2 28 CARNEGIE INSTITUTION 



best example yet known of a "Mycenaean" village, with town 

 chief's house, but no palace ; and with a town shrine, the first such 

 to be known of this period, though at Cnossus earlier and later 

 shrines have been fonnd in the palace. At Palaeocastro, near the 

 eastern end of the island, Mr. Bosanquet and his associates have a 

 Mycenaean town larger than Gurnia, but of no great splendor, though 

 with very delicate and beautiful pottery. The cave of Dictaean Zeus 

 has been explored by Mr. Hogarth. Less important excavations, 

 like those at Zakro and Praesus, may be passed over here. 



Opportunities in Greece. 



Although excavations have already been made on the most noted 

 sites and those which promised the surest and richest rewards for 

 investigation, yet in Greece, too, interesting, important, and promis- 

 ing sites remain almost entirely unexplored. I would name Thebes, 

 the Miuoan promontory of Megara, Eiis, Sparta (including Amyclae), 

 Gythion (the port of Sparta), and Samikon (near Olympia, on the 

 west coast of Peloponnesus). I will write of these briefly in reverse 

 order. 



Samikon is thought by some to have been the western terminus of 

 a " trade route " through Peloponnesus, from Gythion on the east, a 

 thousand years or so before the beginning of our era. Excellent 

 "polygonal" walls lie on it, and no excavations have been made 

 there. Satisfactory trial excavations might be made for $1,000, in 

 my opinion. 



Gythion was not only the port for Sparta, but also the port for 

 Amyclae, the older capital of the Eurotas valley ; and if ever a 

 " trade route " crossed Peloponnesus, this must have been the great 

 eastern terminus, whatever was the western. This site is urged for 

 excavation not only by classical archeologists, but also by Mr. 

 Flinders Petrie, who hopes that there will be found objects which 

 will throw light on the relations between Greece and Egypt in 

 early times. Eittle has been done in the way of excavations at 

 Sparta, partly, no doubt, because of the improbability of finding 

 great ruins. Thucydides says that in ages long after him men will 

 hardly be ready to believe the former power of Sparta, while they 

 will exaggerate that of Athens, judging from the ruins in each case. 

 No one can hope to find a Parthenon or Erechtheum there, and no 

 walls ever existed to be traced now, and no such mass of inscrip- 

 tions as have been found at Athens was ever known in Sparta ; but 



