CLASSICAL ARCHKOLOGY 229 



many indications may be found of the early life, history, and institu- 

 tions of the Spartans, and perhaps of their predecessors. Long ago 

 C. O. Midler suggested that the real home of the Pelopids was to be 

 sought at Amyclae rather than at Mycenae, and not a few indications 

 point to this conclusion. Near Amyclae have been found golden 

 cups, ornamented with scenes of the bull hunt, in " Mycenaean" 

 style, of an advanced type of art. Since the Cretan excavations 

 and the discovery of the " Mycenaean " culture there, archeologists 

 are eager to ascertain where this civilization was developed. On the 

 discovery of the palace at Cnossus, many were disposed to regard 

 this as the chief center of the " Mycenaean " art and life, but now 

 some archeologists are disposed to turn their eyes back to Greece 

 as the original home of this civilization, and since Argolis has been 

 explored — at Mycenae and Tiryns — the chief new light for this 

 question, from Greece proper, must be expected from the region of 

 Amyclae. 



Elis was the chief town of Western Peloponnesus, and almost 

 nothing has been done as yet to explore its site. This name has 

 come first to the lips of two or three archeologists when they were 

 questioned as to the opportunities for excavation in Greece. 



The very name of Minoa, at the harbor of Megara, reminds one 

 of Minos and Crete and the Phoenicians. A recent ingenious writer 

 counts this as the beginning of a Phoenician trade route through 

 Boeotia, and, though we may not believe the Phoenicians to have 

 had so strong a footing in Hellas as Berard's theory implies, this 

 Minoa is indicated as one of the landing points and trading ports of 

 the Phoenicians, and thus as one where remains might be found 

 which would throw light upon the early relations between the east 

 and the west. 



Thebes was the center of a large body of myths and poems. In 

 the fourth century B. C, before its destruction by Alexander the 

 Great, it had 30,000 or 40,000 inhabitants. After its restoration it 

 may have had 10,000. At present it has only some 4,000 or 5,000 

 inhabitants, and occupies but a part of the old Cadmea, and fewer 

 remains of antiquity are left above ground there even than at Sparta. 

 The excavations which have been made there seem to afford perfect 

 confirmation of the supposed myths as to the age and early influence 

 of the city. Confirmation of the story of its connection with Phoe- 

 nicia remains to be given. On the whole, I am disposed to recom- 

 mend this site for excavation rather than any other in Greece, particu- 

 larly since the railway from Athens to Thessaly, which has already 



