27 o CRETAN ARCHAEOLOGY 



thrown by the miniature frescoes on the plan of a shrine in the central court has been 

 published by Sir Arthur Evans in vol. xviii of the Journal of the Royal Institute 

 of British Architects, third series, pp. 289-95, an d a general study of Minoan Lime 

 Plaster and Fresco Painting by Mr. Noel Heaton in the same vol. pp. 697-710. 



At Tylissus, on a high plateau about eight miles west of Cnossus and four miles 

 from the sea, Dr. Hatzidakis, the senior Ephor of Antiquities in Crete, has continued 

 in three successive seasons the work which he began in 1909. The site proves to 

 contain, not, as was first suggested, a small palace with dependencies round it, but three 

 large noblemen's houses, which lie close together, and are of the same date, but, in the 

 excavator's opinion, are separate unconnected buildings. They may have been built 

 in Middle Minoan III., as they contain pithoi that were commonest at that period, 

 but they were in occupation throughout Late Minoan I. and II. Below them are 

 traces of an Early Minoan settlement, and above them of Late Minoan III. buildings. 

 Of special architectural interest are two rooms, each with two free-standing pillars, 

 like those in the Little Palace at Cnossus; some double axes incised on outer walls; 

 and a great cistern about 10 feet in diameter and 13 in depth, with a narrow stone 

 staircase leading down into it. The most noteworthy of individual finds are a bronze 

 figurine of a square-set male figure 8 inches high with the right hand raised to the 

 forehead in a gesture of adoration and a kilt in the manner of the Petsofa figurines 

 (Annual of British School at Athens, ix, pp. 363-4 and PI. X) but more capacious; 

 a beautifully worked filler (or strainer) of obsidian, about 9 inches high; fragments of 

 miniature frescoes; a bronze ingot like those from Hagia Triada; four magnificent 

 bronze cauldrons with three vertical handles, the largest of them four feet in diameter 

 and 1 8 inches high; and a clay tablet of the earlier form of the linear script of Cnossus, 

 showing not the familiar two-wheeled chariot, but a four-wheeled waggon. 



These excavations had not been published up to the end of 1912, and the above 

 description is due to the kindness of Dr. Hatzidakis, supplementing a personal visit. 



At Hagia Triada on the south coast near Phaestus Professor Halbherr of the Italian 

 Mission has conducted excavations in 1910, 1911 and 1912. He has proved that so 

 far from the site containing only a " Royal Villa," as was first held, the Villa or Palace 

 was only the centre of a town. Traces of this have been found dating from the Middle 

 Minoan age, and some buildings of this date were incorporated in the Late Minoan I. 

 Palace. Throughout the latter period both palace and town were prosperous, but 

 at the end of it both were destroyed. The extensive remodelling which we find on 

 the site of both palace and town took place at a date which Prof. Halbherr places in 

 Late Minoan III., though it may be remarked that it would have to be very early 

 in that period. Of the same date is the remarkable " Agora " northeast of the Palace 

 and below it, a large space about 50 yards long, with 8 long chambers, each about 17 

 feet long by 13 feet broad, opening out from one side of it. The staircases that led to 

 an upper storey still exist, and also the bases of 8 pilasters, about 2 feet nine inches 

 square, running down the length of the Agora; while between them, opposite the 

 doorways of each chamber, have been discovered foundations of the bases of small 

 round columns. There can be no doubt that these are the remains of a covered por- 

 tico, the second storey of which rested on these alternate columns and pilasters and 

 was reached at either end by the stairways. We seem to have here a covered market 

 place, a portico with shops leading out of it like the famous Laura, or Arcade, of classi- 

 cal times at Samos. On the high ground south of the palace, Prof. Halbherr has found 

 what seems to have been a small sanctuary, with a bench or dais like that of the shrine 

 of the Double Axes at Cnossus (Annual of British School at Athens, viii, pp. 95-105). 

 A short notice of some of these excavations appeared in Ausonia 1910, p. 36, but the 

 above description is mainly due to a personal visit and further details kindly given 

 by Prof. Halbherr. 



In the east of Crete Mr. R. B. Seager, the American explorer, has been conducting 

 several small excavations near his headquarters at Pachyammos. At Sphongara, a 

 few hundred yards from the town of Gournia, and between it and the sea, he discovered 



