440 ANNUAL EEPOET SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1916. 



of human deposits. But the remains of the whole of the later ages 

 represented down to the earliest Minoan period (which itself goes 

 back to a time contemporary with the early dynasties of Egypt — 

 at a moderate estimate to B. C. 3400) occupy considerably less than 

 a half — 19 feet, that is, out of a total of over 45. Such calculations 

 can have only a relative value, but, even if we assume a more rapid 

 accumulation of debris for the Neolithic strata and deduct a third 

 from our calculation, they would still occupy a space of over 3,400 

 years, giving a total antiquity of some 9,000 years from the present 

 time.^ No Neolithic section in Europe can compare in extent with 

 that of Knossos, which itself can be divided by the character of 

 its contents into an early, middle, and late phase. But its earliest 

 stratum already shows the culture in an advanced stage, with care- 

 fully ground and polished axes and finely burnished pottery. The 

 beginnings of Cretan Neolithic must go back to a still more remote 

 antiquity. 



The continuous history of the Neolithic age is carried back at 

 Knossos to an earlier epoch than is represented in the deposits of its 

 geographically related areas on the Greek and Anatolian side. But 

 sufficient materials for comparison exist to show that the Cretan 

 branch belongs to a vast province of primitive culture that extended 

 from southern Greece and the ^gean Islands throughout a wide 

 region of Asia Minor and probably still further afield. 



An interesting characteristic is the appearance in the Knossian 

 deposits of clay images of squatting female figures of a pronouncedly 

 steatopygous conformation and with hands on the breasts. These in 

 turn fit on to a large family of similar images which recur through- 

 out the above era, though elscAvhere they are generally known in their 

 somewhat developed stage, showing a tendency to be translated into 

 stone, and, finally — perhaps under extraneous influences both from 

 the north and east — taking a more extended attitude. These clearly 

 stand in a parallel relationship to a whole family of figures with the 

 organs of maternity strongly developed that characterize the Semitic 

 lands and which seem to have spread from there to Sumeria and to 

 the seats of the Anau culture. 



At the same time this steatopygous family, which in other parts 

 of the Mediterranean Basin ranges from prehistoric Egypt and Malta 

 to the north of mainland Greece, calls up suggestive reminiscences of 

 the similar images of Aurignacian man. It is especially interesting 

 to note that in Crete, as in the Anatolian region where these primitive 

 images occur, the worship of a mother goddess predominated in later 

 times, generally associated with a divine child — a worship which 



1 For a fuller statement I must refer to my forthcoming work, " The Nine Minoaa 

 Periods" (Macmillans), Vol. I: Neolithic section. 



