November 20, 1902] 



NA TURE 



57 



swallow kind do not depart from this island, but lay themselves 

 up in holes and caverns ; and do, insect-like and bat-like, come 

 forth at mild times and then retire to their latebraei" 



So far as I can make out, November 7 is the latest date on 

 which White records having seen swallows. In 1900 I 

 observed them here throughout the month of November — 

 usually not more than from one to three at a time — up to 

 November 30. In 1901 I never saw one after the end of 

 October. 



Recent study of migration seems to show that those indi- 

 viduals of a species which breed farthest north are the last to 

 migrate south. But it is hard to believe that these November 

 swallows are those which have bred in the most northern 

 region visited by the species, say, Iceland and the Faroes. How 

 could they have subsisted in those more boreal climes while 

 ours, " foggy, raw and dull," forced them to flee across the 

 seas? I venture to suggest that they are individuals which had 

 already accomplished a part of their southward retreat. They' 

 had reached, perhaps, the south of France or Spain. It would 

 be a small matter for such powerful fliers to pop back for a brief 

 interval, tempted by a spell of mild weather. And there is 

 reason to believe that in retiring to their winter quarters many 

 species perform the journey in a much more leisurely fashion 

 than when they make their great rush to their breeding 

 grounds. G. W. BUXMAN. 



13 Vicarage Drive, Eastbourne, November 12. 



THE MYCENAEAN DISCOVERIES IN CRETE. 

 T^OR several years past the attention of archaeologists 

 *■ has been directed more and more to Crete. The 

 reasons for this access of interest in the antiquities of 

 the great Mediterranean island have already been ex- 

 plained in the two articles on the "Older Civilisation of 

 Greece," which appeared in Nature, vol. lxiv. p. 11, 

 and vol. lxvi. p. 390. In Crete, revelations of the older 

 culture of the Greek lands are now being made at a very 

 rapid rate, and it is to Mr. Arthur Evans that the 

 palm for these revelations must be awarded. Through 

 many years of greater or less success he has ex- 

 plored the byways of Crete, convinced that the great 

 island would eventually yield results of the greatest 

 importance for the elucidation of the early history 

 of Mediterranean civilisation, and now he has had 

 his reward in the remarkable discoveries which have 

 attended the systematic excavations which he has at last 

 been able to carry out on the site of the ancient 

 Knossos, the city of Minos himself. It is the excavation 

 of Knossos which has directed public attention to the 

 possibilities of Cretan exploration, and there is no doubt 

 that in importance this excavation ranks far higher 

 than any other in Crete. This being so, it is with 

 Knossos that we may fitly commence our survey of these 

 Cretan explorations. Enough has been said in the two 

 articles previously mentioned to give the reader a general 

 idea of the discoveries at Knossos, and of the peculiar 

 characteristics of the earlier Mycenaean age in Crete 

 — which we ought, perhaps, rather to designate, with Mr. 

 Evans, the " Minoan " age — which have been revealed 

 by these discoveries. 



Knossos lies about four miles south of the town of 

 Candia, or Herakleion, as the Greeks call it. The walk 

 thither is pleasant ; the road (a rarity in Crete) resembles 

 any English country lane. In front rises the curious 

 isolated cone of Iuktas, the fabled burial-place of 

 Zeus, which seems steadily to increase in size as we 

 proceed southwards, and at Knossos dominates the 

 surrounding country. Breasting a hill, Iuktas comes 

 into fuller view ; on either hand are rolling downs, 

 backed by mountains ; further on, a couple of roadside 

 wine-shops, a house, and a path oflf to the left across the 

 fields to a white patch with a wooden summer-house in 

 the middle of it, from the top of which floats the Union 

 Jack ; this is Knossos, where Minos judged, where 

 Theseus slew the Minotaur. 



NO. 1725, VOL. 67] 



Coming from the west, one enters first the great western 

 court, which, if one is not a timid Dryasdust, but 

 an archaeologist who takes pleasure in repeopling 

 the ground on which he stands with those heroic 

 figures which are associated with it in legend, one 

 may call the Dancing-floor of Ariadne if one will. 

 Crossing to the south-west corner, one reaches the 

 remains of a great gate at this end of the beautiful wall 

 of polished gypsum blocks which separates the court 

 from the rest of the palace, and so round through the 

 corridors which once were adorned with frescoes of 

 tribute-bearers coming in procession, into the long north- 

 and-south gallery out of which open to the left the 

 curious long cupboard-rooms or " magazines " in which 

 were stored the great earthenware pithoi, with ornament 

 in relief, containing tablets or other objects of value, which 

 are so characteristic of Minoan palaces. Most of these 

 remain in situ, some broken or overturned by falls of 

 masonry, many roughly restored with plaster to keep 

 them together. In the floors open the curious lead- 

 lined safes or receptacles for valuables, called " Kasel- 

 lais " by the diggers, made with the greatest care 

 in double tiers, and still almost excavator-proof. 

 Unluckily, most of the golden treasures which they 

 once contained seem to have been removed before 

 the final catastrophe which overwhelmed the palace 

 of Minos. Over one of these magazines stands the 

 "summer-house" already mentioned, which is really 

 a kind of gazebo, built by Mr. Evans for the purpose 

 of obtaining a panoramic view of the excavations. 

 Hence we pass round to the right, to the throne- 

 room, which opens on to the central court. This is 

 now roofed over, in order to protect its contents 

 from the weather, and the curious brightly-coloured 

 modern Mycenaean pillars, tapering from capital to base, 

 which occupy the site of the ancient columns, with the 

 red-painted walls, give us an interesting idea of what the 

 place once looked like. It should be remembered that 

 there is no " restoration " here ; it is purely a work of 

 conservation ; the form and colour of the modern pillars 

 are supplied from a Knossian fresco, the colour of the 

 modern walls is but a continuation of the colouring of 

 the ancient. The effect is good. Leaving the throne- 

 room of Minos, with its curious throne with back in the 

 form of an oak leaf and legs carved with Gothic crockets, 

 its stone seats for the councillors, its bath and its great 

 stone bowl, we cross the central court eastwards to the 

 edge of the hill, and then descend part of the wonderful 

 quadruple staircase, which was excavated by Mr. Evans 

 with so much difficulty and is now held in place by 

 wooden arches, to the " Hall of the Colonnades," in which 

 one might fancy oneself in the court of an Italian palace. 

 Above us is an open loggia, which can be attained from 

 half-way up the stairs. The existing palace is just here 

 nearly three stories high, and was originally four or more ! 

 As Mr. Evans points out {Journal of Hellenic Studies, 

 xxx. p. 335), " even at Pompeii staircases one over the 

 other have not been brought to light." Passing out, 

 we reach the " Hall of the Double-Axes," so called 

 from its pillars and wall-blocks, which are engraved 

 with the mystic sign of the god of Knossos and of Dikte, 

 who was afterwards (?) identified with the Aryan Zeus. 

 Everybody knows the brilliant philological explanation 

 by Mayer and Kretschmer which has made clear the 

 meaning of \n^vj)iv6oi as " Place of the Double-Axe," 

 and so has converted the guess that the Knossian palace 

 is the Labyrinth itself into a practical certainty. 1 One 



1 In the Journal of Hellem'c Studies, xxi. part ii. p. 268, Mr. W. H. D. 

 Rouse complains of my having followed Mr. Evans in accepting this 

 explanation of the woid " XafivpivBos " and having adopted his identifi- 

 cation of the Knossian palace with the Labyrinth in my book "The Oldest 

 Civilization of Greece." Mr. Rouse does not accept the explanation, and so 

 will not adopt the identification. I apprehend, however, that his refusal to 

 accept the explanation of the name is due to the fact that he is hardly cog- 

 nisant of all the arguments for it. For instance, he says that the termination 

 ■vdos is not explained ! (toe. cit. p. 274). He will find it fully explained in 



