EXPLORATIONS IN CRETE

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1509, 31 January 1901, Page 14

EXPLORATIONS IN CRETE

Great things are expected by scholars VI from an exploration in Crete, which has ‘ been actively proceeding since the island was taken over from Turkey Already : ■*#«siderable results have been achieved, and an interesting account is given by Mr D. G. Hogarth in the “Cont emp ovary G -• Review.” When in 1899 Crete was thrown open to archaeologists, certain sites were reserved for the British explorers, Mr Arthur Evans and Mr Ho--1 garth, representing the British school at ; Athens. -u.*.ese sites include Xepha-la - hill at Knossos, and that city itself, the • great cave at Psycliro in Lasithi, the ' two small cares of Patao and namares, and the ruins of Dyttos, Praesos, and four nameless prehistoric fortresses in t the eastern part of the island. In March ■- last Mr Hogarth began digging on Kephala hill, and soon came upon the : streets and houses of a prehistoric town, : Hitherto. quite unknown. He cleared a ; • villa of eighteen rooms, confined within a ' , massive wall of gypsum. The find includ'v edr a quantity of painted pottery, identified as of the Micenea.ll period, or about contemporary wita the eighteenth dvnastv of Egypt (1700 to 1500 8.C.). In an- : other house were found nearly 200 little ‘ inverted clay cups, under each ..of which ■JO v/as a .heap, of carbonised matter.. The l' -; building, it is assumed, was the house cf vy a geid, and the. small cups concealed food ■“ty; or incense offerings.. On the last day of ’ March Mr Evans’s diggers “turned cut* the first solitary example of a class wench .y., .w,as to be the most epoch-making of the • objects .found on Kephaln, namely. a . small wedge of hardened clay, inscribed yj! with half a dozen symbols of the undee,, ciphered linear, script, which is now ’ .known to be the long looked-for med um / of written communication in the prehisf toric /Egean.’’ Ultimately hundreds of - these wedges, as well as of large tablets : - with many lines of text, were unearthed. A week later a fresco painting was discovered,representing a youth of a noble, - C- : high-skulled type, and almost Greek pro- ... file,i red-skinned, and clad in rich loin- . cloth, bearing breast high: a tall metal beaker in his hands. This figure was one of a long procession which had been depicted cn ,the corridor wall. Among other remarkable discoveries of buildings and their contents was a set of grey gypsum, pronounced by Mr Evans to be the oldest . throne in Europe. Many fragments of - .fresco were found- showing “crowds of . semi-nude youths, in delicate profile, red-skinned and black-haired warriors . . hurling darts; ladies in *puffed sleeves and flounced skirts, in animated conversation on balconies ; facades of buildings, apparently palaces and shrines.” Sum- * ing up. these and many other discoveries, too numerous too mention, Mr Hogarth says, “The Knossos palace shews a civilisation which reached the highest point attained by archaic art in painting the human form, in modelling plaster, and in " . carving stone vessels. In treating hard ' gems in intaglio it equalled the finest Phce ~ niciani craft of later times, even as at My- •; cense its metallurgy equalled the finest , Egyptian, while in the realism and the life of its style it excelled all its Easty erh rivals and teachers. JWe have now v under our hand over 1000 written dpcu-

hients of a civilisation which, a short

' time ago, was thought to have possessed :, no written system at all. These discovare probably the most important -r that have been made since Dr Schlei-mann-unearthed the remains of prthis- ; tone Mycenae.