:034 REPORT— 1895. 



cation. It is situated in the plain of Ilidze, some eight miles to the west of Sara- 



i'evo, the capital of Bosnia. This plain, which extends for about seven miles in 

 ength and four or five in breadth, is composed of alluvial materials brought down 

 from the surrounding mountains by rain and a number of streams which here 

 meet, and it is tlierefore highly probable that in former times it was partially a 

 lake-basin. In 1893, while workmen were engaged in excavating the foundations 

 of a farm dairy in a cultivated field, it was observed that the soil turned up con- 

 tained fragments of pottery, flint implements, stone axes, and other remains of a 

 primitive people. These discoveries led to an investigation of the locality by the 

 Government, under the supervision of the celebrated archseologist, Mr. Eadimsky. 

 A perpendicular section, 6 to 8 feet in depth, showed first a superficial layer 

 of ordinary soil, 12 to 15 inches thick, then a series of thin beds, more or less 

 stratified, of clay, charcoal, ashes, mould, &c., containing the above-named relics 

 of human industry. This relic-bed, which attained a thickness of 4 or 5 feet, and 

 a superficial area of about 5 acres, lay immediately above a bed of fine adhesive 

 clay in situ — i.e. deposited by natural causes prior to the founding of the prehistoric 

 settlement. By observing that on the surface of this clay there were, occasionally, 

 irregularly shaped hollows of variable extent, Mr. Radimsky was led to formulate 

 the opinion that they were the foundations of the huts of the first inhabitants — an 

 opinion which gave rise to an animated controversy among the members of Con- 

 gress. The deposits containing the relics formed a low mound, rising in the middle 

 to about a couple of yards above the surrounding laud. Near their surface, but 

 below the superficial layer of soil, some burnt clay-castings of the timbers of which 

 the huts were constructed were met with in several localities. The relics con- 

 sisted, chiefly, of stone implements and fragments of pottery, all of which were 

 interspersed uniformly throughout the debris. 



These remains were so abundant as to suggest the idea that the inhabitants of 

 Butmir carried on special industries for their manufacture. Stone implements — 

 knives, arrow>-heads, scrapers, polished axes (with the exception of perforated ones), 

 and tools — were in all stages of manufacture. In regard to the perforated axe- 

 heads, it was curiously noted that, out of twenty-five collected, only two were 

 "whole, and not a single core had hitherto been found. The material out of which 

 they were made was not found in the neighbourhood, and hence it was supposed 

 that the perforated axes had been imported, thus indicating a knowledge of the 

 division of labour among these early settlers. The pottery had been ornamented 

 with a great variety of designs, among which a few specimens with a spiral orna- 

 mentation excited much interest among the members of Congress. A special 

 feature of this discovery is the existence of a number of small clay images, or 

 figurines, rudely representing the human form— among them being one, a head of 

 terra-cotta, disclosing art of a superior kind. In conclusion he observed that those 

 who had not the opportunity of studying the original report would find a notice of 

 the settlement and of the controversies to which it has given rise in his forthcom- 

 ing work, ' Rambles and Studies in Bosnia-Herzegovina.' 



2. On Primitive European ^ Idols ' in the Light of New Discoveries. 

 By Arthur J. Evans, M.A., F.S.A. 



Schliemann's discoveries at Troy first called general attention to a class of 

 primitive images of clay, marble, and other materials. Others, of which some new 

 and remarkable examples were exhibited, had since been found in the ^gean 

 Islands and the mainland of Greece. In their more developed forms they appeared 

 as nude female figures, more rarely male. Lenormant and others had sought their 

 prototype in a nude female figure seen on some Chaldtean cylinders which, as 

 Nikolsky has now shown, represented the Underworld Goddess Sala, an equivalent 

 of Istar. More recently M. Salomon Reinach has boldly attempted to turn the 

 tables and derive the Eastern type from the European side. Mr. Evans combated 

 both these theories. That the tstar type had influenced some of the later ^Egean 

 figures was probable. But the two classes were originally independent. The Greek 



