560 EXCAVATIONS AT GOURNIA, CRETE. 



The great palaces at Knossos and Phaestos complete each other 

 architecturally, the former giving an elevation of three or even fonr 

 stories, the latter furnishing a ground plan " simple and grandiose," 

 as it has been called by Mr. Evans. In both we see the houses of 

 rich princes who loved luxur}^, who patronized the arts of builder, 

 sculptor, and painter, and used the talents of the scribe as well. The 

 smaller finds at Knossos and Aghia Triadha by their variety and 

 number give us a fuller knowledge of this prehistoric civilization 

 than we have of many a later stage of culture, but of this, as of most 

 subjects which deserve any investigation, the more we know the 

 more we Avant to know. Palaces and tombs are not sufficient ; we 

 want also the homes of the people, for without an insight into the life 

 of " the many " we can not rightly judge the civilization of any 

 l^eriod. By a singular chance a well-preserved town, dating from 

 the earlier period of the Great Palace at Knossos (about 1800-1500 

 B. C.) and containing a large quantity of tools, pottery, and other 

 articles of daily use, has been brought to light by the excavations of 

 Americans ('* people of the great democracy," as Cretans call us) at 

 Gournia, on the north shore of the isthmus that connects the east end 

 of tlie island with the rest of Crete. It is not rash to suppose that 

 this is one of the ninety cities mentioned by Homer in the famous 

 passage of the Odyssey quoted above. 



THE ISTHMUS. 



Strabo, in Book X, Ch. lY, 3, of his Geography, describes the long, 

 narrow island of Crete, Avith its northern coast line indented by deep 

 gulfs, which at two points reduce the island to less than half its 

 average w^idth. At the Isthmus of Hierapetra, which is the eastern 

 of these two jDoints and the narrowest portion of the island, the 

 northern and southern shores lie but 60 stadia (12 kilometers, about 

 8 miles) apart. Here nature has made the communication between 

 sea and sea not only short, but easy, by leaving a narrow^ strip of 

 lowland between the mountain ranges of Dikte in Sitia and Dikte in 

 Lasithi (the legendary cradle of Zeus), a break in tlie long chain 

 that forms the backbone of Crete. East of the isthmus an almost 

 vertical rock wall of mountains hides from view the summit of 

 Aphendi Kavousi, which dominates Sitia (1,472 meters, or about 

 4,829 feet) , while across the valley to the west the land rises in more 

 gradual ascent to mountain level, and from many foothills Aphendi 

 Khristos « (2,155 meters, or about 7,070 feet), the loftiest peak of 

 Lasithi, can be seen. 



At the northeast corner of the isthmus, shut in by mountains on 

 the east and coast hills on the west, lies the plain of Kavousi. In 



Aphendi Khristos is sometimes written Effendi Christos. 



