in one case preserved as high as the lintel. The finds are dated early in the Late Minoan period, but earlier strata probably await discovery. Important finds of Early Minoan pottery are again reported from Vasilikí, near Gournia.1

In Central Crete Mr. Xanthoudhidis is continuing the excavation of the Early Minoan remains at Koumása. A large tholos-shaped ossuary, similar to that of Hághia Triádha, near Phaistos, has been discovered, with very rich contents, notably ivory seals with geometric patterns and female stone idols of a native type, differing from the well-known "Amorgan" figures. Approximately contemporary are the Early Bronze Age remains in the Cyclades, discovered by Dr. Klon Stephanos, who has dug this year some fifty tombs in Syros, which, from the quantity of bronze, he puts late in the Cycladic or Amorgan period of preMycenean culture. They are round or square, with a door in the corner, and roofed with slabs, the walls slightly inclining inwards. The bodies were entire, lying on the side with the knees drawn up, in contrast to the contemporary Cretan custom of secondarily reinterring the bones in a large common ossuary.3

The discoveries bearing on the archaic Greek period have been very important. The British School dug this spring at Sparta, and found the shrine of Artemis Orthia, at whose altar the Spartan youths were scourged. It lies on the right bank of the Eurotas, just inside the walls of the ancient city, which is thus proved not to have been limited to the Acropolis, now surrounded by the later walls, but rather to have extended as far as the bank of the river. Trial trenches were made, and a Roman building resting on the earlier remains was partially cleared. Below it were found: (1) "Geometric" remains-pottery, bronze pins, and "spectacle" fibulae.

(2) Above these a very rich deposit of archaic Greek ob

2

* Unpublished.

1 Unpublished.

Unpublished. Similar finds have been published in the 'Eonμepìs 'Apxaioλoyin, Athens, 1898, p. 137 Pl. 8-12; 1899, p. 73, Pl. 7-10.

3

jects, containing "Corinthian" pottery, ivories, and objects in clay and bone. The most striking are many thousands of small lead figures, wreaths, animals, goddesses, warriors, etc., clearly a very cheap kind of votive offering. A series of quite unique clay masks was found, many with remains of paint and skilfully modelled, falling under well-marked types, and two archaic dedications to Orthia, as well as walls, probably of the most ancient temple. Classical Greek objects occur only on the outskirts of the site, and upon the archaic stratum rest the massive foundations of the Roman building. This was an arena, circular, but with a gap, left to accommodate an earlier temple, the foundations of which remain. In the centre of this arena it is hoped to find the altar, at which the Spartan boys suffered. Built into the Roman walls were found numerous dedicatory inscriptions to Artemis Orthia, the finding of one of which gave the first assurance of the nature of the site.

The Byzantine wall round the Acropolis has been examined and many inscriptions found, much of the ancient town wall traced, and a large Roman bath partly excavated.1

In the summer of 1905 Dr. Dörpfeld continued excavating the prehistoric settlement in the plain of Nídri in Leukás, which he identifies with the town of Odysseus. Below, and separated by a considerable depth from the classical remains, was a thick prehistoric stratum belonging to a settlement which seems to have been destroyed about 1000 B.C., the potsherds resembling those found by the same excavator below the Heraeum at Olympia, first founded about this date. The houses were roughly built, suiting the rustic character of Odysseus's kingdom.2 He also dug at Chortáta in Leukas, and found a small shrine with the same pottery and "geometric" bronzes, and in March 1906 excavated

To be published in The British School Annual, 1905-6, appearing in 1907 (Macmillan).

'These results are published in Zweiter Brief über Leukás-Ithaka, Buchdruckerei Hestia Athens, 1906.

beneath the cella and opisthodomos of the Heraeum at Olympia, digging right down to and then below the level of the ground before the temple was erected. In this humus he found a bronze statuette of a man, bronze animals, and the sherds mentioned above as being the same as those from the early sites on Leukas. All these objects he ascribes to the European "geometric" style, of which the Halstadt finds are an example, and regards as characterising the original culture of the Achaeans in the second millennium This culture, not differing essentially from that of the Dorians, may have existed in North-western Greece contemporaneously with that Mycenean art, which the Achaeans learned when they came into contact with its Aegean home, as at Mycenae and Tiryns. Another important conclusion is that the sanctuary of Olympia must be older than the Dorian invasion.1

B.C.

At Miletus Dr. Wiegand has cleared the ancient harbour and quay, and excavated in the last three years a marketplace, stadium, baths, and theatre, dating from the Hellenistic to the Roman period, and yielding many inscriptions. Beneath the Hellenistic buildings have been found remains of the old Ionian city; ashrine of Apollo Delphinion, and, below a later temple, the remainsofhouses and of a pre-Persian temple of Athena, with sub-Mycenean and "geometric pottery."

At the ancient capital of Polycrates in Samos a seated statue, resembling the Branchidae series, has been found recently, with an inscription on the left side of the throne:

Αἐάκης ἀνέθηκεν ὀ Βρύσωνος : ὂς τῇ Ηρῃ ¦ τὴν σύλην ἔπρησεν : κατὰ τὴν ἐπίστασιν

3

It has been published by L. Curtius, who refers it to the middle of the sixth century B.C., and considers that it represents the father of the tyrant Polycrates.

1 See Athenische Mittheilungen, 1906, p. 205.

2 See Archäologischer Anzeiger, 1906.

3 Ath. Mitt. 1906, xxxi. p. 151.

At Delos the French School have continued the excavation of the town south of the Temenos, cleared the Agora of the Compitaliatae and the street bounding the Temenos on the south, and found near the south-eastern corner of the Square Portico a structure, probably an eschara, dedicated to a hero, with the inscription:

Τριτοπάτωρ Πυρρακίδων.

North of the Temenos the large granite edifice south of the Agora of the Italians has been cleared, and work is to be continued in this direction.1

At Lindus, in Rhodes, the Danish excavation under Dr. Kinch has found part of the ancient Necropolis, with vasefragments ranging from 600 B.C. to the fifth century. Between the Acropolis and the entrance of the great port is a place marked out by rock-cut inscriptions as the site of an ancient festival, the Boukopia or Theodaisia. It centres round a cleft in the rock, which has now been cleared, and proved to contain the remains of a small primitive temple, built of polygonal blocks. Small bronze animals and fragments of pottery were found going back to the "geometric " period.2

R. M. DAWKINS.

As yet unpublished. For past work see numbers of Bulletin de Corresp. Hellenique.

As yet unpublished.

III

ITALIAN EXCAVATION

THE most important investigations which have been undertaken in Italy during the last few years have undoubtedly been the excavations in the Forum Romanum, which, under the direction of Commendatore Giacomo Boni, have, since the end of 1898, doubled the extent of the area hitherto laid bare. The main feature of these excavations has been, that not only the remains of the Forum of the imperial period have been investigated,' but the lower strata also. The greater part of the work done belongs, however, to the years 1898-1904. Short reports of the progress of the work from time to time have been given by the present writer in The Classical Review (passim); and an excellent general account will be found in Ch. Hülsen's Roman Forum (Rome, Loescher, 1906; 5fr. unbound, 6·25fr. bound), while those who desire to study the subject in more detail may refer to the same writer's articles in Römische Mitteilungen, 1902,

1 The policy adopted before is stigmatised by R. Lanciani (Ruins and Excavations of Ancient Rome, 240), who, writing in 1897, says, "It is necessary to remind the reader that the excavations of the Forum and of the Palatine, have nowhere been carried to the proper depth. We have satisfied ourselves with laying bare the remains of the late Empire, without taking care to explore the earlier and deeper strata.” Cf. the same author's New Tales of Old Rome, 1 : "Former excavations -those included in which I have had a personal share since 1871-have seldom reached the deepest levels. As soon as a paving-stone, or a brick or marble floor was found, whether imperial, or Byzantine, or mediaeval, it did not matter, we were made to stop, without trying to ascertain whether older and more important relics were concealed in the lower strata."