46 



NATURE 



[NOVEMI^ER lO. 1910 



This is an important conclusion. If we are to judge 

 by the reservoir, the early Minoan palace was prob- 

 ably a great architectural work. The "Early Minoan 

 III." architects were perhaps almost as capable as 

 their contemporaries, the Egyptian pyramid-builders 

 of the fifth and sixth dynasties. 



In the small "palace" on the hillside west of 

 Knossos further discoveries have been made, includ- 

 ing a paved way with the rut-marks of ancient Minoan 

 chariots. In this part of the site more recent re- 

 mains, of classical and Roman date, constantly are 

 found above the Minoan level; whereas in the main 

 palace, " whether owing to a superstitious awe or to 

 other causes, the hilltop . . . was never invaded by 

 later habitations." A fine metope of a Doric temple, 

 contemporarv with the Parthenon sculptures, was 

 found over the \\ estern palace. 



Mr. Doll has proceeded with the work of conserv- 

 ing^ the palace buildings, and has run the great stair- 

 case another flight higher. Also the nature and com- 

 position of the frescoes have been studied by Mr. 

 Noel Heaton. 



In the tomb-field of Isopata further important dis- 

 coveries have been made, owing to the /?aiV of 

 Gregori, Dr. Evans's Cypriote foreman, 

 " the most expert tomb-hunter of the Levant. . . . The 

 wild, long-rooted fennel, which seeks out by preference 

 the spots above ancient cuttings, served him, as often 

 before, as a guide, and the result was the discovery of 

 six chamber-tombs, some of which for their size and the 

 interest attaching to their contents and arrangement sur- 

 pass any hitherto known of this class." 



The date of the tombs is the second late Minoan 

 period, about 1450 B.C., contemporary with the 

 eighteenth dynasty of Egypt. The most remarkable 

 point about these tombs is the information as to 

 Minoan religion which they giv-e us. In one tomb, 

 where "the religious interest culminated," was found 

 an arrangement whoUv new, which " rather recalled 

 the domestic Etruscan ideas of the after-life than any- 

 thing yet known of the Minoan age." The tomb w'as 

 made to resemble a house of the living, with stone-cut 

 benches, as if for family gatherings. And at the head 

 of the sepulchral cist were found the remains of a 

 double-axe shrine, with an offering-vessel, in the shape 

 of a bull's head, lying close bv. These tomb- 

 chambers seem not to have been kept open regularly, 

 but were opened for solemn service on the anniversary 

 of the death probably. They were rifled of their 

 more valuable contents by robbers of the early 

 Iron age (geometrical period), who left behind them 

 traces by which we can identify their date. 



" It will be seen that the ' Tomb of the Double Axes ' 

 has produced more definite evidence regarding the sepul- 

 chral cult and religious ideas as to the after-world than 

 any grave yet opened in Crete or prehistoric Greece." 



Dr. Evans's comparison of the interior of the tomb 

 with that of an Etruscan grave is very apposite and 

 suggestive. This Etruscan impression has already 

 been given by the great painted sarcophagus found 

 by the Italians at Agia Triada, and it is most in- 

 teresting to see how- a relationship between the 

 Etruscan, Minoan, and Anatolian (^Hittite) cultures in 

 matters of religious cult is gradually becoming clearer 

 to us. H. R. Hall. 



l^OTES. 



The following is a list of those who have been recom- 

 mended by the president and council of the Royal Society 

 for election into the council for the year 191 1 at the 

 anniversary meeting on November 30 : — President, Sir 

 Archibald Geikie, K.C.B. ; treasurer, Mr. Alfred Bray 

 Kempe ; secretaries, Sir Joseph Larmor and Dr. John Rose 



NO. 2 141, VOL. 85] 



Bradford; foreign secretary, Sir William Crookes ; other 

 members of the council, Mr. L. Fletcher, Dr. W. H. 

 Gaskell, Sir David Gill, K.C.B., Dr. E. H. Griffiths, 

 Prof. VV. M. Hicks, Prof. ¥. S. Kipping, Major P. A. 

 MacMahon, Mr. H. R. A. Mallock, Dr. C. J. Martin,, 

 the Duke of Northumberland, K.G., Prof. W. J. Pope, 

 Prof. J. H. Poynting, Prof. E. Rutherford, Mr. A. E. 

 Shipley, Mr. M. R. Oidfield Thomas, and Mr. Ilaroirf 

 W. T. Wager. 



TiiK Royal Society's medals have this year been adjudi- 

 cated by the president and council as follows : — The Coplev 

 medal to Sir Francis Galton, F.R.S., for his researches on 

 heredity ; the Rumford medal to Prof. Heinrich Rubens, for 

 his researches on radiation, especially of long wave-length ^ 

 a Royal medal to Prof. Frederick O. Bower, F.R.S., for 

 his treatise on the origin of a land flora ; a Royal medal 

 to Prof. John Joly, F.R.S., for his researches in physics 

 and geology ; the Davy medal to Prof. Theodore W. 

 Richards, for his researches on the determination of 

 atomic weights ; the Darwin medal to Mr. Roland Trimen, 

 F.R.S., for his South African bionomic researches, in large 

 part undertaken as the outcome of correspondence with 

 Charles Darwin ; the Sylvester medal to Dr. Henry F. 

 Baker, F.R.S., for his researches in the theory of Abelian 

 functions and for his edition of Sylvester's " Collected 

 Works " ; the Hughes medal to Prof. John A. Fleming, 

 F.R.S., for his researches in electricity and electrical 

 measurements. The King has been graciously pleased to 

 approve of the award of the Royal medals. 



.'\t the meeting of the Royal Society of Edinburgh held 

 on November 7, the following honorary fellows were i 

 elected : — British : Prof. J. G. Frazer, Sir Joseph Larmor, ; 

 F.R.S., Dr. Alfred Russel W^allace, O.M., F.R.S. 

 Foreign: Prof. Hugo de Vries, Amsterdam; Mr. F. A», 

 Forel, Morgos ; Prof. Karl F. von Goebel, Munich ; Prof. 

 J. C. Kepteyn, Groningen ; Prof. Elie Metchnikoflf, Paris; 

 Prof. A. A. Michelson. F.R.S. , Chicago; Prof. W. Ostwald, 

 Leipzig ; Prof. F. W. Putnam, Harvard University ; and^ 

 Prof. A. F. L. W'eismann, Freiburg (Baden). 



It is reported from Stockholm that the Academy of j 

 Sciences has decided to award this year's Nobel prize for ] 

 physics to Prof. J. D. van der Waals, of Amsterdam, for] 

 his work on gases and liquids. 



We regret to see the announcement of the death of Mr. 

 Theodore Cooke, for many years principal of the Poon» • 

 College of Science, at seventy-four years of age. 



A Reuter telegiam from Wellington, New Zealand, 

 states that Mr. Priestly, who accompanied Sir Ernest. 

 Shackleton, as geologist, on his .Antarctic expedition, is! 

 going out with Captain .Scott in the place of Mr. Thomp-i 

 son, who is ill. 



The date of the annual exhibition held by the Physical^ 

 Society of London, which was fixed some time ago for; 

 December 13, has been altered to Tuesday, December 20. 

 The exhibition will be open in the afternoon as well as \n\ 

 the evening. 



The annual Huxley memorial lecture of the Royal 

 Anthropological Institute will be delivered on Tuesday, 

 November 22, at the theatre of the Civil Service Com- 

 mission, Burlington Gardens, W., by Prof. W. Boyd 

 Dawkins, F.R.S., whose subject will be " The .A^rrival of 

 Man in Britain in the Pleistocene Age." 



Mrs. Tyndall has presented to the Royal Institution two 

 Nicol's prisms, constructed for the lectures on light givea.j 

 by Dr. Tyndall in America in 1872, and used by him sub-i 



