EXPLORATIONS IN CRETE 



787 



, Mr Xanthondides, at Koremasa and 

 other sites ; of the English scholars from 

 the British school at Athens, at Zakro, 

 and Palaikastro, and lastly of the Amer- 

 ican excavators, Mrs Harriet B. Hawes 

 and Mr R. B. Seager, the former at 

 Gournia, the latter at Pseira and Moch- 

 los. Between them they have excavated 

 palaces, towns, and cemeteries. The pal- 

 ace of Knossos alone "is a more complex 

 and extensive series of courts, rooms, 

 and labyrinthine passages than has been 

 met with anywhere on Greek soil." 



Further, the recent investigations in 

 Crete have evolved a system of chronol- 

 ogy for this prehistoric era of 3500-1200 

 B. C. ; they have shown that a high de- 

 gree of artistic skill in decorative art and 

 modeling had been attained in that re- 

 mote epoch ; that a system of writing 

 was in use ; that out of the hardest stones 

 graceful vases were cut; that jewelry no 

 less beautiful than that of the Alexan- 

 drine period was made ; that boats plied 

 frequently to and from Egypt, exporting 

 and importing wares ; that men lived in 

 houses two and three stories high, 

 equipped with baths and drains, and 

 well-lighted rooms opening into sunny 

 courts and commanding pleasant views. 



The results of these explorations are 

 adding a new chapter to history, or 

 rather they are turning legend to his- 

 tory, for those who read the reports of 

 the Cretan excavators, especially those 

 of Doctor Evans, will not find them- 

 selves involved in the dry and dusty dis- 

 cussions of an antiquarian, but, as a 

 writer in Crete has recently said, they 

 will be carried back to the "glamour and 

 romance of first fairy stories" about the 

 Minotaur and the Labyrinth. 



No better impression of the dramatic 

 quality and thrill of Cretan discoveries 

 can be given than by the following quo- 

 tation. Doctor Evans has just discov- 



A CRETAN MOUNTAINEER 



ered the fresco of the Cupbearer in the 

 Knossos Palace, and writes in his first 

 report : 



"The colors were almost as brilliant 

 as when laid down over three thousand 

 years before. For the first time the true 

 portraiture of a man of this mysterious 

 Mycenaean race rises before us. There 

 was something impressive in this vision 

 of brilliant youth and of male beauty re- 

 called after so long an interval to our 

 upper air from what had been till yes- 

 terday a forgotten world. Even our un- 

 tutored Cretan workmen felt the spell 

 and fascination. They, indeed, regarded 

 the discovery of such a painting in the 

 bosom of the earth as nothing less than 

 miraculous, and saw in it the 'icon' of a 

 saint !" 



