July 9, 1903] 



NATURE 



229 



ARCnJEOLOGlCAL DISCOVERIES IN CRETE 

 AND EGYPT. 



T^HE undoubtedly close connection which existed 



A between the Bronze age civilisations of Greece 

 and Egypt is now generally recognised by archae- 

 ologists. Not only was Egyptian influence on the 

 development of the ** Mycenaean " culture always very 

 marked, especially from the period of the thirteenth 

 Egyptian dynasty (b.c. 2000) to the end of the eighteenth 

 (B.C. 1400), but the most recent discoveries seem 

 to point to the unlooked-for conclusion that the two 

 chief civilisations of the Eastern Mediterranean may 

 have had a common origin, presumably in Africa. 

 Ortainly the further we go back the more striking 

 are the parallels between early Egyptian and early 

 Creek culture. It is, then, nowadays natural to group 

 together the archaeological discoveries which are being 

 made in Egypt and in Crete, which was apparently the 

 seat of the most fully developed phase of the Greek 

 civilisation of the Bronze age. 



During the present season (1903) Mr. A. J. Evans 

 and Mr. Mackenzie have pursued the investigation of 

 the great palace of Knossos in Crete, the legendary 

 seat of the Minoan dominion over land and sea. The 

 chief discoveries of the year are : — (i) a stepped 

 theatre, after the fashion of that at Phaistos, but 

 smaller and not so well preserved, lying to the west 

 of the north gate; (2) a building, perhaps a small 

 sanctuary, lying immediately north of the north gate, 

 and directly in the line of its axis ; (3) a house, lying 

 a quarter of a mile to the north-east, on the slope of 

 the hill, overlooking the stream of the Kairatos ; 

 and (4) two magnificent bronze vases,' one of them 

 closely resembling a type depicted among the offer- 

 ings of the Keftian Cretans in the tomb of Rekhmara 

 at Thebes in Egypt, circa 1550 B.C. 



The house is remarkable, and contains a room with 

 an apsidal end; it is, in fact, a sort of prototype of 

 the basilica, which is now carried back to Mycenaean 

 days ! 



What next year's excavations may bring forth it is 

 impossible to guess, but there certainly seems no end 

 to Knossos. 



The Italian excavations at the small palace of Agia j 

 Triada, near Dib^ki, in the Messar^, are proceeding j 

 under the direction of Prof. Halbherr and Drs. Pernier i 

 and Peribeni ; the finds have been important, consist- | 

 ing of fragments of stone vases decorated with reliefs 

 representing gladiatorial combats, bull-fights, and the 

 presentation of spears to departing warriors by a king, 

 and of a hoard of great talents of copper and bronze, 

 measuring each more than a foot long, which are 

 identical in type with the metal ingots brought as 

 tribute to Egypt by the Keftians. The vases are of 

 the same kind as that representing a harvest-home 

 procession, found at Agia Triada last year. 



The American and English excavations at Gournii\ 

 and Palaiokastro, under Miss Boyd and Mr. R. C. 

 Bosanquet respectively, have produced interesting re- 

 sults, especially in the domain of pottery and small 

 cult-objects, of which Palaiokastro and a hill-sanctuary 

 in its vicinity have afforded numbers of interesting 

 examples. 



Apart from the discovery of the tomb of King 

 Thothmes IV. by Mr. Carter at Thebes, and of a small 

 portrait figure of King Khufu (Cheops), the builder of 

 the Great Pyramid, by Prof. Petrie at Abydos, the most 

 interesting excavations undertaken during the past 

 season in Egypt have been those of Mr. Garstang at 

 Beni Hasan. Below the well-known- large tombs of 

 the Twelfth Dynasty nomarchs, he has discovered a 

 row of Sixth Dynasty sepulchres, and a great number of 

 " pit-tombs," of the Eleventh and early Twelfth Dynas- 

 ties. In some of these, notably in that of Nefer-i, a 

 NO. 7758. VOL. 68] 



physician, has been discovered the funeral furniture 

 intact. This, as is usually the case with burials of 

 this period, included numbers of wooden models of the 

 boats in which the mummies were ferried across the 

 stream to the necropolis, and of the Nile-ships in 

 ordinary use, with their crews, &c., notably a war- 

 ship on which is a group of two men playing chess 

 under a canopy, formed of two of the great cow-hide 

 shields in use at the time; a similar shield-canopy is 

 seen on a boat of the same period in the British 

 Museum, No. 35293. Models of granaries and model 

 groups of fellahin engaged in their daily avocations 

 were also found. Photographic records were taken 

 of the various stages of the opening of all tombs, more 

 than 450 negatives being secured. This is a most 

 satisfactory feature of Mr. Garstang 's excavations. 

 It is also satisfactory to know that most of the finds 

 will be placed in public museums and private collec- 

 tions in England. The results of the Cretan excava- 

 tions have to remain in Crete, housed in a ramshackle 

 Turkish ex-barrack, the floors, staircases, beams, and 

 pillars of which are of wood, and in which smoking 

 is freely permitted. The collections brought together 

 there by the energy of English, American, and Italian 

 excavators are unique, and include many classes of 

 objects, e.g. the inscribed tablets from Knossos, which 

 are unrepresented in the properly built and protected 

 museums of Europe. It would, indeed, be deplorable 

 if the treasures of Knossos, which have survived one 

 conflagration — that in which the palace was destroyed 

 — were to perish in another. 



WHITE SPOT ON SATURN. 



ON July I, after observing Jupiter for some time, I 

 directed my lo-inch reflector to Saturn, and found 

 the details sharply defined. The dusky north polar 

 cap was very distinct, and so was the dark belt on the 

 north side of the equator. The belt was darkest and 

 more strongly outlined on its southern side, probably 

 by contrast with the bright equatorial zone. I soon 

 noticed a large bright spot on the north side of the 

 belt, and in a position nearing the western limb of 

 the planet. It was followed by a diffused dusky mark- 

 ing. The luminous spot must have been on the 

 planet's central meridian at about i4h. im., but this 

 is only a rough estimate, as the marking was far past 

 transit when I first saw it. It is to be hoped that this 

 feature will prove fairly durable, in which case it may 

 be expected to furnish an excellent means of redeter- 

 mining the rotation period of Saturn. 



A telegram from Kiel (mentioned in your last 

 number) states that Barnard, of the Yerkes Observ- 

 atory, saw a white spot in Saturn's N. hemisphere 

 central on June 23, i5h. 47.8m. Williams Bay time. 

 Allowing for the difference of longitude, this would 

 be 2ih. 42m. G.M.T. Adding eighteen rotations of 

 Saturn of about loh. 14m. will bring us to the time 

 when the spot was approximately in transit as observed 

 at Bristol, and there seems no doubt as to the identity 

 of the objects. 



This disturbance on Saturn will recall Prof. Asaph 

 Hall's white spot seen in the winter of 1876-7, and 

 followed from December 7 to January 2. A number 

 of transits of this object were observed by Hall, East- 

 man, Newcomb, Edgecomb, and A. G. Clark, and 

 from the data obtained the former found the rotation 

 period of Saturn to be 



loh. 14m. 23-8s. ± 2-30S. mean time. 

 The spot' lengthened out into a bright belt, and soon 

 lost its distinctive character. 



Should the present object remain visible, it will be 

 on or near the central meridian of Saturn on July 10, 

 i3h., July 13, i2^h., and July 16, i2h. lom. 



W. F, Denning. 



