, and sometimes ...
, transported to Cyprus, and some modern scholars remain unconvinced. The bronze statuette of a horned god (''illustration'') may represent this divinity whom Greeks identified, by ''
interpretatio graeca
''Interpretatio graeca'' (Latin, "Greek translation") or "interpretation by means of Greek odels is a discourse used to interpret or attempt to understand the mythology and religion of other cultures; a comparative methodology using ancient Gr ...
'', with Apollo.
Excavation
Following more than a decade of widespread looting drawn by the high quality of the tomb gifts,
A. S. Murray worked there for the
British Museum
The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It documen ...
in 1894–1896. From the 1930s, excavations were continued by a joint expedition between
Claude F. A. Schaeffer Claude may refer to:
__NOTOC__ People and fictional characters
* Claude (given name), a list of people and fictional characters
* Claude (surname), a list of people
* Claude Lorrain (c. 1600–1682), French landscape painter, draughtsman and etcher ...
for the French Expedition and
Porphyrios Dikaios
Porphyrios Dikaios (Greek: Πορφύριος Δίκαιος) FSA (16 August 190423 August 1971) was a Greek Cypriot archaeologist born in Nicosia.
He studied archaeology in the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, in the British ...
on behalf of the Cyprus Department of Antiquities. Notable finds from Enkomi include
Linear C
The Cypro-Minoan syllabary (CM) is an undeciphered syllabary used on the island of Cyprus during the late Bronze Age (c. 1550–1050 BC). The term "Cypro-Minoan" was coined by Arthur Evans in 1909 based on its visual similarity to Linear A on M ...
inscriptions and the so-called "
horned god", a bronze statuette dated to the early 12th century BC, depicting a deity wearing a
horned helmet
Horned helmets were worn by many people around the world. Headpieces mounted with Horn (anatomy), animal horns or replicas were also worn from ancient times, as in the Mesolithic Star Carr. These were probably used for religious ceremony, ceremo ...
. Another well-known statue is the "ingot god", a statue wearing a horned
conical hat
Pointed hats have been a distinctive item of headgear of a wide range of cultures throughout history. Although often suggesting an ancient Indo-European tradition, they were also traditionally worn by women of Lapland, the Japanese, the Mi'kmaq ...
and greaves, armed with shield and spear, and standing on a miniature
hide-shaped ingot.
A decorated metal cup, the "Enkomi Cup" has been controversially claimed to use
niello decoration, which would make it one of the earliest uses of this technique. However, controversy has continued since the 1960s as to whether the material used actually is niello.
[ Maryon, Herbert, ''Metalwork and Enamelling'', p. 161, 1971 (5th ed.). Dover, New York, ]
google books
Enkomi Bowl
/ref>
Notes
Literature
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External links
Enkomi on the Department of Antiquities' website
{{Authority control
Bronze Age Cyprus
Cities in ancient Cyprus
Archaeological sites in Cyprus
Communities in Famagusta District
Populated places in Gazimağusa District
Greek Cypriot villages depopulated during the 1974 Turkish invasion of Cyprus
Late Bronze Age collapse