794 REPORT— 1901. 



largest houses ; and parts of several others were explored, iucludiDg tlie lower por- 

 tion of what was probably the residence of the local chief or governor. These 

 yielded a great deal of pottery, ranging from the acme of the Mycenrean period 

 to its close, and the types furnish a better criterion of date than we have possessed 

 hitherto in Crete. Numerous bronze implements were found, but these_ yield in 

 interest to those from Gory nia. Two tablets in the hnear ' Cretan ' script show 

 that this system was known, though probably Httle used, and not indigenous, in East 

 Crete, None were found couched in the pictographic system so often represented 

 on East Cretan gems. Finally a hoard of 500 clay impressions of lost signet 

 gems was brought to light. These display IfiO different types and afford a price- 

 less record of Mycenrean glyptic art and religious symbolism. Monstrous combina- 

 tions of human and bestiarforms occur in great variety, half a dozen, which are 

 bull-headed, suggesting varieties of the Mirotaur type. The comparison of all this 

 mass of new material with the symbols of Egyptian, Mesopotamian, and other cults, 

 •which cannot fail to be fruitful, has yet to be made. Cist burials were discovered 

 in caves farther inland, whose grave furniture seems to support certain negative 

 evidence obtained in the Upper Zakro district and at Praesos, in showing that the 

 aboriginal civilisation of East Crete was independent of both the 'Kamares' and 

 Mycentean civihsations. Tf these last were foreign to the Eteocretan country, it 

 seems improbable that the Eteocretan language, as represented by the Praesos 

 inscriptions, will prove to be that expressed by the linear script on the Knossiau 

 tablets ; and the hope that these will be deciphered becomes fainter. 



9. Some Results of Recent Excavations in Palestine. 

 By R. A. S, Macalister, 



Excavations have been carried out by the Palestine Exploration Fund at Tell 

 Zakariya, Tell es-Safi, Tell ej-Judeideh, and Tell Sandahannah, in the west of 

 Judaja, during the last two years. Remains extending over a space of time of 

 some fifteen centuries have been unearthed, divisible into two well-defined 

 pre-Israelite periods, and also the Jewish, Seleucidan, and Roman periods The 

 general result has been to throw considerable light on various questions respecting 

 the civilisation and religion of the inhabitants at difierent times. 



The great caves of Bet Jibrin and its neighbourhood have also been system- 

 atically explored, and some light shed on the problem of their origin and purpose. 



SATURDAY, SEVT EMBER 14. 

 The Section did not meet. 



MONDA r, SEPTEMBER 10. 

 The following Report and Papers were re.ad : — 



1. Report on the Age of Stone Circles. — See Reports, p, 427. 



2. On the Chronulo(ju of the Stone Age of Man, with especial Reference to 

 his Co-existence with an Ice Age.^ By W. Allen Sturge, M.D. 



' To be published in 2I(m, 1902 



