SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.—H. AAT 
which yielded a small quantity of pottery, a sling-stone, and a bronze penannular 
brooch with spiral terminals of a type represented elsewhere, e.g. at Glastonbury. 
The pottery included fragments of bead-rim jars, hand-made, of coarse wares varying 
from light-brown to grey-black in colour, a single sherd of a native wheel-made vessel 
of orange-butf ware, and part of the base of a Roman olla. The evidence from the 
annexe comprised the remains of two cooking-hearths found bedded on the rock 
underneath the cross-banks, and, in addition, the foundations of a medizval stone hut 
inserted in the innermost bay. The cooking-hearths found underlying the cross-banks 
_ were in each case covered with charcoal, in which occurred numerous pot-boilers, 
_ burnt animal-bones and a number of fragments of pottery. The latter were all 
hand-made, for the most part of coarse grey or greyish-brown ware, fairly well-baked, 
_ with a hard smooth surface. Among the vessels represented were straight- and 
oblique-sided pots ornamented with lightly incised wave-patterns, also globular jars 
with constricted neck and everted rim, one of them having the exterior neck orna- 
mented with a double row of incised chevrons. 
The evidence from the site generally is too indeterminate for precise dating, but 
the pottery, save for the olla-fragment and some medieval sherds found in the hut, 
may all be assigned to the La Téne epoch. On present evidence, therefore, it would 
appear that the Llanmelin settlement was first founded in this epoch, probably not 
later than c. 200 B.c. The occurrence of the cooking-hearths beneath the cross-banks 
of the annexe suggests that the annexe may be of later date than the main camp. 
The settlement continued in occupation down to the opening of the Roman period, 
_ but perhaps not beyond. Probably its place was then usurped by the Romano- British 
town established at Venta Silurum (Caerwent) two miles away. In medizval times 
the earthwork was reused by occasional settlers. 
Sir Arruur J. Evans, F.R.S.—Discovery of the Temple Tomb of the House 
of Minos. 
Following up a clue supplied by the discovery of a massive gold signet ring, the 
author had brought to light beneath a bluff of the limestone hillside south of Knossos 
a sepulchral monument of a new character, combining a mortuary chamber excavated 
in the rock with a sanctuary building. The basement part of this, which forms the 
approach to the tomb, was constructed in a cutting in the slope and culminated in a 
columnar shrine above ground. A curious confirmation was thus obtained of a very 
ancient Cretan tradition, preserved by Diodorus, that, on the death by treachery of 
the last king of the name of Minos during his Sicilian expedition, his Cretan followers 
had raised him a magnificent monument of a dual character—a tomb hidden in the 
earth and a temple, dedicated to the goddess, above. Apart from this striking 
confirmation of folk-memory the whole plan of the building and the relics found within 
proved to be of the highest religious and anthropological interest. 
The lower entrance led through a pavilion, seemingly designed for memorial feasts, 
to a small paved area adapted for funeral sports, and overlooked by roof terraces. A 
doorway between two pylons gave access thence to a hall opening on a pillar crypt, 
a portal in the inner wall of which led into the rock-cut chamber. From the hall a 
Staircase ran up to the roof terrace that gave access to an upper bi-columnar shrine 
or temple proper. This seems to have been partly ruined by an earthquake that also 
did much damage to the Palace about 1520 8.c., and it was probably on this occasion 
# the plundering of the original interments took place which led to the loss of the 
gold ring. 
The signet illustrates the advent of the Minoan Goddess to a new sanctuary, 
conveying her little pillar-shrine in a bark across an arm of sea. A separate scene 
shows her seated on an altar base and offered the juice of a sacred tree, which, like 
the Somagq of the Vedas, produced an ecstatic state. 
The Sepulchral Chamber itself as its sunken pavement and central pillar indicate, 
was also a scene of worship, and a characteristic stone block for libations, with five 
ubular cavities, represents in an almost unchanged form an early Nilotic cult object. 
An incense burner of later date was also remarkable as having been painted inside as 
well as out with bright-coloured decoration for the use of the dead. In the last 
e of the Palace (c. 1400 B.c.) the vault was again opened—for the interment probably 
f some last scion of the House of Minos in a corner pit. This, though it had been 
ed for precious objects, contained many interesting relics, and there was also 
