Mycenean sherds have now been found with remains of early houses everywhere below the temenos.

The excavation of the Agora at Athens has now been begun by the Greek Archaeological Society, by clearing an area east of the Theseum. This is, however, only a beginning of the whole scheme, and as the area to be ultimately excavated has been entirely covered with houses, the expenses, as the law now stands, are prohibitive. Some such special decree, as that by which the village on the site of Delphi was moved, will be necessary if the work is to be carried out as it should be.

An excavation on the site of Pagasae, conducted by Dr Arvanitopoullos, the Ephor of Antiquities for Thessaly, has resulted in a remarkable find of painted grave-stelae. He excavated a small fifth-century tower, round which a larger tower had been hastily built in the Roman period. The foundation of this later tower and the space between it and the older building was packed with hundreds of stelae, decorated not with reliefs but with paintings. In all, 1005 pieces have been found, some thirty complete. From the lettering of the inscriptions they may be dated to the period between the fourth and the second century B.C. As specimens of Greek painting, their value can hardly be overstated, and it is fortunate that in many cases the colours have been excellently preserved.1

R. M. DAWKINS.

1 For further description, see under Sculpture and Minor Arts.

III

ITALIAN EXCAVATION

THE past year's reports (owing to absence from Rome, I am unable to deal with any report later than those appearing in the Notizie degli Scavi of February 1908) of excavations in Italy do not contain any records of archaeological work on a large scale. In Rome itself little has been done in the Forum and nothing on the Palatine: but the erection of new public buildings has given rise to some interesting and important discoveries, upon which official reports are (or will soon be) available. Elsewhere in Italy nothing of first-rate importance has occurred; but the brief summary which follows will show that the total of our knowledge has been in one way and another considerably increased. I have thought it best to group the records of discoveries locally, i.e. to describe them coming down Italy from north to south.

At Lovere some Roman tombs containing some objects of value, including some silver vessels, one with designs in relief, have been found (Notizie degli Scavi, 1908, 3).

Excavations on the site of the palace of Theodoric at Ravenna were begun in September 1908 behind the façade which is generally called a part of this palace, but which really belongs to a later period, as is shown by the materials of which it is composed, the level at which it stands, and its divergent orientation from the remains now discovered. These consist of various rooms with mosaic pavements, including an atrium surrounded by arcades supported by pilasters, and a large hall. A number of fragments of

decorative marbles and glass tesserae from the wall mosaics have also been found.

The full report of the excavations conducted by M. Grenier on behalf of the French School of Rome at Bologna, mentioned in my last report has appeared in Mélanges de l'Ecole Française, 1907, 325 sqq. Though the excavations have not yet gone far enough to be absolutely conclusive, it seems probable that the people of the Villanova period were absolutely different from and independent of the Etruscans until the moment of the Etruscan conquest, when we find a complete change in the character of the tombs and of the objects found in them, without any trace of a transition stage. It is to be hoped that the investigations may be continued so as to give certainty to the conclusions already drawn.

A full report of the pre-Roman tombs found at Turin, near the steel works, in 1887, 1904, and 1905 is published in Notizie degli Scavi, 1907, 595. The pottery is of the Villanova type, but the tombs are inhumation tombs. Some were covered with a mound of stones, others enclosed by a circle of stones, in the centre of which was a rectangular excavation containing the body; while a third class shows the combination of the two forms (ibid. 621). The foundations of three large tombs of the Roman period close to one another, and destroyed in the sixteenth century, have also been found (ibid. 646).

The report on the discoveries in the cemeteries of Corneto (the ancient Tarquinii) is continued in Notizie degli Scavi, 1907, 227 sqq., 321 sqq. In the two most extensive cemeteries excavated the tombs are entirely cremation tombs, with urns of the Villanova type. An exception is formed by a hut urn somewhat different from the type usually found in Latium and Etruria. Other tombs excavated represent all the different periods (with the single exception of that of the Greek painted vases of the sixth and fifth centuries B.C.) of burials that have so far been found at Corneto. The objects have passed to the Museum at Florence. Pernier, who has compiled these reports,

accepts the view of Cozza and Pasqui, that the Etruscan city occupied the cite of the mediaeval town, while the Roman colony stood on the now deserted hill of the Civita. A similar double change of site has taken place at Civita Castellana (Falerii).

At Mortupo, near the Via Flaminia, a tomb of Roman date, containing paintings, one of which represents the myth of Hero and Leander, has been found, and the paintings acquired for the national collections (Notizie degli Scavi, 1907, 676), and, not far off, at Lepriguano, an ancient pottery kiln was discovered (ibid. 732).

We may now turn to the description of the discoveries in Rome itself.

Excavations close to the Arch of Titus have led to the discovery, at a lower level and at a different orientation from the arch itself, on the south-east and south-west of it, of two parallel walls of blocks of tufa, bearing masons' marks resembling those upon the "Servian" wall, which Comm. Boni attributes to the earlier temple of Jupiter Stator, inasmuch as they are more or less at right angles to the earlier Clivus Palatinus. The foundation of the temple on the left of the arch would then belong to a restoration of the imperial period, being perhaps contemporary with the arch itself.

At a lower level still are poles and remains of dolia similar to those of the necropolis near the temple of Antoninus and Faustina, as though there had been another burialplace here also; while at a higher level (though still below the level of the arch) are massive walls of blocks of travertine (which had previously served for some other building) a pavement of opus spicatum, drains, etc., all cut by the foundations of the arch.

The excavations at the west angle of the Palatine have been suspended since the autumn of 1907.

Three further reports have appeared (Notizie degli Scavi, 1907, 264, 444, 529). The second report deals with the extension of the work north-east: three different levels of