Enkomi
Έγκωμη (Greek) Tuzla (Turkish)
Enkomi Enkomi in Cyprus.
Coordinates: 35°9′30″N 33°53′28″E / 35.15833°N 33.89111°E / 35.15833; 33.89111Coordinates: 35°9′30″N 33°53′28″E / 35.15833°N 33.89111°E / 35.15833; 33.89111
Country	De jure  Cyprus De facto  Northern Cyprus
District	Famagusta District
Time zone	EET

This article is about the town and ancient settlement near Famagusta. For the suburb of Nicosia , see: Engomi.

Enkomi (Greek: Έγκωμη, Turkish: Tuzla) is a village near Famagusta on Cyprus. It is the site of an important Bronze Age city, possibly the capital of Alasiya. The name Tuzla means "salty" in Turkish, the name it took on after the Turkish Cypriot inhabitants of old-Tuzla (a suburb west of Larnaca, next to the largest salt lake on the island) settled in the village after August 1974.

The village, as at 1974, had in the vicinity of 800 Greek Cypriot inhabitants who had all fled to the south of the island after Turkey's intervention in the aftermath of the July coup. Turkish settlements are illegal under the municipal law of Cyprus.^[1] Judge Loukēs G. Loukaidēs claims that such settlements are also illegal under international law and the Permanent Court of International Justice stated that repartition of Turkish settlers must take place to eliminate consequences of the "illegal act" of settlement.^[1]

History [link]

Enkomi was settled in the Middle Bronze Age, near an inlet of the sea, now silted to form a plain. 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 resolves in the official publications^[2] in four major phases, with many subdivisions. The four phases comprise Level A, a poorly represented preliminary stratum on bedrock; Level I, at the beginning of the Late Bronze Age, when fortifications were twice destroyed; Level II, with many subdivisions, covering the elaborate expansion of the 14th and 13th centuries and ending in a mass destruction about 1220; Level III, with Mycenaean settlers, with a destructive attack often related to the Sea Peoples 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, there are other towns along the south coast of Cyprus to compete with Enkomi. After an earthquake ca. 1050 BC, the site was abandoned, leaving an opening for the rise of Salamis.

Alasia [link]

René Dussaud demonstrated for most scholars that Enkomi is the Alasia of the Amarna correspondence and other texts,^[3] 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, Joseph Offord, working from the known to the unknown, suggested that Apollo Alasiotas was a Syrian god identical with Resheph, transported to Cyprus,^[4] and some modern scholars remain unconvinced.^[5] The bronze statuette of a horned god (illustration) may represent this divinity whom Greeks identified, by interpretatio graeca, with Apollo.

Excavation [link]

Following more than a decade of widespread looting drawn by the high quality of the tomb gifts, the site was excavated by A. S. Murray for the British Museum from 1896. From the 1930s, excavations were continued by Claude F. A. Schaeffer for the Swedish Cyprus Expedition.

The bronze "Horned God" from Enkomi

Notable finds from Enkomi include Linear C inscriptions and the so-called "horned god",^[6] a bronze statuette dated to the early 12th century BC, depicting a deity wearing a horned helmet. Another well-known statue is the "ingot god", a statue wearing a horned conical hat and greaves, armed with shield and spear, and standing on a miniature hide-shaped ingot.

The bronze "Ingot God" from Enkomi, 12th century BC, Cyprus Archaeological Museum, Nicosia

Photos [link]

Apollo Cereates/Απόλλων Κερεάτης

Notes [link]

Literature [link]

• Murray, A. S. (1900). "Excavations at Enkomi". In Murray, A. S.; Smith, A. H.; Walters, H. B. (eds.). Excavations in Cyprus. London: British Museum. 
• Peltenburg, E. J. (1999). "From isolation to state formation in Cyprus: ca. 3500–1500 BC". In Karageorghis, Vassos; Michalides, D. (eds.). The development of the Cypriot economy from the prehistoric period to the present day. Nikosia. pp. 17–43. 
• Schaeffer, Claude F. A. (1949). Nouvelles découvertes à Enkomi (Chypre). Paris: Académie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres. 
• Schaeffer, Claude F. A. (1952). Enkomi-Alasia I. Paris. 

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