272 AEGEAN CIVILISATION 



variety of the native Boeotian " Minyan "ware. An L.M. Ill settlement with large 

 painted jars has been found at Pylos, and similar ware has been- recovered by the British 

 School from the site of the Menelaum at Sparta. L.M. Ill graves have been opened on 

 Aegina and similar graves at Thebes by Keramopoulos, together with remains of a 

 building at the last named with frescoes which the discoverer regards as the " House of 

 Cadmus." In the uppermost prehistoric level on several Thessalian sites .Wace, Thomp- 

 son and Tsoundas have found L.M. Ill ware. In Asia Minor, Wiegand has found a 

 neolithic settlement at Kiliktepe near Miletus, and many L.M. Ill sherds under later 

 remains on the city site, especially near the shrine at Athena. Macalister, who had 

 found both L.M. Ill and Cypriote ware, etc., in considerable bulk .at Gezer (Philistia). 

 in Syria, has: now published his results. There is nothing new of importance from 

 Cyprus, but vessels either of Aegean make or of Egyptian imitation (mostly L.M.) have 

 continued to be found in Egypt as far south as Thebes. 



So far as concerns Crete, the general results of these fresh discoveries and of the 

 new study and new publications may thus be summarised, (i) More abundant and 

 varied material for judging E.M. civilisation, which is now seen to have been more 

 advanced, and nearer to M.M. brilliance than was supposed, in several arts, metallurgy, 

 plastic (stone vases) and ceramic; very early trade connections with Egypt and Aegean 

 isles (probably Cyprus also) are demonstrated. (2) Clearer knowledge of the course of 

 Minoan history, beginning with local independent foti of civilisation. in the centre and 

 east, on which followed successive imperial dominations of Phaestus and Cnossus, the 

 first in M.M. II, the latter in L.M. II. Each of these, at its acme, reduced the E. 

 Crete foci to a low ebb, but they revived during L.M. I between the two imperial periods. 

 (3) Surer chronology. The recent tendency of authorities is to protract the Minoan 

 Age to about uoo B.C. and to bring down also the first destruction of Cnossus and the 

 other Minoan towns far into the i4th century. The coincidence of M;.M. II with 

 Egyptian Dyn. XII stands, but the later date (2000-1800 B.C.) is preferred. (4) In- 

 creased knowledge of the Dispersion period (L.M. Ill) in which Cretan civilisation spread 

 to Asia Minor and through Cyprus as far as South Syria on the one hand, and to Sicily, 

 Italy and North Greece on the other; but the chief radiating centre was on the South 

 Greek mainland. (5) Fuller evidence for funerary practices, and better knowledge of 

 the origin and earlier development of the Cretan script, the last thanks to publication 

 of Evans' Scripta Minoa I. Outside Crete, discoveries at Tiryns confirm the belief that 

 " Mycenaean " culture, like that of Phylakopi from the Middle Cycladic Age onwards, 

 was due in the main to Minoan Crete; while the excavations in_Laconia, Boeotia and 

 Thessaly show that Aegean influence pervaded all Greece up to Thermopylae in L.M. II 

 and III times, but only reached Thessaly late and never greatly affected an indigenous 

 civilisation long established there. Boeotia had also a pre-Mycenaean art, which gave 

 way to Aegean influence earlier and more considerably. The chief lesson from Miletus 

 is that the site had none but few and rude inhabitants till settled from Crete in the 

 Dispersion period (L.M. Ill) ; while Gezer has strengthened the hands of those who have 

 maintained that mid and south Syria owed far more to Cyprus and Crete than these 

 islands owed to Syria. Doubts have been raised about the hitherto accepted identifica- 

 tions of the Minoan Cretans with the " Keftiu," and about the supposed early relations 

 of Crete with Egypt; and no clearer light than before has been thrown on the racial 

 character or linguistic affinities of the Aegean peoples, or on the links which connected 

 their civilisation with the archaic Greek. 



See R. M. Burrows, The Discoveries in Crete, 3d ed. (1912) revised and illustrated. C. H. 

 & H. B. Hawes, Crete the Forerunner of Greece, 1909. R. B. Seager, Pseira, 1910; and Mokhlos, 

 1912. A. J. Evans, $cripta Minoa I, 1909; and Atlas of Cnossian paintings. D. Fimmen, 

 Zeit und Dauer der Kretisch-Mykenischen Kullur, 1909. E. Reisinger, Kretische Vasenmalerei, 

 1912. A. Mosso, The Dawn of Mediterranean Civilisation, 1910. A. J. B. Wace and M. S. 

 Thompson, Prehistoric Thessaly, 1912. A. Frickenhaus, W. Miiller and F. Oelmann, Tiryns, 

 I, 1912. Ephemeris Arch, since 1909 (minor excavations in Greece and Crete). R. A. S. 

 Macalister, Cezer, 3 vols., 1912. R. M. Dawkins and J. P. Droop, Excavations at Phylakopi 

 in Melos, 1911, in Ann. Brit. Sch. at Athens, xvii. D. G. Hogarth, Ionia and the East, 

 1909- (D. G. HOGARTH.) 



