EXCAVATIONS AT GOURNIA, CRETE." 



By Harriet A. Boyd.'' 



INTRODUCTION. 



' There is a laurt called Crete in the midst of the wine-dark sea, a 

 fair land and a rich. l)e.i:irt with water, and therein are many men 

 innumerable, and ninety cities. — Odyssey, xix, 172. Butcher and 

 Lang's Translation. 



The high expectations which schohirs held of the good that woidd 

 come to archeology through systeinatic excavations in Crete have 

 not been disappointed. It is still too early to estimate the full value 

 of the excavations which have been made Iw the British at Knossos,*' 

 Psychro,'* Praesos,'' Zakro/ and Palaiokastro/ by the Italians at 

 Phaestos ^ and Aghia Triadha,'' and by the American Exploration 

 Society at Goiirnia. Enough has been unearthed, however, in the 

 last four 3'ears to revolutionize our ideas of the state of culture 

 attained by the Cretans of the '' golden age '"' during the third and 

 second millenniums B. C, and to lay surer foundations for the study 

 of European. civilization than ever before existed. Further work will 

 no doul^t bring many fi'esh surprises and will throw new light on the 

 origins of Mediterranean culture. 



« Report of the American Exploration Society's Excavations at Gournla, 

 Crete, 1901-1903. 



''An abstract from transactions of the department of archeology. Cniversity 

 of Pennsylvania. Vol. I, pts. 1 and 2. 1904, printed by permission of the Amer- 

 ican Exploration Society. 



<^ See articles by JNIr. Evans on the Palace Site in British School Annual. 1899- 



1900, 1900-1901, 1901-2, 1902-3. and an article by Mr. Duncan Mackenzie on 

 the Pottery of Knossos in Journal of Hellenic Studies, 19(>3. 



^ See article by Mr. Hogarth in British School Annual, 189i)-1900. 



e See article by Mr. Bosanqiiet in British School Annual, 1901-2. 



f See article by Mr. Hogarth on Excavations in British School Annual. ICOO- 



1901, and article by Mr. Hogarth on Zakro Vases in Journal of Hellenic Studies, 

 1902. 



fi' See article by Mr. Bosanquet in British School Annual, 1901-2. 

 'i See article by Mr. Halbherr and ]Mr. Pernier in Monumenti Antichi della 

 Keale Accademia del Lincei, Vols. XII. XIII, and XIV. 



559 



