These travels occupied us during four weeks of July and August 1962. Our initial intention was not to look for new sites, but to visit those already known, in order to revise the lists in Pendlebury's The Archaeology of Crete (1939).
Crete has perhaps been more thoroughly explored than any other part of Greece. Pashley (Travels in Crete (1837)) and Spratt (Travels and Researches in Crete (1865)) identified many ancient Greek and Roman cities. At the end of the nineteenth century came Evans, and the Italians Halbherr, Mariani, Savignoni, and Taramelli, who began the search for Bronze Age sites continued by Pendlebury, Kirsten, and others between the wars. Much has also been contributed by a series of distinguished Antiquities Officers, I. Hatzidakes, St. Xanthoudides, and Sp. Marinatos; and since the war by N. Platon, whose very full annual reports in Kritika Khronika have provided a valuable record of current excavations and discoveries. In recent years P. Faure has located many new sites in the course of exploring the caves of Crete.