J UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA THE MUSEUM ANTHROPO LOGICAL PUBLICATIONS V O L. I I I N O. 2 EXCAVATIONS IN EASTERN CRETE SPHOUNGARAS EDITH H. HALL PHILADELPHIA PUBLISHED BY THE UNIVERSITY MUSEUM 1912 Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2014 http://archive.org/details/excavationsineas00doha_1 UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA THE MUSEUM ANTHROPOLOGICAL PUBLICATIONS VO L. I I I N O. 2 EXCAVATIONS IN EASTERN CRETE SPHOUNGARAS BY EDITH H. HALL PHILADELPHIA PUBLISHED BY THE UNIVERSITY MUSEUM 1912 CONTENTS PAGE INTRODUCTION 43 THE SPHOUNGARAS SLOPE AND ITS DEPOSITS 45 THE NEOLITHIC DEPOSIT 46 EARLY MINOAN DEPOSIT A 48 EARLY MINOAN DEPOSIT B 53 A GROUP OF MIDDLE MINOAN I VASES 56 THE PITHOS-BURIALS 58 41 > EXCAVATIONS IN EASTERN CRETE SPHOUNGARAS INTRODUCTION. Between the town of Gournia (Yovpvia) and the sea-coast to the north, stretches a valley which is flanked on the east by a limestone ridge called Elatso Mouri ('EXarcro Movpt). At a distance of some 200 metres from the town the west face of this ridge is broken by a line of cliffs (PI. X) below which the hill slopes sharply away to the valley. It was along the upper margin of this slope, which goes by the name of Sphoungaras (^^ovyyapdq), that Mrs. C. H. Hawes in 1904 1 found three Early Minoan rock-shelter burials. The general appearance of this slope — a steep and rocky slope facing southwest — corre- sponds so closely to that of the hills on Pseira and Mochlos where cemeteries were found, that since his excavations on these islands, Mr. R. B. Seager has regarded this hillside as a probable site not only for occasional Early Minoan interments like those found by Mrs. Hawes but also for the extensive burial-place of the town of Gournia. Accordingly the Sphoungaras slope was selected for excava- tion, and on March 31, 1910, eight men were set to digging trial trenches near the center of the hill. Within an hour the small gold ring of Fig. 24 came to light together with fragments of Early Minoan pottery and a few bones. The same day a burial in an in- verted pithos was discovered and near it many fragments of cups of a type associated both with Middle Minoan III and with Late Minoan I remains. It being thus apparent that we had to do with an extensive cemetery which was in use both in the Early Minoan 1 See Transactions of the Department of Archaeology of the University of Pennsylvania, Vol. I, Part III (IQ05), pp. 179-182 and Gournia, p. 56. 43 44 ANTHROPOLOGICAL PUB. UNIV. OF PA. MUSEUM, VOL. III. period and at a subsequent epoch in the bronze-age, it was decided to excavate the hill systematically with a larger force of workmen, and the next day, after trial trenches at the foot of the slope had determined the point where interments began, forty men were started in line at the foot of the hillside. The soil was found to be everywhere full of fragments of pithoi and larnakes and, here and there, where sufficient depth of earth remained, groups of unbroken pithoi came to light. Within the three weeks that the excavation lasted, 150 of these burial jars were found, the majority of which proved to be of Late Minoan I date. Since no burials of this period had been hitherto found, the Sphoungaras slope offered valuable evidence as to the method of interment employed in this epoch. Another result of the excavation was the recovery of Minoan skulls and bones which were so well preserved within their protecting walls of clay that twenty skulls could be saved, a few of which were in excellent condition. Some report of these skulls has already been, made by Mr. C. H. Hawes in Report Brit. Ass. Trans. Sections, Sheffield, iqio; Report on Cretan Anthropometry, p. 3. The other results of the excavation were given over to me for publication, although the work was under Mr. Seager's direction; to his experience and information I have been con- stantly indebted in writing this report. The objects found went for the most part to the Candia Museum; a few specimens were granted to the University of Pennsylvania Museum in the name of which the work was carried on and from which we received a grant of money. We were fortunate in securing the services of the English architect, Mr. F. G. Newton, to draw a plan of the site. EDITH H. HALL — EXCAVATIONS IN EASTERN CRETE. 45 THE SPHOUNGARAS SLOPE AND ITS DEPOSITS The Sphoungaras slope, like many other steep hillsides of Crete, had been stripped of most of its soil. In this process of denudation the higher parts of the hill had become quite bare except here and there where the slipping soil had found lodgment against a boulder, or just below the cliffs where the overhanging rock protected the earth below. Near the foot of the hill the deposit of earth was sufficient to cover the tall burial jars, although some of these lay only a few inches below the surface where, in view of the centuries during which this field had undergone cultivation, it seemed incredible that a plough had not reached them. The upper part of the hill had suffered not only from the denudation of its soil, but also from the falling of boulders from the cliffs, which had seemingly broken up whatever pottery had not already been washed down the hill. The number of potsherds strewn about the lower slope bore witness to the extent of the havoc. Thus, when in the course of the excavations the upper part of the slope was reached, the deposit of earth together with the ancient remains came abruptly to an end and we saw that the area where the soil was deep enough to make excavations possible was confined to a comparatively narrow belt. There were however these excep- tions: just outside the cave which had been partially cleared by Mrs. Hawes, was found a considerable Early Minoan deposit (B on plan, PI. XV) ; at the top of the hill between the cliff and some boulders (C on plan) were found three pithoi together with fragments of others and as many as 8 skulls; lastly, some metres to the south — outside the limits of the plan — were found broken remnants of both Early and Late Minoan burials, which were evidently in their original position but had been crushed by fallen rocks. The interments could be divided into two main classes, (i) burials in the earth without pithoi, the general area of which is marked on the plan by hatched lines, and (2) burials in 46 ANTHROPOLOGICAL PUB. UNIV. OF PA. MUSEUM, VOL. III. inverted pithoi each indicated on the plan by a circle. The pottery associated with the former was of Early Minoan II and Early Minoan III date, with an admixture of Middle Minoan I fabrics. The jars used in the latter class of burials were mostly of the Middle Minoan III and Late Minoan I periods although a few specimens, dating from the Middle Minoan I period, occurred. We have also to mention a small neolithic deposit which underlay the Early Minoan remains at the point marked Fig. 20. — Early Minoan II Plates. Scale 1:7. D on the plan. The walls which were found were practically negligible; only two or three small stretches came to light and these seemed to be the remains of short retaining walls rather than those of graves or tombs. The deposits will now be de- scribed in chronological order. THE NEOLITHIC DEPOSIT Ten metres south of the rock-shelter, under the Early Minoan deposit at the point marked D, there came to light a layer of black earth which was found to contain a neolithic de- posit, the first which has as yet appeared on the Isthmus of Hierapetra. The position of these remains so close to a cave, recalls the megalithic house at Magasa; 1 but since in this case 1 See R. M. Dawkins, B. S. A., XI (1904-1905), p. 263. EDITH H. HALL — EXCAVATIONS IN EASTERN CRETE. 47 no house-walls were found, we may suppose that a structure of some perishable material, perhaps a wattled mud hut, served as an extension to the narrow space available within the cave itself. No neolithic deposit was found in the cave or immedi- ately outside it but this was to be expected inasmuch as it had been used as a burial place by the people of the Early Minoan period who would have probably cleared it out to make room for their dead. The objects found in this deposit were chiefly sherds of coarse clay shading from brown to black and containing particles of white sand. Their outer surface was generally of a brownish Fig. 21. — New Types of Early Minoan II Mottled Ware. Scale 1:4. red color and rudely finished. Mr. Duncan Mackenzie, who kindly examined these sherds for me, pronounced them to be a late neolithic fabric dating from the very end of the stone-age. Among these fragments was a wish bone handle like that found in the megalithic house at Magasa. 1 There also occurred a worked bone like those from Magasa. 2 These analogies are striking, but the pottery seems to show that 1 See R. M. Dawkins, loc. cit., Fig. 3, c, and PI. VIII, 27-29. 2 Ibid., PI. VIII, n-18. 48 ANTHROPOLOGICAL PUB. UNIV. OF PA. MUSEUM, VOL. III. our neolithic farmstead is later than the better built one at Magasa. EARLY MINOAN DEPOSIT A The first Early Minoan deposit which we have to describe (marked A on the plan) was on that part of the hill where digging began, and extending as it did over so large an area and yielding objects so similar to those found in the Early Minoan tombs at Mochlos, there was every indication that the cemetery was to date mainly from the Early Minoan age The deposit was from one to three feet deep and overlay hardpan or limestone so acted on by the acids of the soil as to render it soft. There was only one piece of wall found within this area. Just how the dead had been interred we could not determine; the bones which here came to light were so fragmentary that it was im- possible to say whether they belonged to primary or to secondary burials. They lay loose in the earth beside the vases and orna- ments that had been buried with the dead and were badly rotted. There were no traces of cremation. It is probable, in view of the evidence from other Cretan sites, that these were primary burials in "cists rudely built of small stones" like those noted by Mr. Hogarth in caves at Zakro 1 and by Mr. Seager on Pseira, but it is also possible that larnakes were sometimes used in this period, for among the fragments of pottery found were many heavy sherds of coarse red clay which came from straight sided vessels like larnakes. By far the most common ware in this Early Minoan deposit was the red and black mottled pottery usually known as Vasiliki (Baa-iXiKij) ware after the place where it was first found. 2 The mottled colors were still in some instances fairly brilliant although in general the soil of the Sphoungaras hill had had a disastrous effect upon the painted surface. A feature peculiar to the specimens from the Sphoungaras hill was that the inside of the vase was frequently a uniform black. Often the black 1 B. s. A., VII, p. 143. 2 See Seager, Transactions, I, Part III, pp. 207-220'. EDITH H. HALL EXCAVATIONS IN EASTERN CRETE. 49 extended quite evenly over the top of the outside as if these vases, like the black-topped ware from Egypt, had been placed upside down in a bed of coals. The commonest types were egg-cups of which 8 appeared and plates of which 1 1 were found and 8 could be restored. No illustrations of the egg-cups are given since they correspond so closely to those from Vasiliki; 1 specimens of the plates are shown in Fig. 20. This shape has been found at Zakro 2 and at Fig. 22. — Early Minoan II Pottery. Scale 1:3. Vasiliki, 3 but only a few specimens have been hitherto recovered. One plate in Fig. 20 has waved lines painted in white above the mottled surface — a method noted before 4 and practiced, evidently, at the very end of the Early Minoan II period. In addition to egg-cups and plates this deposit yielded other familiar types of mottled ware such as jugs and bridge-spouted bowls and also several new shapes, which are shown in Fig. 21. 15. S.J., VII, P . 143. * hoc. cit., PI. XXXIV, 1. 3 Transactions, II, 2, p. 116. 4 Transactions, I, 3, p. 116. 50 ANTHROPOLOGICAL PUB. UNIV. OF PA. MUSEUM, VOL. III. The jug is embellished by rows of punctuated dots arranged along the shoulder and from the shoulder to the neck. Together with the mottled red and black Vasiliki ware there also occurred in this deposit specimens of other Early Minoan II fabrics, shown in Fig. 22. These were: 1. Small jug of coarse black clay with punctuated dots around neck (Fig. 22, b). 2. Tiny jug of same clay. 3. Rimmed jar with foot, of similar clay (Fig. 22, d). 4. Fragments of a side-spouted cup with a hatched design in dark paint on the buff ground of the clay. A cup similar to this was found at Koumasa. 5. Fragments of a round bodied jug of coarse buff clay (Fig. 22, g). 6. Mug of coarse red clay with heavy handle and spout (Fig. 22, c). 7. Clay lamp similar to one found at Vasiliki (Fig. 22, a)} 8. " Fruit-stand" or cover (Fig 22, f). 2 9. A curious vase with perforated sides, and handles in the form of animals. There were also found in this deposit the following specimens of Early Minoan III ware: 1. Round-bodied cup with design of spirals connected by groups of lines (Fig. 23, e)} 2. Straight sided cup with design of festoons and dots (Fig. 23, 1). 3. Round-bodied cup with similar design. 4. Cup, elliptical in section (Fig. 23, a). The lunettes and dots in the horizontal band of decoration on this cup did not come out even, apparently, so the potter cut one of the lunettes in two with three diagonal lines. 1 Transactions, II, 2, p. 122, Fig. 5, a. * Several specimens of this class of vases have been found by Mr. Seager at Mochlos and by- Mr. Xanthoudides at Koumasa; the former thinks that they were not covers because no vases which they might fit have been found with them; the latter calls them covers because incised decoration has been found on the outside of some specimens. 5 Cf. Transactions, Vol. I, Part III, p. 200, and PI. XXVII. EDITH H. HALL EXCAVATIONS IN EASTERN CRETE. 51 5- Similar cup also elliptical in section. Here the potter introduced a hatched triangle to make his design come out even (Fig. 23, c). 6. Beaked jug, covered almost entirely with a black paint on which are horizontal bands of white and between them dotted triangles and festoons (Fig. 23,/). 7. Similar jug with diagonal lines of white and hatched triangles on a dark paint ground (Fig. 23, d). Fig. 23. — Early Minoan III Cups and Jugs. Scale 1:3. The stone objects which were found in this deposit are as follows: 1. Breccia bowl (4 cm. high; 6 cm. diam.), found with fragments of a larnax and a few scanty remnants of bones on the very outskirts of this deposit at a point marked E on the plan. 2. Green steatite bowl with handle (2 cm. high; 5.1 cm. diam.), found in a mixed deposit containing both Middle Minoan I and Early Minoan III pottery. 52 ANTHROPOLOGICAL PUB. UNIV. OF PA. MUSEUM, VOL. III. 3. Small translucent green soapstone lid with four perfo- rations (.046 m. diam.). 4. Stone arrow-head. 5. Heavy stone rings evidently used as weights. The soapstone lid and the arrow-head lay close together beside fragments of Early Minoan II plates, which fixes their date as Early Minoan II — a date already practic- ally certain since Mr. Seager's discovery of stone vases in Early Minoan II tombs on Mochlos. In these Mochlos tombs such delicate little stone vases were associated with beautiful gold- work which rivals in technical perfection the finest jewelry of fifth century goldsmiths. The Sphoungaras cemetery did not yield such abund- ance of gold objects as was found in the Moch- los tombs, but two pendant chains, one of which is shown in Fig. 24, surpass in delicacy the finest specimens from the Mochlos gold treasure. The chains are double linked and exquisitely wrought; the heart-shaped ornaments at the end are of thin gold-leaf. These pendants lay quite close to sherds of Early Minoan II red and black mottled ware. The other gold objects from this deposit are also shown in Fig. 24; they are the gold ring already re- ferred to and a gold bead. Other objects of importance from this area were the following: 1. Ivory seal (Fig. 25, a) roughly hemispherical and crudely modelled in the form of a bird's head. The hole for suspension passes from the top through the beak. The sealing surface shows, in intaglio, the figure of a man standing between a four- legged animal and a snake (?). Similarly shaped seals have been found at Koumasa 1 and at Agia Triada. 2 The design on Fig. 24. — Gold Objects from Early Minoan Deposit A. Scale 2:3. 1 Unpublished. 2 Unpublished. Here the seal is in the shape of a horse's head. EDITH H. HALL EXCAVATIONS IN EASTERN CRETE. 53 the sealing surface must be regarded as the prototype of those representations of goddesses standing between animals or birds heraldically placed, which are so charac- teristic of Cretan culture. 2. Ivory seal with curved top and geometric design on the sealing surface (Fig. 25, b). This seal is similar to one from a house on Mochlos. 1 It may be compared, also, to two unpublished seals from Agia Triada (Nos. 463 and 438 in the Candia Museum Catalog), and to a seal published in Mem. R. 1st. Lomb., 1904, Vol. XXI, Tav. X. 3. Small ivory spindle whorl. 4. Ivory idol (head missing) like those from Koumasa and one from Agia Triada published in Mem. R. 1st. Lomb., 1904, Vol. XXI, Tav. XI, lower row, sec- ond from the right end. 5. Bronze tweezers or snuffers (Fig. 26). 6. Triton shells. Fig. 25. — Early Minoan II Ivory Seals. Scale 2:3. Fig. 26. — Bronze Tweezers from Early Minoan Deposit A. Scale 2:3. EARLY MINOAN DEPOSIT B The other Early Minoan deposit on the Sphoungaras hill began at a point one metre from the opening of the rock-shelter and ex- tended west along the cliff and then south over the small neolithic stratum described on p. 46. A part of this area had been already explored by Mrs. Hawes and had yielded a number of vases. 4 1 A. J. A., XIII (1909), p. 280. 2 See Transactions, Vol. I, Part III, p. 179 f., and Gournia, p. 56. The vases here pub- lished must now, in the light of subsequent excavations, be regarded as Early Minoan II, not as Early Minoan I. 54 ANTHROPOLOGICAL PUB. UNIV. OF PA. MUSEUM, VOL. III. The pottery from this deposit is shown in Fig. 27 and is as follows : 1. Bird-shaped vase (Fig. 27, g). 2. Three-legged lamp (Fig. 27,/). 3. Later Middle Minoan III or Late Minoan I lamp, which must have worked down from a higher level (Fig. 27, h). 4. Small " flower-pot" of coarse black clay (Fig. 27, e). D H Fig. 27. — Early Minoan II Pottery from Deposit B. Scale 3:4. 5. Four clay polishers probably used for finishing the surface of vases (Fig. 27, a, b, c, d). 6. Large red and black mottled schnabelkanne, 36 cm. high. 7. Three side-spouted " flower-pots" found with the schnab- elkanne just outside the mouth of the cave. Two small green soapstone vases were also found in this deposit, a bowl 2.5 cm. high and a little dish barely 2 cm. high with three handles and a spout. A bowl of black steatite of a type associated with a later period of stone-cutting was also EDITH H. HALL — EXCAVATIONS IN EASTERN CRETE. 55 found in this deposit, having in all probability worked its way down from a higher level. All along the margins of these Early Minoan deposits and indeed sometimes quite within their limits occurred traces of Middle Minoan III and Late Minoan I burials in inverted jars. G H Fig. 28. — Middle Minoan I Vases. Scale 1:5. Where such later interments were numerous the earlier deposits ceased to appear. It seems accordingly possible that the entire slope had been used as a burial place in Early Minoan times and that many of these earlier graves had been removed by later inhabitants to make room for their own dead. It is also possible that the earlier graves had been plundered by later generations and that fine goldwork like the pendant of Fig. 24 had thus disappeared. And if we are to suppose a rich and extensive cemetery on the hillside of Sphoungaras we must also suppose an extensive settlement in the town of Gournia. This is indeed the most important conclusion to be drawn from these early burials, viz. that the town of Gournia was a large and prosperous com- munity in the Early Minoan II period. 56 ANTHROPOLOGICAL PUB. UNIV. OF PA. MUSEUM, VOL. III. A GROUP OF MIDDLE MINOAN I VASES Before describing the later pithos-burials, mention should be made of a group of Middle Minoan I vases which could not be assigned either to these later burials in jars or to the older Early Minoan interments. They lay for the most part along the northern confines of the early deposit A in an area marked F on plan, where the two types of burial — the earlier in graves and the later in jars — were mixed. Some specimens in the following list lay close to Early Minoan vases; other were adjacent to pithos-burials. Now we shall soon see that a few of the earliest burials in jars are to be assigned to the Middle Minoan I period. It is thus possible that these Middle Minoan I cups and jugs were buried along with the pithoi containing the dead. But it is equally possible that these vases had been interred in graves, for pottery of the Middle Minoan I period was found in cist graves on Pseira, adjacent to burials in jars. These Middle Minoan I vases are as follows: 1. Two-handled side-spouted cup of hand-polished buff clay (Fig. 28, d). The similarity of this ware to the buff hand- polished ware of the Early Minoan II period has been pointed out by Mr. Seager. 1 Only by the shape may these undecorated wares of the two periods be distinguished. This vase was found close to the red and black jug of Fig. 21 and also to the Middle Minoan I jar of Fig. 31. 2. Squat vase with two small side-handles and large side- spout (Fig. 28,/). Traces of circles of red paint are visible on the shoulder, and lines of the same on the neck. For this reason the vase is assigned to the Middle Minoan I period; on other grounds it might well be called Early Minoan II. This vase was from a mixed deposit containing both red and black egg-cups and Middle Minoan I cups and jugs. 3. Painted bowl with central ornament in the form of a flower. (Fig. 29.) The body-paint varies from brown to black. 1 See Explorations in the Island of Mochlos, p. 8. EDITH H. HALL — EXCAVATIONS IN EASTERN CRETE. 57 On this background are painted both inside and out red and white festoons interspersed with white quirks. The petals of the flower are painted white with red dividing lines. This vase was found together with red and black egg-cups as well as fragments of other Middle Minoan I cups. Comparable cups with modelled ornaments inside were found at Palaikastro; in B. S.A., IX, 1902-1903, p. 302, Fig. I, 5<3, a specimen is shown where the central ornament is a dog. In other cups the central ornaments were birds, but no flowers were noted. Fig. 29. — Middle Minoan 1 Bowl. Scale 2:3. 4. Tall straight sided cup, in shape like Middle Minoan II and Late Minoan I cups. Its painted surface varies from brown to black, a possible reminiscence of the mottled red and black Early Minoan II style (Fig. 28, g). Similar cups were found at Vasiliki in Middle Minoan I context. 5. Three round-bodied cups of buff clay with lines of dark paint on rim and handle (Fig. 28, b. Large red carnelian seal with design of vase and plants Compare loc. cit., ttiv. 7, No. 47, /3 and y (Fig. 45,/). c. Rock crystal lentoid seal with geometric de- sign. (Fig. 45, h). d. Amethyst amydgaloid seal with squid orna- Fig. 44.— Lead ment 45' For smiilar representations of a Ring Found in- squid compare loc. cit., ttiv. 7, Nos. 51 and 81. side Burial-jar- 6m R e d carnelian lentoid seal with design in Scale 2:3. the form of a conV entionalized vase (Fig. 45, d). f. Red carnelian amygdaloid seal with squid ornament more conventionalized than in d (Fig. 45, e). Fig. 43. — Bronze Rings from Burial- jars. Scale 2:3. 70 ANTHROPOLOGICAL PUB. UNIV. OF PA. MUSEUM, VOL. III. g. Small amethyst seal in shape of a flattened cylinder with heart-shaped design, and on the reverse pictographic (?) signs (Fig. 45, a). h. Small amethyst lentoid seal with a fish, sea-urchin, and other marine devices (Fig. 45, b). Cf. loc. cit., ttiv. 7, No. 94 (Fig. 29, a). There were also found two clay seals; the one lay adjacent to a pithos burial, the other (Fig. 40, c), like the Middle Minoan I pottery on the confines of the Early Minoan I deposit A, in a region where the Early Minoan interments and the later pithos burials were confused. Its date therefore is not fixed, but the graceful design of a whorl of fishes certainly seems older than the Late Minoan period. These sealstones, then, do not help to date their context but on the contrary they all, with the exception of the clay seal E. F C H Fig. 45. — Sealstones Found Inside Burial-jars. Scale i: I. last mentioned, may be said to be dated by it. The other objects, however, found within the jars and the pottery adjacent to them confirm the evidence which was derived from the patterns on the pithoi themselves and which went to show that these burials belong to the Middle Minoan I, the Middle Minoan III, and the Late Minoan I periods. Sporadic instances of squat burials in jars have occurred before in Crete. At Knossos a child burial was found in an inverted Middle Minoan III jar and at Pseira child burials were EDITH H. HALL — EXCAVATIONS IN EASTERN CRETE. 71 found in both Middle Minoan I and Middle Minoan III jars. At Vrokastro also, were found this year two child burials in jars — not inverted — adjacent to house walls. Such sporadic cases are of great value in helping to modify the discrepancy between the jar burials of the Sphoungaras cemetery and the widely divergent methods of other Cretan cemeteries, for they indicate that in more than one place and at more than one time was it the custom to bury children in jars. A possible hypothesis is that in no period of Cretan culture was it foreign to Minoan custom to bury the children in jars, but that in the three periods specified the practice was extended to adults as well as to chil- dren. Another possible hypothesis is that the poor only buried the dead in jars. This is the custom in some districts of China today; the poorer people for the purpose of economizing space, squeeze the bodies of their dead into jars. The citizens of Gournia, however, seem too prosperous to warrant such an explanation. In spite of the fact that a certain amount of con- servatism would be expected in regard to burying the dead, the truth seems to be that the Cretans of the Bronze Age experi- mented a good deal in this matter. The following table (p. 73) shows the different kind of burials found up to date in Crete; in some cases the cemeteries are on steep hillsides like Sphoungaras where tunnels were driven almost horizontally into the hill, in other cases, like the long narrow burial rooms of Palaikastro they are on nearly level ground. The occasional appearance of this crude method of burial side by side with other more civilized practices is not an isolated phenomenon. In Egypt the custom of " interment under pots appears in upper Egypt at the close of the predynastic period and is uniformly continuous through the early dynasties to the advent of the Fourth. It is associated with other early modes of burial. As a practice it is not common but constant; nor is it demonstrably representative of poorer or richer people or of a differing element of race." 1 1 Garstang, Tombs of the Third Egyptian Dynasty at Reqdqnah and Bet Khalldf, 1904, pp. 50-57. 72 ANTHROPOLOGICAL PUB. UNIV. OF PA. MUSEUM, VOL. III. A similar phenomenon moreover existed in all probability in Greek lands. At five sites — Thorikos, Aphidna, Aigina, Tiryns. and Arkesine on Amorgos — jar burials have been found which in the opinion of their excavators date from the "premy- cenaean" period. 1 In the absence of full publications of the pottery found with these burials, their date remains somewhat uncertain but it seems probable that during the early bronze age, jars instead of graves were occasionally used for burying the dead, at more than one place on the Greek mainland. All these graves were thought by M. Stais and by Dummler 2 to be the graves of a people who were quite distinct, racially, from the later Mycenaeans; they were called variously Carians, Lycians and Pelasgians. M. Tsountas alone maintained the opinion that a difference in burial did not necessarily imply a difference in race. In its bearing on this question, the evidence from Sphoungaras is apparently decisive, for it shows that the highly developed Minoan civilization as well as the older and more primitive societies of the mainland sometimes buried their dead in jars. This cemetery, moreover, serves to connect such earlier sporadic instances of burials under jars with the later practices of the geometric period. 1 For this list of pithos-burials I am indebted to Zehetmaier, Leichenverbrennung und Leichen- verstaltung im alien Hellas, p. 43. For the few particulars which are given about these burials see for those at Thorikos: 'E. 'Apx-, 1895, p. 228 f; for those at Aigina where no pithoi were re- covered but only the circular pits in which they had stood, id., p. 248; for those at Aphidna, Athen. Mitt., 1896, p. 385 ff; for those at Tiryns and Arkesine on Amorgos, 'E. Apx-, 1898, p. 210. 2 Cf. also Perrot and Chipiez, Histoire de Fart, II, p. 373. EDITH H. HALL — EXCAVATIONS IN EASTERN CRETE. 73 Early P Minoan I. Early Minoan II. No graves found. Rock shelters, Cist graves, Zakro, Hagios Nikolaos, Hagia Photia, Sphoungaras, Mochlos, Sphoungaras, Pseira, Mochlos, Rectangular chamber Mochlos, tombs (roofed). Circular chamber tombs The Messara Hagia Tri- (unroofed?), ada, Koumasa, Larnakes, Sphoungaras, B. S. A., VII, p. 143. B. S. A., IX, p. 340. Gournia, p. 56. Ibid. On evidence of loose stones. Unpublished. Explorations in the Island of Mochlos, p. 13. Mem. R. 1st. Lomb., XXI, 1905.. Unpublished. On evidence of fragments. Early Minoan III All the types of graves found in the Early Minoan II period occur here also. Middle Minoan I. Rock shelters, Hagia Photia, Cist graves (reused), Pseira, Narrow burial chambers, Palaikastro, Gournia, Vasiliki, 1 Circular chamber tombs The Messara, (unroofed?). Larnakes, Sphoungaras, B urial jars, Pseira, Sphoungaras, Gournia, p. 56. Unpublished, B. S. A., VIII, p. 291. Gournia, p. 56. Trans., Vol. II, Part II, p. 115. Unpublished. On the evidence of frag- ments. Unpublished. Middle Minoan II. No graves found. Middle Minoan III. Cist graves (reused), Burial jars, Pseira, Sphoungaras. Mochlos, Unpublished. Explorations in the Island of Mochlos, p. 14. Late Minoan I. Burial jars, Sphoungaras. Mochlos, Unpublished. Late Minoan II. Late Minoan III. Rectangular chamber tombs of squared blocks, and roofed, Pit graves, \ Shaft graves, j Isopata, Zafer Papoura, Prehistoric Tombs of Knossos, pp. 136 and 1-21. Id., pp. 1-21. Id., pp. 1-2 1. Larnakes, Beehive tombs, Pit graves, Shaft graves, Rectangular chamber- tombs. Gournia, Hagios Theodoros, Anoia Messaritica and Milatos, Palaiokastro, Episkopi, Erganos, Panagia and Courtes, Zafer Papoura, Gournia, pp. 45 and 46. Transactions', II, Part II, 1907, p. 131. Mon. Ant., 1889, p. 201. B. S. A., VIII, p. 303. Unpublished. A. J. A., 1901, Vol. XI, p. 259 ff. hoc. cit., pp. I— 21. 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