ON THE PREHISTORIC RACE IN THE GREEK ISLANDS. 201 



As the Committee attach considerable value to the report which was 

 presented to it by Mr. Bent of the work done by him, it has been thought 

 advisable to incorporate that report in the px-esent report of the Committee 

 to the Association. 



The sum of 201., placed at the Committee's disposal by the Association 

 last year, has been entirely expended on wages to the workmen engaged 

 in excavation. 



The Committee have much pleasure in tendering its best thanks to Mr. 

 and Mrs. Bent for the indefatigable zeal with which they have conducted 

 the researclies, attended as they have been with no small j^ersonal incon- 

 venience arising from imperfect accommodation obtainable at the scene 

 of their labours, and expenses not defrayed by the grant of the Associa- 

 tion. 



The Committee ask to be reappointed, and that a similar sum be 

 placed at their disposal. They recommend that Mr. Bent's name be also 

 added to those forming the present Committee. 



Report op Mk. Bent to the Committee. 

 The Ancient Marble Commerce of Tliasos. 



Last winter, with the grant from the British Association, I was enabled 

 to make excavations and close examinations at one of the chief centres of 

 marble merchandise of the ancient world. The quarries of Thasos were 

 chiefly productive of what we may term a fashionable marble during the 

 epoch of Hadrian and the decadence of Hellenic art, but long before the 

 time of its popularity Thasiote marble was in use for domestic purposes 

 when Parian and Pentelic were exclusively used for statuary ; and having 

 visited these three great quarries of white marble, I am inclined to think 

 that from Thasos during the coui'se of ages far more has been taken than 

 from the other two. 



Herodotus tells us that a statuary marble was in the first instance 

 discovered here by the Phoenicians ; whilst Pliny tells us that it was less 

 livid than the Lesbian, and on examination we found the texture of the 

 Thasiote marble decidedly compact, and the grain formed of bright and 

 medium-sized scales, and very subject to rot when exposed to water. 

 From Seneca we further gather that in his time ' fish preserves were 

 made of Thasiote marble,' and at this period it was considered a marble 

 of inferior quality, for Papinio Stagio, in describing the magnificence of an 

 edifice, adds that Thasiote marble had not been admitted in its construction. 

 Pausanias, on the other hand, assures us that the late Athenians held it 

 in great estimation, and had two statues in honour of Hadrian made of 

 it, which were placed in the temple of Olympian Zeus at Athens. The 

 Euripides in the Vatican is made of it, and Belloni asserts that the 

 exterior of the pyramid of Caius Sestius in Rome was coated with this 

 marble. This is about all that is known of the quarries until the investi- 

 gations we made into the subject during our stay in Thasos last winter. 



Owing to the position of the quarries they were very easily worked, 

 and the marble was most handy for exportation. A promontory consisting 

 wholly of marble juts out into the sea on the southern coast-line of Thasos ; 

 it is about a mile in length, and rises in parts to about 300 feet above the 

 sea-level. This promontory at its extreme point has been completely cut 

 down to the sea-level, forming a large flat surface over which the sea 

 dashes in storms, and in the hot weather the inhabitants of a village 



