ox EXPLORATIONS IN CRETE. 441 



The Cretan E.vj^loration Fund was formed in 1899 with the object of 

 assisting British explorers and the British School at Athens to investigate 

 the early remains of the island, which from indications already apparent 

 seemed likely to supply the solution of many interesting questions regard- 

 ing the beginnings of civilisation in Greece. To the furtherance of this 

 work, begun in the spring of 1900, the grant of 145/. was made last 

 autumn by the British Association. 



Already in 1894 Mr. Arthur Evans had secured a part-ownership 

 (completed last year) in the site of Kephala at Knossos, which evidently 

 contained the remains of a prehistoric building. Excavations, to which 

 the fund has largely contributed, begun by him in 1900 on this site and 

 continued during the present year, have brought to light an ancient palace 

 of vast extent, which there is every reason to identify with the traditional 

 House of Minos, and at the same time with the legendary ' Labyrinth.' 



The result of the excavations of 1900 was to unearth a considerable 

 part of the western side of this great building, including two large courts, 

 the porticoes and entrance corridors, a vast system of magazines, some of 

 them replete with huge store jars, and a richly adorned room, where 

 between lower benches rose a curiously carved gypsum throne, on which 

 King Minos himself may have sat in council. The second season's work 

 has uncovered a further series of magazines, the whole northern end of 

 the palace including a bath-chamber and an extensive eastern quarter. 

 It was only towards the close of this year's excavations that what 

 appear to have been the principal state rooms first came into view. A 

 triple flight of stone stairs, one flight beneath another, here leads down 

 from an upper corridor to a suite of halls, showing remains of colonnades 

 and galleries. It was at this interesting point that, owing to the 

 advanced season, Mr. Evans was obliged to bring this year's excavations 

 to a close. 



Apai't from the architectural results already gained, the finds within 

 the walls of the palace have been of such a nature as to throw an entirely 

 new light on the art and culture of prehistoric Greece. Partly still cling- 

 ing to the walls, partly on the floors of the chambers, were found the 

 remains of a whole series of fresco paintings. Among these the full-length 

 figure of the cup-bearer supply the first real portrayal of a man of the 

 Mycenjean age, while the miniature groups representing court ladies show 

 a liveliness and expression far beyond any work of the kind in contem- 

 porary Egypt. Allied to this branch of art are the painted reliefs in gesso 

 dtiro, showing a force and naturalism for which no parallel can be found 

 till the great days of Greek sculpture some ten centuries later. To the 

 remarkable bull's head discovered last year the more recent excavations 

 have added parts of human figures, in which the muscles and even the 

 veins are reproduced with a singular mastery of execution. 



The marble mouth of a fountain in the shape of a lioness's headand a 

 triton shell of alabaster, together with many other beautiful stone vessels 

 and architectural ornaments, also evidence the high level already attained 

 in the sculptor's art. Among the minor arts represented is that of minia- 

 ture painting on the back of crystal and intarsia work of ivory, rock- 

 crystal, enamel, and precious metals, of which a splendid example has 

 been found this season in the remains of a royal draught-board. Other 

 finds illustrate the connections with ancient Egypt and the East. Part of 

 a small diorite statue from last year's excavations bears a hieroglyphic 

 inscription fixing its date about the beginning of the second millennium 



