The site of ancient Knossos, which lies near the present village of Makryteichos, about four miles inland from Candia, is shut in by higher hills in three directions. Somewhat South however of the scanty remains of the Roman City, the ground gradually rises into a rounded hill generally known as Kephala or in its fuller form τοῦ Τσελεβῆ ἡ Κεφάλα—“the Squire's Knoll,” from the fact that it belonged to a local Bey or landowner whose country house stands by the stream below. This hill lies at the confluence of a tributary stream with the ancient Kairatos (now, Κατσαμπᾶς), and descends somewhat steeply towards these channels on the South and East.

The operations of the British School for the first two months of the excavation season of 1900 extended more or less over the whole site of Knosso the summit of the Kephala hillock excepted, which had been bought and reserved by Mr. Evans. In selecting this wide area I had for objective the cemeteries prior to the Geometric Period, the situation of which was, and I regret to say still is, unknown. In the event I found what I had not expected, namely a well-preserved early town.

The pottery found during the course of excavations this spring on the site of Knossos falls naturally into two groups, of which the larger and earlier, extending from Neolithic to Mycenaean times, came from Kephála and the houses south and south-west of the Kephála mound; while the smaller and less important group was found in tombs of Geometric date, discovered about a mile north of Kephála. Most of the finds belong to a few well-defined groups, and specimens of transitional periods are conspicuous by their absence.

I subjoin here a Latin inscription of some interest, copied at Knossos. It is rather coarsely cut on a stela unearthed no one knows where some years ago, and first seen by us in the garden adjoining the house of Said Bey Barakakis. The dimensions of the stone are 99 cm. × 38 cm. × 24 cm., and the lettering varies from 5 to 3 cm. in height. The stone is much worn on the right and towards the bottom.

The large double cavern situated to south-west of, and about 500 feet higher than Psychro, avillage of the upland Lasithi plain in Crete, has long been known to contain early votive objects (Plate IX. 1). The discovery was made by peasants about 1883, who were in the habit of housing goats and pigeons there, and in 1886 the noise of it brought to the spot Professor F. Halbherr in company with Dr. J. Hazzidakis. Their mission was to recover as many objects as possible from the peasants' hands, but also in the event they dug over about two square metres of the embanked terrace before the cave in the hope of finding remains of an altar. After their departure the peasants continued to burrow from time to time among the boulders in the upper cave, and to find bronzes, many of which were bought by Mr. A. J. Evans in 1894. In 1895 the latter, with Mr. J. L. Myres, visited the spot, and the same explorer, returning in 1896 and finding in Psychro a piece of an inscribed libation table, made a sinking into the deposit under the north wall of the upper grot, where the table had been found, and unearthed some objects. In 1897 came Mons. J. Demargne, of the French School at Athens, and boring under the south-western wall, found a second piece of a libation table, uninscribed.

The influence of the Aegean civilisation on South Palestine can hardly be said to be appreciably felt before the latter half of the Bronze Age. At this period the Mycenaean civilisation, though already decadent, was still flourishing very vigorously in the East Mediterranean, especially in places like Rhodes and Cyprus, the latter of which chiefly concerns us here. In the case of Cyprus this is natural, since, owing to its geographical position, the island served as an intermediary between East and West, and was peopled, partly at least, by representatives of the Mycenaean civilisation—though, of course, this says nothing as to the racial affinities of the area in question—and here seemingly this civilisation lasted on later than in the actual Aegean area.

The strict Lenten fast of the Greek Church is preceded by a carnival of a fortnight's duration. The week from Septuagesima Sunday to Sexagesima is celebrated with feasting and merriment subject to no religious restrictions; in the second week, although similar festivities continue, heightened rather than abated, no meat may be eaten; and on the morrow of Quinquagesima (for Monday is the first day of the Greek Lent), the full regulations as to fasting come into operation, not only meat, but fish, eggs, milk, cheese and oil being almost universally prohibited. None the less a free use of wine makes the Monday the climax of the carnival.