EXCAVATIOiSrS Af GOURNTA, CRETE. 565 



the course of dio:<2:ing by workmen who, following the roads, came 

 upon their thresholds. The upper parts of the houses had fallen long 

 ago, covering the hill with their ruins. On the top of the hill, where 

 denudation is constant, there was but a scant covering of earth over 

 the native rock; here some of the best objects of bronze and terra 

 cotta were found within 50 centimeters of the surface, and, indeed, at 

 certain spots, which we now know to have been within dwellings, the 

 native rock la}^ bare. On the sides of the hill where earth accumu- 

 lates we were often obliged to dig 4 or 5 meters before reaching virgin 

 soil, live rock, beaten floor, or stone paving, as the case might be. 



Excavations have been carried on at Gournia through two cam- 

 paigns, May 20 to July 2, 1901, and March 30 to June 6, 11)03, with a 

 force of 100 to 110 workmen and about a dozen girls who wash pot- 

 sherds. Unfortunately, Miss A^Hieeler could not leave America in 

 1903 to give her efficient aid toward the accomplishment of the work 

 which we had started and planned together; but I was ablv assisted 

 in the second season by Mr. Richard B. Seager, who took special 

 charge of the pottery as well as helping in the field. Miss Moffat, of 

 Northampton, Mass., left a Paris studio to accompany the second 

 year's expedition, and has made for the American Exploration Society 

 a series of excellent colored drawings of some of the better vases and 

 scores of drawings to scale of the commoner pottery, saving thereby 

 many shapes which, through the inferiority of the common clay, would 

 have been lost. I consider these drawings and others executed for us 

 by the Danish artist, M. Bagge, among the most important contribu- 

 tions which have been made to archeology by our expedition. 



The brief survey of results to be given here is strictly provisional, 

 and will, I hope, be superseded by a more careful study of the work 

 when the excavations at (xournia shall have been completed. 



THE TOWN AND ITS BUILDINGS. 



The sketch plan reproduced in the accompanying illustration, 

 begun in 1901 by Mr. P'yfe, of Glasgow, architect for Mr. Evans at 

 Knossos, and finished by me in 1903, with the help of Mr. Harold 

 Hastings, gives a better idea of the town than words can. As the 

 squares measure 20 meters on a side, the entire area cleared may be 

 roughly computed as 2 acres, the to]) of the acropolis as about 1 acre, 

 and the palace as one-third of an acre. Thirty-six houses and parts 

 of several others are uncovered. 



The roads of Gournia have an average width of about l.GO meters 

 and are paved with stones which seem to have been chosen from 

 near the sea, and which, worn first by the sea and then by the passing 

 of many feet, present a fairly smooth surface. They are laid with 

 care, not actually fitting, but leaving no such ruts and holes as are 



