September 29, 1916] 



SCIENCE 



451 



tents into an Early, Middle and Late phase. 

 But its earliest stratum already shows the 

 culture in an advanced stage, with care- 

 fully 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 earlier 

 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 prov- 

 ince of primitive culture that extended 

 from southern Greece and the J3gean is- 

 lands throughout a wide region of Asia 

 Minor and probably still further afield. 



An interesting characteristic is the ap- 

 pearance 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 

 era, though elsewhere they are generally 

 known in their somewhat developed stage, 

 showing a tendency to be translated into 

 stone, and finally — perhaps under extrane- 

 ous influences both from the north and 

 east — taking a more extended attitude. 

 These clearly stand in a parallel relation- 

 ship to a whole family of figures with the 

 organs of maternity strongly developed 

 that characterize the Semitic lands and 

 which seem to have spread from there to 

 Sumeria and to the seats of the Anau cul- 

 ture. 



At the same time this steatopygous fam- 

 ily, which in other parts of the Mediter- 

 ranean 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 Anatolian 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 re- 

 ligion. Another interesting evidence of 

 the underlying religious community be- 

 tween 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 should never be left out of 

 sight that the gifted indigenous 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 ser- 

 vility of Phoenician art. Much as it assimi- 

 lated, it never lost its independent tradi- 

 tion. 



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 com- 

 paratively late appearance. My own re- 

 searches have led me to the definite conclu- 

 sion 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 esthetic 

 tradition in the selection of materials dis- 

 tinguished by their polychromy, by the ap- 



