482 



A'A TURE 



[September 15, 1904 



discovered a strongly walled settlement of indubitably 

 " Minoan " character, superimposed upon the ruins of 

 earlier, no doubt native, towns ; that this was a Cretan 

 over-sea colony there can be little doubt. 



The excavations which have revealed to us these 

 striking- confirmations of the Greek legend of the 



Minoan thalassocracy have been carried out by the 

 British School at Athens during the last eight years 

 under the control of its successive directors, Mr. Cecil 

 Smith, the present keeper of Greek and Roman 

 antiquities in the British Museum, Mr. D. G. 

 Hogarth, and Mr. R. C. Bosanquet. The energy of 

 the British School at Phylakopi and Paldikastro, com- 

 bined with the remarkable results achieved by Dr. 

 .Arthur Evans at Knossos, has largely helped to win 

 for England that foremost position in practical Greek 

 archaeology which she holds at present. For not even 

 our friendly rivals in Germany can for a moment 

 dispute the fact that England and Italy are facile 

 principes in Greek archaeology at the present day. 

 Germany is only tardily following in our footsteps with 

 the excavations at Orchomenos, and has not even yet 

 secured for herself a site for exploration in Crete, 

 while France seems hopelessly wedded to classical 

 traditions, and has no thought for the extraordinary 

 prehistoric civilisation, twin-sister it w-ould almost 

 seem to that of Egypt, which is revealing itself in 

 Crete. 



The chief publication of the year dealing with these 

 English discoveries is, as usual, the " Annual of the 

 British School at Athens." The volume for 1904 con- 

 tains Dr. A. J. Evans's annual report on Knossos, and 

 Mr. Bosanquet's report on PalAikastro. Dr. Evans 

 tells us how his work in the Labyrinth still goes on, 

 and seems to be no nearer completion. Discoveries 

 of the highest historical importance still continue to 

 be made. An extraordinary light has been thrown 

 upon the religion of Pelasgian Greece by the discovery 

 of the images of a snake-goddess by Miss Boyd 

 (.American excavations) at Gourni.^, half-way between 

 Knossos and Paldikastro, and by Dr. Evans at 

 Knossos, in the latter case in conjunction with a cross 

 as central cult-object. What is to be made of this? 

 .Any day's work, any turn of the spade, may turn up 

 something extraordinary. .And these same snake- 

 goddesses of Knossos are made of a fine varicoloured 

 glazed faience, like that of Egypt. That the Minoans 

 derived this idea from Egypt is certain. Other objects 

 of the same glaze were found, shells especiallv ; 

 the colour of the glaze of many of these shells is 



^"o. 1820, VOL. 70] 



that of the rare Egyptian glazed faience of the 

 dynasties of the Old Empire, between B.C. 4000 and 

 B.C. 2000. This typical colour is a light blue, radically 

 different from the shining dark blue of the twelfth 

 dynasty or the beautiful colours of the blue glazed 

 pottery of the eighteenth. It is not, however, very 

 different from the light blue of the twenty- 

 sixth dynasty. The reason is not far to 

 seek ; the twenty-sixth dynasty artists 

 archaised here as in greater matters ; thev 

 imitated the colour of the earliest faience. 

 The date of the Minoan palace of Knossos 

 is betvi-een the epoch of the twelfth dynasty 

 and that of the eighteenth ; the date of the 

 old light blue faience is earlier, between 

 n-c. 4000 and the twelfth dynasty. It was 

 this faience that the Minoan potters imitated. 

 The conclusion as to the date at which Greek 

 civilisation first began to borrow ideas from 

 that of Egypt may seem extraordinary; but 

 Mr. Evans's diggings at Knossos have 

 already produced so many extraordinary 

 things that we are prepared for more. 



We do not expect the same remarkable 

 discoveries from Mr. Bosanquet's diggings 

 at Paldikastro. It is a poorer site, and it is 

 not the Labyrinth of Minos. Enough has, 

 however, been found more than to maintain 

 the interest of former years of excavation, 

 and there is little doubt that here was a 

 Minoan settlement like that of Phylakopi. Two new 

 features at Paldikastro are the remains of primitive 

 burials from the cave of Hagios Nik61aos and the re- 

 markable ossuaries at the sites of Roussolakkos and 

 Patcma, and the great hoard of votive terracottas 

 found bv Messrs. Mvres and Currellv on the hill of 



(Frun, 



: Phylakopi 



Petsofc\ or Tsoftis, south of Paldikastro. The skeletons 

 are usually in the contracted position characteristic of 

 the Neolithic race of the Mediterranean ; they show 

 small stature (average 1-625 f^-) ''"'^ dolichocephalic 

 head-form. Mr. Duckworth, who describes them, says 

 " it seems that the early Cretans anticipated in head- 



