TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION H. 719 
had been found, though the Acropolis, where sporadic specimens of stone imple- 
ments had been found, was undoubtedly first peopled in the Bronze Age. The 
excavations of the Archzological Society of Athens in the A%gean and the Pelo- 
ponnese had so far brought to light no traces of a civilisation prior to that of the 
Bronze Age. Pile dwellings were not represented in Greece, their place being 
taken by fortified towns built of stone. After an allusion to the progress of 
paleontology in Greece and the founding of an anthropological museum at 
Athens, the author concluded his paper with a reference to the excellent work of 
the British School at Athens. 
2. Report on Archeological and Ethnographical Explorations in Crete. 
See Reports, p. 321. 
3. Preliminary Scheme for the Classification and approximate Chronology 
of the Periods of Minoan Culture in Crete, from the close of the 
Neolithic to the Early Iron Age. By Arruur J. Evans, D.C.L., 
ERS. 
The accumulated results of recent Cretan discovery, and in a principal degree 
those of the Palace site at Knossos, have greatly added to the data for fixing the 
comparative chronology of the early Cretan civilisation. A preliminary attempt 
is here made to classify, and even to delimit within approximate chronological 
landmarks, the successive phases of culture that in Crete extend themselves 
between Neolithic times and the Early Iron Age. To this period asa whole it 
is proposed definitely to attach the name Minoan, as indicating the probable 
duration of successive dynasties of priest-kings, the tradition of which had taken 
abiding form in the name of Minos. It is proposed to divide this Minoan Era 
into three main periods, Early, Middle, and Late, each with a first, second, and 
third sub-period. The use of the word ‘ Mycenzean’ requires radical revision, the 
Mycenzan culture being in its main features merely a late and subsidiary out- 
growth of this great ‘Minoan’ style, when the fine motives of the last Palace 
period are already seen in a state of decadence. This decadence is already obsery- 
able in the sherds found in the Palace of Tel-el-Amarna (c. 1400 B.c.), and even in 
somewhat earlier relics associated in Egypt, Rhodes, Mycenz, and elsewhere, with 
cartouches of Amenhotep III. and his queen. The recently discovered cemetery 
at Knossos shows the less decadent forerunners of this style, though still later than 
those of the last Palace period, the end of which is thus carried back at least to 
the close of the sixteenth century B.c. The third Late Minoan Period may thus 
be roughly dated between 1500 and 1100 B.c. 
The second Late Minoan Period receives its fullest illustration in the remains 
of the latest Palace period at Knossos. The fine ‘ Palace style’ which had here 
grown up, with its strong architectonic elements, common to sculpture and wall- 
painting as well as to ceramic design, must itself represent a considerable period of 
development. Its latest stage shows a great correspondence in its artistic and 
other products with those associated with the Kefts and ‘ Peoples of the Isles of 
the Sea’ on Egyptian monuments of the sixteenth century B.c., and the contents 
of the recently discovered royal tomb at Knossos include alabaster vessels 
belonging to the beginning of the XVIIIth Dynasty. The earlier phases of this 
style must go back at least a century before this. Middle Minoan II. may thus 
extend from about 1700 to 1500 B.c. This period corresponds with that of 
the shaft graves at Mycenz, and to that period also belong the abundant Palace 
archives in linear script (Class B). 
An earlier stage of the later Palace, marked off from the latter by an exten- 
sive catastrophe, has now been clearly made out, especially from the rich contents 
of the Temple repositories. It is an age of ceramic transition, and atitheysame 
time the period when naturalistic art reached its highest perfection in Minoan 
