272 



NATURE 



[December 29, 1910 



EXCAVATIONS IN CRETE.' 



SWIMMING in the blue sea of the Gulf of Mirabello 

 (well so named!), on the north coast of Crete, is 

 a solitary isle, the name of which is beautiful in its 

 Greek shape of Pseira, but by no means so lovely 



Photo.] 



Fig. I. — Pseira, from Kavou i. 



when translated into English, for -^eipa means 

 " louse." The polite geog'rapher Kiepert has in his 

 map turned " Pseira " into " Psyra " (which is so 

 much nicer), but Pseira, Lausinsel, is its name. 



Seen from the west it reminds one 

 of the Bass, but from the heights of 

 the bridle-path leading over the cliffs 

 from Kavousi to Tourloti, we see how- 

 low and insignificant it really is in 

 comparison with the coast-hills ; it 

 looks little more than a long, low- 

 shoal. It is barren, and waterless, 

 and no man lives there ; only a few- 

 goats derive a precarious subsistence 

 from the scrubby herbage which 

 covers a portion of it ; the rest is bare 

 rock. Yet this unpromising place 

 was the site, three thousand years 

 ago, of a flourishing settlement of 

 men, in which wealth existed and art 

 was fostered. 



Readers of Nature will remember 

 that some years ago Miss Boyd (the 

 present Mrs. Hawes) excavated for 

 the University of Pennsylvania an 

 ancient Cretan tow-n on the spot 

 which bears the name of Goiirnia, on 

 the mainland not far from Pseira ; 

 articles describing her work . have 

 appeared more than once in these 

 columns. With her was working 

 a young American archaeologist, Mr. 

 Richard B. Seager, who, after the 

 close of the work at Gournia, ex- 

 cavated a settlement at Vasiliki, on the isthmus of 

 Hierapetra, half-way between Gournia and Kavousi, 



^ "Excavations on the Island of Pseira, Crete." By Richard R. Seager. 

 (University of Pennsylvania ; the Museum ; Anthropological Publications, 

 vol. iii., No. I.) Pp. 38 + 19 figures+9 plates. (Philadelphia: Tne Uni- 

 versity Museum, 1910.) 



which is opposite Pseira. The results of his work ;it 

 Vasiliki were reviewed in Nature of September (>, 

 1906. His next essay was the exploration of Pseira, 

 where certain indications seemed to promise success 

 in digging. Nor were these expectations dis- 

 appointed. On the small tongue of land which 

 forms the eastern side of the tinv cove 

 which is the harbour of Pseira (a 

 haven just large enough to hold a 

 couple of caiques), were discovered the 

 remains of an ancient town, with 

 streets of houses descending steeply to 

 the sea. It was a tiny place, though 

 when it was made it was bigger than 

 it seems now, for the land has sunk 

 everywhere along this coast since the 

 old Minoan times, and now the waves 

 wash into the houses. All the ancient 

 Cretan towns of the Bronze age seem 

 to have been small, as was Gourni^, 

 judging by our standards, with nar-. 

 row streets, some five feet broad at 

 most, and cramped houses with tiny 

 rooms. 



But their small size was not the 

 result of small ideas or lack of cul- 

 ture. In the ruined houses of these 

 ancient towns have been found 

 treasures of ancient art, of that most 

 ancient art of Greece, the art of the 

 Heroic age, which is older by a 

 thousand years than the " Greek art " 

 of the schools. And waterless, barren 

 little Pseira has yielded objects of art 

 finer than most of those found at Gourni^, and hardly 

 inferior to many of those discovered by Dr. Evans at 

 Knossos (though, of course, in much less number). 

 We mav instance the relief fresco of the lady or 



[R. B. Seager. 



Photo. J 



yti. A'. Hail. 



Fig. z. — The ancient town of Pseira, showing the excavations. 



goddess published in plate v., and the vases in Fig. 

 and plate vii., of Mr. Seager 's report on his excav.i- 

 tions, which lies before us. 



A cursory glance at these and the other illustratii 

 of the report shows us that at Pseira the best trn 

 tions of Knossian art were followed, and it is evident 



NO. 2148, VOL. 85] 



