20 PRESIDENT S ADDRESS. 



stock which in Crete eventually took to itself on one hand and the other 

 so many elements of exotic culture was still deep-rooted in its own. 

 It had, moreover, the advantages of an insular people in taking what 

 it wanted and no more. Thus it was stimulated by foreign influences 

 but never dominated by them, and there is nothing here of the servility 

 of Phoenician art. Much as it assimilated, it never lost its independent 

 tradition. 



It is interesting to note that the first quickening impulse came to 

 Crete from the Egyptian and not from the Oriental side — the Eastern 

 factor, indeed, is of comparatively late appearance. My own researches 

 have led me to the definite conclusion that cultural influences were 

 already reaching Crete from beyond the Libyan Sea before the beginning 

 of the Egyptian Dynasties. These primitive influences are attested, 

 amongst other evidences, by the forms of stone vessels, by the same 

 aesthetic tradition in the selection of materials distinguished by their 

 polychromy, by the appearance of certain symbolic signs, and the sub- 

 jects of shapes and seels which go back to prototypes in use among 

 the ' Old Race ' of the Nile Valley. The impression of a very active 

 agency indeed is so strong that the possibility of some actual 

 immigration into the island of the older Egyptian element, due to the 

 conquests of the first Pharaohs, cannot be excluded. 



The continuous influence of Dynastic Egypt from its earliest period 

 onwards is attested both by objects of import and their indigenous 

 imitations, and an actual monument of a Middle Empire Egyptian 

 was found in the Palace Court at Knossos. More surprising still are 

 the cumulative proofs of the reaction of this early Cretan civilisation 

 on Egypt itself, as seen not only in the introduction there of such 

 beautiful Minoan fabrics as the elegant polychrome vases, but in the 

 actual impress observable on Egyptian Art even on its religious side. 

 The Egyptian griffin is fitted with Minoan wings. So, too, on the 

 other side we see the symbols of Egyptian religion impressed into the 

 service of the Cretan Nature Goddess, who in certain i-espects was 

 partly assimilated with Hathor, the Egyptian Cow-Goddess of the 

 Underworld. 



My own most recent investigations have more and more brought 

 home to me the all-pervading community between Minoan Crete and 

 the land of the Pharaohs. When we realise the great indebtedness 

 of the succeeding classical culture of Greece to its Minoan predecessor 

 the full significance of this conclusion will be understood. Ancient 

 Egypt itself can no longer be regarded as something apart from general 

 human history. Its influences are seen to lie about the veiy cradle 

 of our own civilisation. 



The high early culture, the equal rival of that of Egypt and Baby- 

 lonia, which thus began to take its rise in Crete in the tenth millennium 



