ARCHEOLOGY. (EGYPTIAN.) 



31 



on the highest point of the knoll. While almost 

 everything in precious metal has vanished from 

 these buildings, numerous weapons, tools, and ves- 

 sels of bronze remain in them. Among the 

 many clay vessels are complete specimens of types 

 previously inferred from fragments only; and 

 among the chambers is one the objects and sym- 

 bols in which indicate that it was a small shrine. 



Miss Boyd has given an account before the 

 Archeological Institute of America of her explora- 

 tion in May, 1900, of the site of Kavousi, on the 

 lower end of the narrow isthmus that connects 

 Sitia with the coast of Crete. The discoveries, 

 made on spots bearing characteristic names, are a 

 chieftain's house of thirteen rooms, with a ne- 

 cropolis of small tholos tombs in the neighbor- 

 hood; the walls, visible above the ground, of a 

 building called the citadel; a beehive tomb; and 

 a group of three sets of walls representing three 

 periods of construction. The articles found in 

 these ruins consisted mostly of domestic utensils, 

 pottery with designs in the geometrical style, 

 and animal figures in terra cotta. A thin bronze 

 plate was found in the beehive tomb, engraved in 

 a well-executed design of Oriental motive and 

 Grecian style. The field of the design was divided 

 into bands after the Oriental fashion, and filled 

 with sphinxes having back-turned helmeted 

 heads, griffins with outstretched necks, and a re- 

 curring combination of a man with one or two 

 lions rampant. Individual expression was given 

 to each figure. 



At Zakro, Mr. Hogarth found remains, though 

 not in large quantity, which he characterizes as 

 illustrating all the immense interval between the 

 1'eolithic and Hellenic ages. While most of the 

 remains in the plain of Lower Zakro belong to 

 the close of the Mycenaean age, discarded ves- 

 sels in clay and stone belonging to a previous 

 epoch were found filling a pit in the limestone 

 rock. Vases in a delicate painted fabric of the 

 same type as the " Kamares " ware of mid-Crete 

 occurred here. The caves about the plain had 

 been used for sepulture in an age verging on the 

 Neolithic. The native objects from all these 

 sources were mixed with elements of outside 

 origin, "parallel to things Cypriote and Egyp- 

 tian." The houses of the town, with party walls 

 of brick, but true Cyclopean outer walls, were of 

 great size, one containing more than 20 cham- 

 bers, and yielding more than 70 vases, besides 

 many fragments and objects in silver, bronze, and 

 stone. In one building, which belonged to a large 

 group of connected blocks, were found two in- 

 scribed tablets in primitive script, a deposit of 

 bronze implements and vases, and hundreds of im- 

 pressions of lost signets, lying in a heap as if 

 once contained in a box, and representing 150 

 separate types so well preserved that it has been 

 possible to take casts of them for study in Eng- 

 land. 



The general result of east Cretan exploration 

 thus far is summarized by Mr. Hogarth as seem- 

 ing likely to establish the fact that the Pan- 

 ^Egean civilization which it is agreed to call 

 Mycenaean was foreign in that part of the island; 

 and that the native civilization, existing before 

 and coincident with it, was much ruder, and per- 

 haps of a different character from that of mid- 

 Crete. 



Egyptian. The continued excavations at 

 Abydos among the tombs of the first Egyptian 

 dynasties during the winter of 1900-1901 yielded 

 results of no less interest than those of the pre- 

 vious year; and in March Prof. Petrie could 

 say that " we are now able to trace out the 

 regular development of the civilization during 



some four hundred years, from the time when 

 writing was but rarely used, and then only in a 

 rude and pictorial stage, down to the common use 

 of delicately figured hieroglyphics, indistinguish- 

 able from those in use for thousands of years 

 later. We have now in our hands the beautifully 

 wrought jewelry and gold work, the minutely en- 

 graved ivories, the toilet objects of Menes, the 

 founder of the monarchy, and his successor, fash- 

 ioned more than sixty-five hundred years ago." 

 Nearly thirty inscriptions and labels of Menes 

 arid his predecessors in stone and ivory had been 

 recovered, from which were certainly learned the 

 names of three kings Narmer, Ka, and a name 

 written with a fish sign. Among the works of 

 Menes were parts of four ebony tablets with fig- 

 ures and inscriptions, one apparently showing a 

 human sacrifice, and a massive strip of gold of 

 unknown use, with the name of Menes (Aha) 

 upon it. The forearm of the queen of Zer, the suc- 



FALSE FKINGE AND PLAITED LOCKS, 

 FROM THE TOMB OF ZEB. 



cessor of Menes, had been broken off by the first 

 plunderers of the tomb and laid in a hole in the 

 wall; and was found still in its wrappings, with 

 four splendid bracelets intact. One of these brace- 

 lets consisted of a series of figures of the royal 

 hawk perched on the tomb, 13 figures in chased 

 gold alternating with 14 carved in turquoise. The 

 second bracelet was of spiral beads of gold and 

 lazuli in three groups. The third bracelet was of 

 four groups of hourglass beads, amethyst be- 

 tween gold, with connections of gold and tur- 

 quoise. The fourth had a center piece of gold 

 copied from the rosette seed of a plant, with 

 amethyst and turquoise beads and bands of 

 braided gold wire. "This brilliant and exqui- 

 sitely finished group of jewelry," says Prof. Petrie^ 

 " shows what a high level was already attained at 

 the beginning of the first dynasty. It is two- 

 thousand years older than the jewelry of Dashur, 

 the oldest yet known, and it has the great advan- 

 tage of being carefully examined as found, and 

 restrung in its exact arrangement," Forty in- 

 scribed pieces of ivory and stone, and two lions 

 carved in ivory, of King Zer, were found ; also the 

 great royal tombstone was recovered in pieces and 

 rejoined. About 60 private tombstones gave the 

 names in use in the royal household, "many 

 formed from the goddess Neith, but not one from 

 Isis." A dozen inscribed ivories of King Den, the 

 fifth of the first dynasty, were found, including^ 

 the handle of the royal measuring cord. Also an 

 impress of a beautiful royal seal, showing the 



