818 REPORT — 1903. 



Crete at least as early as 1600 B.C. Hitherto tlie Phoonicians Lave been credited 

 with the discovery of ' Tyrian purple." It appears, however, that in this matter, 

 as in the art of writing and perhaps in other inventions attributed to the Phoeni- 

 cians bv Greek authoi?, the Miuoans of Crete were the real pioneers. 



5. On a j)re-Mycena'an Sanctuary loith Votive Terracottas at PaUeokastro, 

 in Eastern Crete} By John L. Myres, M.A. 



This sanctuary stands on the summit of the hill called Petsofa, which bounds 

 the bay of I'alEeokastro soutliward, and was excavated in April 190.3. A massive 

 retaining wall of large rudely sliaped blocks incloses, on south and west, a roughly 

 rectangular space, the northern face of which is bounded by a precipitous descent, 

 and the eastern face by low ridges of natural rock. 



Within the inclosure were found (from the bottom npwards) (1) a layer of 

 uiidisturbed soil resting on the southward-shelving rock surface ; (L') a layer of 

 blackened ashy earth, apparently the remains of a large hearth or bonfire, full 

 of whole and broken terracotta figurines, with painting of the IMinoan (pre- 

 Mycenajan) technique ; (3) a layer of disturbed soil obliterating the ashy layer 

 and containing fragments of its figurines ; (4) over all a rubble building of early 

 Mycemean date, lilce those of the settlement-site at Palreokastro,'- one room of 

 which still retained its plastered and whitewashed floor, with a plastered bench 

 round three sides, and the remains of a door. A column-base from an earlier 

 building was found built into its foundations. 



The terracottas include figures of men and women in characteristic pre- 

 MvceuEean costume, analogous to that shown on the frescoes at Knossos, and 

 completed in the case of the women by gigantic and very stylish hats ; a quite 

 new feature. ()ther terracottas represented miniature oxen, rams, goats, pigs, 

 dof's, weasels, hedgehogs, birds, chairs, miniature vases, and other objects of daily 

 use, together with the borns and legs of a larger series of oxen, the bodies of 

 which appear to have been completely cleared away from the ash-heap from time 

 to time. A very large number of quite plain clay balls, of about the size of a 

 marble, seem to be votive like the other oti'erings, but are not so easily explained ; 

 they may, however, represent occasions of prayer or thanksgiving which defied 

 the ingenuity of the modeller. 



6. The Temples of Ahydos.^ 

 By Professor W. M. Flinders Petrie, D.C.L., LL.D., F.li.S. 



After Mariette had worked on the ground of the Osiris temple at Abydos he 

 declared that nothing remained of the old temple, that even the foundations had 

 been destroyed to the roots, and that any further research was impossible. From 

 that very ground, the work of the past winter has produced foundations of ten 

 successive periods of the temple, one below the other, occupying nearly 20 feet 

 depth of soil. The examination and recording of these buildings has required over 

 four thousand measurements and one thousand levellin^s. The highest temple 

 was of Amasis (XXVI. dynasty), then Piame.sea III. (XX. dynasty), then Amen- 

 hotep III., Thothmes III"., anil Amenbotep I. (XVIII. dynasty) ; then Sebek- 

 botep III. and Usertesen I. (XIII. -XII. dynasty), then Sankhkara (XI. dynasty), 

 then Mentnhotep III. (XI. dynasty), then Pepy (VI. dynasty), then the temple of 

 the fourth dynasty, below tliat of the second, and at the base of all the oldest 

 temple of the first dynasty. Thus the site was continually re-used during four 

 thousand years, each of these periods of building followed entirely different lines, 

 and the successive plans had scarcely any relation one to another. 



1 To be publisbed in full in Ann. Brit. School. Athens, ix. 



2 E.g., Ann. Brit. School. Athens, vol. viii. p. 311, fig. 24. 



^ Published in full in the autbor's Abydos, I,, II. (Egypt Exploration l^und), 



