TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION H. 721 
Professor Petrie at Abydos with Ist Dynasty remains were actually imported 
from Crete, their surface and texture so closely resemble those of the earliest 
Minoan or sub-Neolithic Period that we are justified in inferring a certain con- 
temporaneity. These Egyptian connections show that it would not be safe to bring 
down the beginnings of the Early Minoan culture later than the middle of the 
fourth millennium before our era. 
The section in the West Court of the Palace shows the earliest Minoan floor- 
level at a depth of 5°32 metres below the surface. Below this again are at this 
point 6°43 metres of Neolithic strata. Assuming that the average rate of deposit 
was fairly continuous, this gives an antiquity of about 12,000 years for the earliest 
Neoiithic settlement at Knossos. 
4. Painted Vases of the Bronze Age from Palaikastro. 
By R. M. Dawkins, B.A. 
The resemblance of the series of styles found at Palaikastro with those found 
elsewhere in Crete makes it possible to use the terms used at Knossos, ‘ Minoan,’ 
&e., in describing the successive styles of Bronze Age vases. A series of slides was 
shown giving first geometrically painted vases of the Early Minoan period, then 
polychrome vases of the Middle Minoan period, and lastly examples of the three 
phases of the Late Minoan period. This series of slides showed the development of 
the styles of design, from their geometrical beginning with patterns imitated from 
the earlier incised ware, through the freer style of the Middle Minoan to the 
naturalistic style of Late Minoan I., and then exhibited the process of formalisation, 
which ends with the rigid formal style of decoration that characterises vases of 
the Late Minoan III. time. At the same time it showed the growth of the light- 
on-dark polychrome style of the Middle Minoan, and its gradual change through 
the abandonment of subsidiary colours to the monochrome dark-on-light style of 
the later parts of the Late Minoan period. Throughout, attention was called to the 
painted patterns rather than to the shapes of the vases. 
5. Excavations at Heleia (Palaikastro) and Praisos in Eastern Crete. 
By R. C. Bosanquet, IA., S.A. 
The British school again excavated at Palaikastro, the Minoan town which 
has yielded important results in two previous seasons, from March 25 to June 17 
with the help of grants from the Cretan Exploration Fund (including a gift of 
1007. from Mr. George Macmillan), Emmanuel College, and the Fitzwilliam 
Museum. The expedition consisted of Mr, R. McG. Dawkins, Fellow of Emmanuel 
College, Cambridge; Mr. Heaton Comyn, architect; Mr. C. T. Currelly, of the 
Egypt Exploration Fund; Mr. J. L. Stokes, Scholar of Pembroke College, Cam- 
bridge; and the Director. 
1, Late Palace.—The further excavation of Block Delta, the largest and best 
built of the zmsule opened up last year, showed that this was the palace or 
Government House of the latest Mycenzan period. It has an imposing facade of 
huge ashlar blocks, and the general plan of the ground floor, broken up by light 
wells and other paved areas, can be recovered; but it has been much plundered, 
and many walls of this exceptionally fine masonry have been destroyed in recent 
years. Some well-preserved magazines yielded an important series of painted 
vases, and some terra-cotta figures of a goddess, in one case grasping a snake. 
Careful dissection of the lower strata, when they were not obliterated by the 
massive substructures of the palace, revealed remains of three earlier periods. 
The sequence of some early varieties of pottery was determined by Mr. Dawkins, 
and plans illustrating the stratification prepared by Mr. Comyn. Fragments of an 
ostrich-egg, found at a very low level, point to early intercourse with Africa. 
2. Other Work in the Town.—The main street was followed in both directions, 
and two low hills to the west and south-west of it were excavated. On one of 
1904, 3A 
