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Cahier du Centre d'Études Chypriotes 33, 2003

ENKOMI: THE NOTEBOOK IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM

Veronica TATTON-Brown

Enkomi is the name of the modern village west of which the ancient site was located at a place called Ayios Iakovos. It was an area that attracted many clandestine explorers and excavators in the earlier nineteenth century, but in 1877-8 Major Alexander Palma di Cesnola discovered some tombs and explored them, though not in any scientific way.1 In December 1881 a large Roman tomb was excavated by the Cyprus Museum near Enkomi village.2 The 1896 excavations, funded by a bequest to the Trustees of the British Museum by Miss Emma Tourner Turner in 1892, were carried out on the site of Enkomi by members of the British Museum and others. Mr A.S. Murray, Keeper of Greek and Roman Antiquities at the British Museum, led the excavations from the end of March until the early part of May 1896. From May to July, Mr Percy Christian, a Cypriot resident, was in charge and finally from July to September Mr A.H. Smith, an assistant in the Department, was the overseer.3 They discovered tombs which contained ivory, gold, Cypro-Minoan inscriptions and many Mycenaean vases,4 but also some later material.5