president's address. 19 



time.'" No Neolithic section in Europe can compare in extent with 

 that of Knossos, which itself can be divided by the character of its 

 contents into an Early, Middle, and Late phase. But its earliest 

 stratum already shows the culture in an advanced stage, with carefully 

 ground and polished axes and finely burnished pottery. The beginnings 

 of Cretan Neolithic must go back to a still more remote antiquity. 



The continuous history of the Neolithic Age is carried back at 

 Knossos to an earUer epoch .than is represented in the deposits of its 

 geographically related areas on the Greek and Anatolian side. But 

 sufficient materials for comparison exist to show that the Cretan branch 

 belongs to a vast Province of primitive culture that extended from 

 Southern Greece and the ^gean islands throughout a wide region of 

 Asia Minor and probably still further afield. 



An interesting characteristic is the appearance in the Knossian 

 deposits of clay images of squatting female figures of a pronouncedly 

 steatopygous conformation and with hands on the breasts. These in 

 turn fit on to a large family of similar images which recur throughout 

 the above area, though elsewhere they are generally known in their 

 somewhat developed stage, showing a tendency to be ti'anslated into 

 stone, and finally — perhaps under extraneous influences both from the 

 North and East — taking a more extended attitude. These clearly 

 stand in a parallel relationship to a whole family of figures with the 

 organs of maternity strongly developed that characterise the Semitic 

 lands and which seem to have spread from there to Sumeria and to the 

 seats of the Anau culture. 



At the same time this steatopygous family, which in other parts of 

 the Mediterranean basin ranges from prehistoric Egypt and Malta to 

 the North of Mainland Greece, calls up suggestive reminiscences of the 

 similar images of Aurignacian Man. It is especially interesting to 

 note that in Crete, as in the AnatoHan region where these primitive 

 images occur, the worship of a Mother Goddess predominated in later 

 times, generally associated with a divine Child — a worship which later 

 survived in a classical guise and influenced all later religion. Another 

 interesting evidence of the underlying reUgious community between 

 Crete and Asia Minor is the diffusion in both areas of the cult of the 

 Double Axe. This divine symbol, indeed, or 'Labrys,' became the 

 special emblem of the Palace sanctuary of Knossos itself, which owes 

 to it its traditional name of Labyrinth. I have already called attention 

 to the fact that the absorptive and disseminating power of the Roman 

 Empire brought the cult of a male form of the divinity of the Double 

 Axe to the Roman Wall and to the actual site on which Newcastle 

 stands. 



The fact sfiould never be left out of sight that the gifted indigenous 



" For a fuller statement I must refer to my forthcoming work. The Nine 

 Minoan Periods (Macmillans), Vol. T. : Neolithic Section. 



c 2 



