Constructive Excavation

Abstract

SIR ARTHUR EVANS began to excavate at Knossos in the winter of 1899–1900, and his annual campaigns have been almost without intermission, except during the War. The first volume of this account of the results appeared in 1921, the second in 1928; and there is still to be a fourth, and the much-needed index besides. Even this, however, apparently, will only bring the story of the Palace down to the moment of its destruction. What happened after that “final catastrophe” is nevertheless part of the history of the site, and an important phase in the transition from Minoan to classical Greek civilisation: and it is to be hoped that, in some way or other, the very large mass of evidence which the site affords may eventually be made available, however inferior in artistic performance the later occupants may have been.

The Palace of Minos: a Comparative Account of the Successive Stages of the Early Cretan Civilization as illustrated by the Discoveries at Knossos.

By Sir Arthur Evans. Vol. 3: The Great Transitional Age in the Northern and Eastern Sections of the Palace: the most Brilliant Records of Minoan Art and the Evidences of an Advanced Religion. Pp. xxiv + 525+ 24 plates. (London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1930.) 105s. net.