392 



NATURE 



[August 27, 1903 



of Asia Minor, from the periods of the sixth and 

 twelfth dynasties down to the reign of Rameses III., 

 i.e. for a space of more than 2000 years. The great 

 value of his paper to Greek archaeologists consists in 

 the fact that he derives his materials from the Egyptian 

 monuments alone, and he has shown pretty con- 

 clusively from the Egyptian records that the 

 Mycenseans, or " Minoans," of Crete were in close 

 communication with Egypt as early as the time of 

 the eighteenth dynasty, about B.C. 1650 to B.C. 1400, 

 and probably much earlier. We may note in passing 

 a point of interest, namely, his identification of the 

 true name of the Island of Cyprus in the time of 

 Thothmes III., viz. Yantanay, which is undoubtedly 

 the same as the Assyrian name for the island, 

 "Yatnana." Mr. Hall also gives new material 

 to the student of Mycenaean art in his identifica- 

 tions of Cretan vases among the tribute depicted 

 on the walls of the tombs at Thebes, about B.C. 

 1550. The rest of his paper is occupied with an 

 account of the relations of the Egyptians with the 

 Mediterranean tribes who successively invaded Egypt 

 under the nineteenth and twentieth dynasties. He 

 proves that the period of peaceful relations between 

 Crete and Egypt under the eighteenth dynasty was the 

 period of the Minoan civilisation of Knossos and 

 Phaestus, and that the post- 

 Minoan, or true Mycenaean, 

 period in Greece was the time 

 when the peaceful relations of 

 Cretan civilisation with Egypt 

 had come to an end, and, in the 

 author's words, " in the days of 

 the degenerate Ramessids of 

 Egypt, its place had been taken 

 by wandering tribes, amid whose 

 internecine struggles the older 

 civilisation of Greece slowly de- 

 generated and finally passed away. 

 The excavations which have 

 been carried on by the British 

 School itself at Palaikastro, at 

 the eastern end of Crete, are de- 

 scribed by Mr. R. C. Bosanquet, 

 the present director of the school. 

 He has found there the remains of a palace and 

 houses, some remarkable interments in painted 

 terra-cotta coffins, and a great quantity of pottery 

 of the pre-Mycenaean or Kamares type. We under- 

 stand that Mr. Bosanquet's excavations this year 

 have been even more productive than those of last 

 year, and his exploration of the Eteokretan country 

 has given us much new information about this 

 remote but interesting portion of the island. Two 

 or three years ago Mr. Bosanquet discovered on 

 the site of Praesus, the ancient capital of the 

 Eteokretans, another example of an inscription in 

 the non-Greek language of eastern Crete. This 

 is critically examined by Mr. R. S. Conway in 

 this number of the Annual, but we think that his 

 attempt to prove that the language is Indo- 

 European is unsuccessful. Kretschmer has shown 

 that the languages of southern Asia Minor, of 

 which Lycian is the best known example, were 

 not Indo-European, and legend connects the Eteo- 

 kretans with Lycia. Of the Lycian language Mr. 

 Conway naively admits (p. 156, note 2) that he has 

 no knowledge, but yet criticises Kretschmer ! The 

 remaining article in the volume, which is by Mr. 

 Marcus N. Tod, is of interest to classical scholars 

 only. The above remarks are sufficient to indicate 

 the interest and importance of the new volume of the 

 British School at Athens, 



Fig. 2. — Upper Part and 

 Head of a Mode! of an 

 Ape found at Mycenae. 



NO. 1765, VOL. 68] 



THE MARQUIS OF SALISBURY. 



THE death of Lord Salisbury has robbed us of a 

 great statesman. He had been ill for some weeks 

 and the peaceful end came during the evening of 

 Saturday last. At the beginning of June of this year 

 an attack of nephritis, complicated with a weakness 

 of the heart, set in, and from this illness Lord Salis- 

 bury never recovered. Since the preceding Wednesday, 

 when his heart began to fail, it was generally known 

 that there was no hope, and the quiet, painless 

 passing came as a fitting conclusion to a distin- 

 guished career, marked always as it was by a dignified 

 reserve and an unusual love for seclusion. 



Born in Hatfield on February 3, 1830, Lord 

 Salisbury died in his seventy-fourth year. He was 

 the direct lineal descendant of the great Lord Bur- 

 leigh, and was educated at Eton and Christ Church, 

 Oxford, where he graduated in 1850. The few years 

 following his stay at Oxford were spent in travel, and 

 included a somewhat prolonged visit to Australia and 

 New Zealand. During this period he learnt from 

 personal experience the dangers and charms of life 

 at cattle stations and at the gold digg'?ttgs. Return- 

 ing in 1853, he was elected to an All Souls Fellow- 

 ship, but as subsequent events showed he preferred 

 the activity of politics to the quietude of university 

 life. In the autumn of the same year he entered the 

 House of Commons as Conservative member for 

 Stamford, and for fifteen years he continued to repre- 

 sent this constituency, until, in 1868, on the death 

 of his father, he took his seat in the House of Lords 

 as Marquis of Salisbury. 



It is unnecessary, even if it were appropriate, to give 

 in these columns an account of the numerous in- 

 cidents in the political career of this renowned 

 statesman. The barest catalogue of the important 

 offices of State occupied by him with consummate 

 ability serves adequately to indicate how intimately 

 his life has been intertwined with the history of the 

 Empire during the latter half of the nineteenth cen- 

 tury, and how large a part the dead statesman has 

 taken in the government of the nation. He was 

 twice Secretary for India and President of the Indian 

 Council. In 1876 he was special Ambassador to the 

 historic conference at Constantinople; and in 1878 

 Plenipotentiary at the celebrated Berlin Conference. 

 Four times he was the Secretary of State for Foreign 

 Aff'airs, and in this capacity more than any other, 

 perhaps, he inspired the complete confidence of his 

 countrymen. In 1886 he was First Lord of the 

 Treasury, and three times he was called upon by his 

 Sovereign to form a Cabinet. His premierships lasted 

 respectively from 1885-6, 1886-1892, and 1895-1902. 



But an account of Lord Salisbury's political career 

 gives no proper idea of the versatility of his genius. 

 When a member of the House of Commons he was 

 actively engaged in journalistic work, and his con- 

 tributions to the Saturday Review, the Quarterly 

 Review, and other papers would have secured for a 

 less gifted person a sufficiently high reputation. To 

 men of science, however, the most interesting recol- 

 lection in connection with Lord Salisbury is the fact 

 that in 1894 he was President of the British 

 Association, and that throughout his political triumphs 

 his great pleasure was, In his leisure hours at Hatfield, 

 to pursue scientific researches in physics and 

 chemistry. 



In commenting on the Presidential Address delivered 

 by Lord Salisbury at Oxford in our issue for August 

 9, 1894, we remarked : — " Many of those who know 

 Lord Salisbury only as a politician and as Minister 

 for Foreign Affairs will be surprised at the wide 

 range of thought and reading displayed in his 



