The study of Cypriot Late Bronze Age (LBA) writing had reached one of its apogees in the summer of 1939, when Joan du Plat Taylor undertook excavations at Apliki Karamallos. Publication of the Swedish Cyprus Expedition's reports and new discoveries by Schaeffer at Enkomi and the Americans at Kourion Bamboula had shrugged off the mantle of dormancy imposed by the first World War; by the mid '30's, scholarship on the origins and uses of writing on LBA Cyprus was in full swing. Evans (1935), Persson (1932 and 1937), and Schaeffer (1936) published important studies, and Casson (1937 and 1939) and Daniel (1941) produced major treatises. Actual inscriptions known at the time were few—a handful of marble-sized clay balls, perhaps ten cylinder seals, a gold ring, a silver bowl, a bronze plaque, and perhaps two dozen vases or fragments of vases, all with very brief texts (2-8 signs).