November 20. 1902] 



NA TURE 



59 



the mouth of the Ieropotamos and the more southerly 

 haven of Matala, and so securing the communications 

 of Knossos with the southern sea. Originally founded 

 by the Knossian princes Phaistos probably was not ; 

 such a site must always have been occupied from 

 the earliest days of human settlement in the Messara, 

 and, as a matter of fact, primitive pottery of days 

 long anterior to the Mycenaean period has been found 

 at Phaistos, and in the near neighbourhood is Agios 

 Onouphrios, where one of the most important dis- 

 coveries in Crete, that of burials of the primitive pre- 

 Mycenaean or "Amorgian" period, containing Egyptian 

 scarabs of the twelfth dynasty (c. 2200 B.C.), was made 

 in 1887. But its foundation as an important city 

 Phaistos no doubt owed to the conquering rulers of 

 Knossos, and to them the construction of its fortified 

 palace is most probably due. 



This season is announced the discovery at Agia 

 Triadha, between Phaistos and the sea, of what is 

 described as a "country residence" of the Phaestian 

 princes, which will no doubt prove of very great interest. 

 Indeed, it appears that a large number of Mycenaean 

 seals, an inscribed tablet of the Knossian type, and 

 ol her objects of interest, including a portion of a stone 

 vase sculptured with a most realistic representation in 

 relief of a body of men leaping and dancing in a religious 

 procession (apparently a harvest-home, judging from the 

 implements carried by the dancers), have already been 

 found here. The neighbourhood of Phaistos is rich in re- 

 mains of the older civilisation of Greece. Northwards, at 

 the end of a valley of Ida, lies the cave of Kamarais, where 

 was found the store of that peculiar pottery which has 

 proved to be characteristic of the period of Cretan art 

 which immediately precedes the true " Mycenaean," the 

 period to which the earliest foundation of the palaces 

 both of Knossos and of Phaistos must be assigned, the 

 peiiod, probably, of the earliest Minoan kings. A large 

 stote ol this ware was discovered by Mr. Hogarth in 

 the town of Knossos, and it has also been found at 

 Phaistos, Zakro and other Minoan sites. Further, 

 and this is most interesting, it was also found by 

 Prof. Petrie at Kahun, in Egypt, and may there be 

 roughly dated to the period between the twelfth and 

 eighteenth dynasties, not earlier than the twelfth, but 

 no doubt earlier than the eighteenth. It was, then, im- 

 ported into Egypt from Crete between 2000 and 1700 

 B.C. Here is another piece of evidence as to date which 

 fits in absolutely with the evidence of the alabastron- 

 lid of Khyan and the statuette of Abnub, found at 

 Knossos. 1 Everything points to c. 2000-1500 B.C. as the 

 date to be assigned to the early Minoan period. 



The other well-known cave on Mount Ida, the " Idaean 

 Cave" par excellence, explored by Messrs. Halbherr and 

 Orsi, contained objects, mostly of post- Mycenaean and 

 early classical date, exhibiting strong traces of Phoenician 

 influence. It lies further north, above the Nida plain. 



To the south-east, in the direction of Gortyna, stood 

 once a Mycenaean city on the curious isolated hill of 

 Kourtais, the necropolis of which has yielded in- 

 teresting Late- Mycenaean and Geometrical finds. 

 Another explored site which may be mentioned is 

 Prinia, to the north ; away to the east, in the province 

 of Pediada, where the Omphalian Plain meets the 

 lofty mountains of Lasithi, the ancient Dikte, and 

 the as yet unexplored site of Lyttos awaits the ex- 

 cavator's spade, the necropolis of Erganos has yielded 

 the interesting tombs of a Mycenaean hill-settlement, and 

 the district of Embaros innumerable traces of extensive 

 occupation in Mycenaean times, both early and late. 

 This country must in Minoan days have formed part of the 

 immediate territory of Knossos ; the town of Lykastos, 

 which lay within it, was said to have been founded by 



1 Sec Nature, vol. Ixvi. p. 392. The identification of the Kahun 

 ware with that of Kamaiais is due to Mr. J. L. Myres. 



NO. I725, VOL. 67] 



Minos, and Lyttos is associated with the legends of the 

 Cretan Zeus, who was supposed to have passed his child- 

 hood in a cave on the slopes of Dikte. This cave has been 

 identified, and Mr. Hogarth has explored it. It is a" large 

 double cavern situated to south-west of, and about 500 

 feet higher than Psychro, a village of the upland Lasithi 

 plain," a curious tract which lies in the middle of and 

 surrounded by the Dictaean mountains. Mr. Hogarth's 

 discoveries in the Dictaean Cave have already been noticed 

 in Nature (vol. Ixiv. p. 15) ; it need only be said here 

 that he has shown that it was probably one of the holiest 

 places of Crete, and the hundreds of Mycenaean votive 

 double-axes which he found are final proof of the identity of 

 the prehistoric God of the Double-Axe with the Cretan 

 Zeus, which again shows the identity of the Cretan with 

 the Karian Zeus, whose emblem was the Aa/3pus or Double- 

 Axe and the seat of whose worship was Labraunda, which 

 confirms the equation AaPpav-vSa —Aa^vfuvSos, explains 

 \a$vpiv8os as the " Place of the Double-Axe," and so 

 identifies the Knossian palace as the Labyrinth of Minos. 

 Most interesting is the discovery in the Dictaean Cave of 

 a bronze figure of the Egyptian God Amen-Ra, Amonra- 

 sonter, "the King of the Gods," probably dating to about 

 the eleventh or tenth centuries B.C., which was perhaps 

 dedicated by some Egyptian traveller who identified the 

 God of the Double-Axe with his own supreme deity, 

 thus anticipating the later conjunction Zeus-Ammon by 

 many hundred years ! From this cave came the well- 

 known inscribed libation-table, now in the Ashmolean 

 Museum. It was no doubt from Dikte that the Cretan 

 mountain-goddess Diktynna, also called Britomartis, 

 took her name, and not from the Greek Uktvov, " a 

 net." 1 



South-west of Dikte is a district in which many 

 Mycenaean sites still await the spade, as at Rotasi 

 (Rhytion) and Viano (Biennos) ; on the south coast is 

 Arvi, where, a few years ago, an important find of early 

 Mycenaean stone vases was made, and where an ancient 

 cult of Zeus probably points to a direct connection with 

 Knossos. 



Rounding the northern slopes of Dikte, we enter the 

 province of Mirabello, where, at Milato on the north 

 coast, an important Mycenaean tomb has been found, 

 and where, further south, the imposing ruins of Goulas, 

 the ancient Lato, investigated by Messrs. Evans and 

 Myres and afterwards partly excavated by a French 

 explorer, M. de Margne, without much success, no 

 doubt mark the site of a Minoan city and palace. 

 The place-name Minoa preserved in classical days the 

 tradition of Knossian domination hereabouts also. 

 We have now reached another depression in the 

 mountain-system of Crete, the hilly plain which lies 

 between the Gulf of Mirabello and the district of Hiera- 

 pytna on the south coast. Before us to the east rises 

 another mountain-mass, which stretches from sea to sea 

 and seems to block all further progress eastward. This 

 is the Aphendi Vouno of Kavousi, which bars off from 

 the rest of Crete the extreme eastern portion of the 

 island, the modern province of Sitia, of old the territory 

 of the Eteokretans, who were said to be first cousins of 

 the non-Aryan Lycians, and certainly still spoke an abso- 

 lutely non-Greek idiom even in classical times. In the 

 Eteokretan country itself we find little proof of Minoan 

 occupation except here and there on the coast, so it is 

 probable that direct Knossian control in Minoan times 

 ended with the Hierapytnian territory. The most easterly 

 Minoan town in this district appears to be that discovered 

 in 1901 by Miss Harriet Boyd at Gournia, on the Gulf 

 of Mirabello, at the foot of the Aphendi, and nearly 

 opposite the island of Psyra. In the same neighbourhood, 

 at Kavousi, Miss Boyd had made fruitful excavations in 

 the preceding year, but her discoveries at Gournia far 



1 See "The Oldest Civilization of Greece," p. 2q6, 

 plained the form of the name. 



where I have ex 



