Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2007 with funding from IVIicrosoft Corporation http://www.archive.org/details/discoveriesincreOOburruoft THE DISCOVERIES IN CRETE PLATE I Vases from Hagia Triada Scale—A 1:3, B i : 2. FHE DISCOVERIES IN CRETE AND THEIR BEARING ON THE HISTORY OF ANCIENT CIVILISATION By RONALD M. BURROWS PROFESSOR OF GREEK IN THE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, CARDIFF WITH ILLUSTRATIONS LONDON JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET, W. 1907 ) \ PRINTED BY HAZELL, WATSON AND VINEY, LD., LONDON AND AYLESBURY. if: PREFACE The present book is an attempt to meet a need that has been widely felt during the last few years, not only by classical scholars, but by the general cultured public. Mr. Arthur Evans's discoveries at Knossos made an impression on the popular imagination when they were first presented to the world six years ago, and the impression was deepened by the wonderful ex- hibition of Cretan art at Burlington House two years later. Even at that time, however, the accounts of the excavations that were accessible to the public were as fragmentary as they were fascinating. Since then the mass of new material has been so great that it has taken Mr. Evans all his time to publish the details as they came out in the various learned Journals which had a right to expect them. The promptness with which the result of each year's work has appeared is remarkable, and it has been out of the question to expect from Mr. Evans a general survey of the ground until the completion of the excava- tions. These have now been going on for six years, at Knossos and on other Cretan sites, and are not nearly completed. It may still be years vi PREFACE before we see, what we all look forward to, the great and final book on Knossos. Meanwhile learned monographs on different sections of the subject have been fast accumu- lating. They form the principal contents of six successive Annuals of tfie British School at Athens, and a not inconsiderable portion of the six cor- responding volumes of The Journal of Hellenic Studies, There is hardly a specialist journal in the world that has not contributed something to the solution of the problems involved, and many of them are not easily accessible. Those of Italy, in particular, whose contributions to the subject are of next importance to our own, are unde- servedly difficult of access in this country. It is not only, too, that the literature of the subject is extensive : the literature of any subject is, if you go deep enough. The commendable promptness of the yearly reports has brought with it one inevitable corollary. Each of them largely, and often tacitly, corrects and modifies those that precede it. The Eastern Court of one year becomes the Central Court of the next ; the Quadruple Staircase of one illustration loses the point of its adjective when the remains of a fifth flight are discovered ; the Middle Minoan of one stage in Mr. Evans's searchings after truth is sub- divided into three, or has its edges, perhaps, shaded off into Early Minoan III., or Late Minoan I. We have another Labyrinth, with many windings PREFACE vii and pitfalls. The bewildering quickness, indeed, with, which everything moves is itself a tribute to the brilliance and fertility of Mr. Evans's ideas. He leads, and the other distinguished archagologists who are at work in the same field follow, and follow at a distance. The world outside cannot follow at all, and urgently clamours for help. It is this help that the present book attempts to give, and the moment of its appearance, during a partial lull of excavation, is an opportune one. There is a chance to take breath and gather up the threads, with the possibility that the next month's spade-work will not put us out of date. It is written, as far as possible, in untechnical language, and does not expect its readers to know by instinct what is meant by a " Schnabelkanne," or a "Vase a etrier." It aims at giving a picture of Cretan civilisation as a whole, and at presenting it in a manner that will make it alive and real. References, however, to the original publications have been given throughout, and it is hoped that the book may thus serve, not only as a general introduction to the subject, but also as a bibliographical guide to students who wish to pursue it seriously. Its main object is to give a clear and comprehensive account of where we stand, rather than to embody the writer's original research ; but the criticism of Minoan Chronology (pp. 44-6, 50-1, 66-83, 93-7), the argument ^3 to viii PREFACE the Four Labyrinths (pp. 109-26), and some of the lines of inquiry opened up in the last four chapters, embody suggestions that are, I think, to some extent new. The criticism that there might with advantage be more illustrations is an obvious one. That the book should be cheap, however, was more important than that it should be illustrated ; and a desirable result will be attained if readers insist on their nearest public library taking in The Annual of the British School at Athens and The Journal of Hellenic Studies^ in which admirable reproductions have appeared of three-fourths of what is here described. The illustrations that are here given are at least characteristic and useful. The Strata Section gives some idea of Mr. Evans's method of classi- fication, and the Cupbearer, on the cover, of the level of excellence reached by the art that he has made known to us. The Sketch Map of Crete is probably a better one for the purpose than any published elsewhere, and owing to the kindness of Mr. Evans and the Committee of the British School at Athens it has been possible to make the Plan of the Palace of Knossos an advance on any that has yet appeared. It is / hoped that this plan will be of use to students as well as to those who visit the spot. The last that Mr. Evans pubHshed was in 1902, and even the specialist finds some difficulty in fitting into PREFACE ix their proper places and relative distances the important discoveries of the three succeeding years of excavation. These it has been possible to show by a system of arrow-heads and approximate distaixees, while the marking on the plan by a series of numbers of the principal parts of the Palace mentioned in the text makes their identi- fication easier than it is in the original publications. Mr. A. H. Hallam Murray has given me the benefit of his great skill in draughtsmanship in the preparation of the plan. The two interesting vases from Hagia Triada, which I am enabled to reproduce by the great kindness of Professor Halbherr, have never yet been published in England. My obligations are great and numerous. They are first and foremost to Mr. Evans himself, for unfailing help and kindness at every stage of my work. After him I owe most to his first lieutenant at Knossos, Dr. Duncan Mackenzie, and to Pro- fessor R. C. Bosanquet, late Director of the British School at Athens. To these three archaeologists, and indeed to all of those who, whether as prin- cipals or assistants, have conducted the excavations in Crete, I wish to offer a sincere expression of respect and admiration. Crete has been fortunate in its excavators, to whatever nationality they have belonged. If, in what will be acknowledged to be relatively a small number of cases, I have ventured to put forward opinions that they X PREFACE apparently do not share, I can assure them that I do so with diffidence, and with the consciousness that it is to their ungrudging labours and their scientific spirit that I or any one else owes the opportunity of forming an opinion at all. Further obligations in regard to particular sides of the subject will be acknowledged in the foot- notes. My friend Professor R. S. Conway has allowed me to incorporate as an Appendix an im- portant philological note on my suggestions as to the possible derivation of the word Labyrinth. On Egyptian matters I have received valuable assist- ance from Professor von Bissing, of Munich, and Mr. H. R. Hall, of the British Museum; Mr. L. W. King, of the British Museum, has also been kind enough to allow me to make use of an unpublished discovery of his in regard to the early history of Mesopotamia. It would be ungracious to mention the British Museum without adding an expression of gratitude to Mr. Cecil Smith, and all the officials of the Graeco-Roman Department, whose courtesy and patience makes the work of research so much easier for many of us. I must also thank the Editor of The Church Quarterly for allowing me to make use of material that I published in it a year ago; at one time it seemed as if it would bulk more largely in the present book than it has in point of fact. My former pupil, Miss G. E. Holding, Classical Mistress of the North PREFACE xi London Collegiate School, and my present pupil, Mr. J. H. Sanders, Exhibitioner of Balliol College, Oxford, have also been of great help to me in verifying references and correcting proofs. It is scarcely necessary to add that neither Mr. Evans nor any other of those who have helped me must be held responsible for any views here expressed, unless they are directly attributed to them.