and suggest that the island was much secluded then, as now.1

At Orchomenos, H. Bulle reports the recent German excavations. At the lower and eastern end of the hill Akontion, close above the town of Skripu, a considerable area has been cleared, and five prehistoric layers of settlement are distinguished. In the lowest (i.), the huts are circular, of raw brick on a stone grouting. They recall the well-known steatite hut-box from Melos and the hut-urn from Phaestos, and may well be the prototype of the Cóλos-tomb. In the next layer (ii.) the houses are elliptical, often with at least one straight piece of wall; and rude painted pottery appears. Characteristic of this "Bothrosschicht" are pot-like holes in the floors, sometimes several in a room, about a yard wide and a little less in depth, clay-lined, and filled with a stratified deposit of ashes, with uncalcined bones of sheep and goats. The purpose of these intramural treasuries of ashes is unknown: it can hardly be other than sacral; and parallels are suggested from Thera, Therasia, and Mycenae. Above this layer comes (iii.) a freshsettlement of early Mycenaean character, with rectangular houses, cist graves (with contracted burial-the bodies sometimes tied into posture), and painted pottery of normal types. Above this again come (iv, v.) two more Mycenaean layers, with the remains of a palace, and fragments of fresco in a style not unlike the miniature-frescoes of Knossos, but ruder in execution.

The well-known tholos, excavated partially by Schliemann, has now been completely cleared. The existence of a chamber above the carved ceiling, as recorded by him, is disputed by Bulle; but it is difficult to suppose that the earth was allowed to rest directly on the great ceiling slab, which is the only alternative.2

At Thebes, M. Keramopoulos, whose earlier excavations

1 B. S. A. xi. 1904-5, pp. 72-82, 3 figs.

2 "Orchomenos I." in Abh. K. Bayer. Akad. Wiss. I. Kl. xxiv. 2. München, 1907.

were reported last year, has found near the present agora a burned Mycenaean building, with fragments of frescoes, and abundance of pottery. Above the Mycenaean stratum there is absolutely nothing Greek or Roman: the site was first reoccupied in Christian times. M. Keramopoulos thinks therefore, that he has here, in the "house of Cadmus," the "chambers of Harmonia and Semele," which Pausanias saw in ruins (IX. xii. 3, 4). At Elatea, M. Soteriades describes "pre-Mycenaean graves, with pottery resembling the "Kamárais ware of Minoan Crete. On Mt. Parnes, in the "Cave of Pan," M. Romaios has an almost unbroken series of pottery, from prehistoric to quite late Attic.3

99

In Laconia the majority of the finds this year have been Hellenic; but sites at Geronthrae and Thalamae5 go back into neolithic times. The former yields also a characteristic school of Mycenaean pottery. But at Sparta itself no traces of a Mycenaean layer occur in the shrine of Artemis Orthia.

6

While searching in the neighbourhood of Samekón for the site of the Homeric Pylos, Dr. Dörpfeld has found a new Mycenaean burial-ground at Kakóvatos, near Marmara village, at the junction of the Kalydona and Glatza rivers. Three tholoi have been examined. The largest, measuring nearly forty feet across, had been ruined and plundered in antiquity. It had a trench in the floor, perhaps formerly covered by slabs, and contained fragments of pottery like those from the similar tombs at the Heraion and Thorikos. A few smaller ornaments of gold, lapis lazuli, amethyst, and silver were found, with an iron ring, some flint arrowheads, and an unusual quantity of amber beads. Some of the human bones show signs of burning, and there was a

1 Am. J. Arch. xi. 1907, p. 97.

3

Ath. Mitth. xxxi. 1906, p. 369 ff.

'Ep. 'Apx. 1906, pp. 89-116, 2 pl., 11 figs. Cf. Am. J. Arch. x. p. 104.

B. S. A. xi. 1904-5, pp. 91-99.

Ath. Mitth. xxxi. 1906, pp. 364, 365.

Ibid. pp. 124-136, 7 figs.

good deal of crushed charcoal in the same layer as the objects above described. Near these tombs lies a palace or sanctuary on a hill top, much simpler than the Argive palaces, with mud floors and mud-plastered walls, but with drains, store-chambers with pithoi, and Mycenaean potsherds; and also a large quantity of the same monochrome incised ware as was found characteristic of Leucas, and has appeared also at Olympia. Dr. Dörpfeld takes this ware to be the original pottery of his "Achaeans," and seeks analogies in the cultures of Villanova and Hallstatt; recalling Helbig's prophecy of the discovery of an Italo-Greek culture up the west coast, and in the Adriatic,1

At Olympia, where it was long believed that Mycenaean remains did not occur, a recent excavation beneath the ballast-core of the opisthodomus of the Heraeum has revealed a series of deposits of pottery closely resembling the monochrome geometrical ware of Leucas. With them were fragments of bronze and iron, and some finer vase fragments, which Dr. Tsountas compared with the white-painted fabrics of Kamárais and Orchomenos. The fact that the deposit at Olympia was found separated from the Hellenic deposits of the seventh century by a layer of river gravel indicates, however, that the site was deserted for a while in the interval.3

Dr. Dörpfeld argues from a comparison of his results in Leucas and in Ithaca that the geometrical style of the early Iron Age represents the original style of his immigrant Achaeans, and that this was superseded at the courts of Achaean princes by the "Oriental" art of Mycenae. He reserves the question whether this art came from Crete or Phoenicia. No one expects even Dr. Dörpfeld to be omniscient; but it is regrettable that his great services in the exploration of Western Greece should be obscured by a resuscitation of these obsolete phases of interpretation.

1 Ath. Mitth. xxxiii.

2 1906.

3 Ath. Mitth. xxxii.

This is vigorously and justly urged by Prof. Furtwängler in a note on the Age of the Heraeum.1

In Delos, a Mycenaean town is reported, but no details are available as yet. It is of interest, in view of the comparative rarity of objects of Mycenaean Age in the Cyclades.❜

In Rhodes, Ialysus has long been celebrated as a typical Mycenaean site, and Kameicos as typical of the renascent Hellenism of the seventh and sixth centuries. It has remained for Lindus to fill the gap between them. The Danish mission of Dr. Kinch reports here on the Bukopia plateau many rock inscriptions, with bronze figures and geometrical vase fragments. The necropolis indicates continued occupation from the later geometric phase down to the fifth century. At Vralià, at the south end of the island, a new town site recalls the main features of Camirus.3

In Crete, excavation at Palaikastro ended in 1906 with a few small soundings and the excavation of a cave near Roussolákkos, which contained bones and potsherds, and three larnakes with similar contents: all belonged to the period "Late Minoan III."

At Phaestos, the Italian Mission has cleared the slope to the south of the Palace, and found beneath a "Mycenaean (Late Minoan) supporting wall, the remains of houses of “Kamáres” (Middle Minoan) period: and has cleared up a number of small points of relationship between the earlier and the later palace. The finds include large pithoi, with paintings and reliefs, a double axe in bronze, and a small hut-urn. A neolithic layer has been reached, below an Early Minoan layer, under the magazines of the older palace.1

At Prinia the same Mission has found traces of a Mycenaean site, with snake-involved figurines, and a stele

1 Sitzber. K. Bayer. Ak. Wiss. (Phil.-hist. Kl.), 1906, Heft iii. pp. 467-484.

2 La Musée, iii. 1906, p. 470. Ath. Mitth. xxxi. 1906, p. 366.

3 Ath. Mitth. xxxi. 1906, p. 368. Class. Rev. May 1907.

showing a standing figure in a long garment. Fragments of pithoi show reliefs representing horsemen, chariot-races, and hare-hunting.1

At Chamaizi in Sitia, S. Xanthudides excavated in 1903 a walled settlement on the hill top, with an elliptical house of peculiar plan, transitional from a type commemorated in the hut-urn from Phaestos, to a "palace "-type with regular series of rooms. In the house were found "Kamáres" pottery, bronze double axes and other weapons, and three figures (two male, one female) like those from the sanctuary at Petsofà.2

At Knossos, A. J. Evans reports an unexpected extension of the Palace beyond the Western Court, and traces of tombs, both Minoan and Geometric, on the hill-side further west. But no regular excavation was undertaken in 1907.

S. Xanthudides describes numerous Cretan examples of the type of clustered vase known as Kepvós, and interprets them, in accordance with Hellenic comment, as ritual vessels for the offering of first-fruits and the like. The usage survives in the Orthodox Church, and is illustrated by modern kernos from the Cretan monastery of Toflu, near Palaikastro.

Several pieces of constructive interpretation have appeared during the year. R. M. Burrows has published a synopsis of the results of excavation in Crete, with indications of their bearing on the general questions of Aegean archaeology.

3

D. Mackenzie collects, under the title Cretan Palaces II., a string of separate arguments: (1) An examination of the old "Carian Hypothesis" (subversive of Dörpfeld's revival of this theory, but insistent on an early affinity of population between Crete and S. W. Asia Minor); (2) a general discussion of Race and Civilisation in the Aegean (mainly directed against H. Schmidt's theories of a northern origin for early 1 Ath. Mitth. xxxi. 1906, p. 367.

2 'Ep. 'Apx. 1906, pp. 117, 156, 4 pl.

3 Cretan Discoveries. London (Murray 1907.