404 REPORT— 1903. 



of a storeroom immediately north-east of the east Pillar R.oom led to a 

 discovery of extraordinary interest. Beneath the pavement and a small 

 superficial cist belonging to the latest palace period were found two spacious 

 repositories of massive stonework containing, in addition to a store of 

 early vases, a quantity of relics from a shrine. These had evidently been 

 ransacked in search for precious metals at the time of the reconstruction 

 above, but a whole series of objects in a kind of faience like the so-called 

 Egyptian ' porcelain,' but of native fabric, had been left in the repository. 

 The principal of these is a ligure of a snake Goddess, about 14 inches high, 

 wearing a high tiara up which a serpent coils, and holding out two others. 

 Her girdle is formed by the twining snakes, and every feature of her 

 flounced embroidered dress and bodice is reproduced in colour and relief. 

 A finely modelled ligure of a votary of the same glazed material holds out 

 a snake, and parts of another are also preserved. The decorative fittings 

 of the shrine include vases with floral designs, flowers and foliage in the 

 round, naturalistic imitations of nautiluses and cockles, rock-work and 

 other objects, all made of the same faience. Two extraordinarily life-like 

 groups represent a cow and calf and a Cretan wild goat and kids. The 

 central aniconic object of the cult, supplied in the formerly discovered 

 shrine of the Double Axe, was here a marble cross of the orthodox Greek 

 shape. The cross also occurs as the type of a series of seal-impressions, 

 doubtless originally belonging to documents connected with the sanctuary, 

 found with the other relics. A number of other seal impressions deposited 

 with these show figures of divinities and a variety of designs, some of them 

 of great artistic value. An inscribed tablet and clay sealings with graffito 

 characters was also found, exhibiting a form of linear script of a different 

 class from that of tlie archives found in the chambers belonging to tho 

 latest period of the Palace. 



In view of these important results it is obvious that further investi- 

 gations beneath the later floor-levels must be carried on throughout the 

 palace area. The search for the royal tombs has also to be continued. 

 The region about the theatre and the north-west sanctuary still requires 

 methodical excavation on a considerable scale, and the neolithic strata 

 call for continued investigation. The need for further assistance from 

 those interested in the results already obtained is still urgent. 



(2) Report on Anthropological Work in Athens and in Crete by W. L. H. 

 Duckworth, Af.A., Fellow of Jesus College, Cambridge; University 

 Lecturer in Physical Anthrojmlogy. 



Part I. — General Report. 



In the autumn of 1902 the Director of the British School at Athens 

 informed me that a grant of bOl. had been made by the Cretan Committee 

 of the British Association in aid of physical anthropological investigations 

 in Crete. It was proposed that I should undertake the work, and the 

 suggestion was made that, in addition to research in Crete, preliminary 

 studies in the museums at Athens should form part of the programme, 

 which thus included the following series of observations :— 



(a) On the prehistoric human remains in the museum at Candia and 

 in the ossuary at Paljeokastro, Crete. 



(6) On the physical characteristics of the modern Cretans, and 



