Page:History of Art in Primitive Greece - Mycenian Art Vol 1.djvu/460

 The Islands of the -^gean. 433 easily pictures to oneself as a second Mycenae. But we may expect to find on points other than Cnosus traces of Mycenian industry; if our expectations have been frustrated hitherto, it is for want of systematic excavations. Years ago I called Schlie- mann's attention to this virgin soil, which I assured him would prove fully as interesting and bear fruits as precious as those culled on the mainland. He journeyed to Crete ; but the fame of his wealth had gone before him ; so what with the disturbed state of the country and the absurd demands made by the owners of the soil for compensation, the indefatigable explorer left the place in disgust, and set his face once more towards his beloved H issarlik. The most interesting discoveries which of late have been made in the island are due to M. Halbherr, who excavated the site of Gortyna and the Idaean grotto. But as his researches bear upon the late archaic period of Grecian art, they do not enter into our present programme.^ Chance or sporadic excavations undertaken by local folk enable us to assert that in the depths of the Cretan soil is hidden the legacy of a plastic art which, to judge by the style and taste of the pieces to hand, is not very different from that of continental Greece, notably Argolis. No burials have as yet been found in the island which may, with any probability, be attributed to those Achaean princes who appear in the Epos under the names of Minos and Idomeneus. Should we be fortunate enough to light upon specimens in fairly good preservation, there will be no difficulty in identifying them ; the type to which they belong is too well known for that. Nothing has yet been discovered comparable to the great domed-buildings of Orchomenos and Mycenae ; but what raises our hopes is the fact that every monument that has been cleared betrays a close relationship to Mycenian art, either in the ground-plan or the objects found in the buildings themselves. Some twelve years ago, a farmer, whilst ploughing his field on the hill-side, suddenly uncovered a rock-hewn vault. It lies east of the modern village ^ Museo di antichita classica^ diretto da D. Comparetti ; Antichita delP antro di Zeus Idea descritte ed illustrate^ by F. Halbherr and P. Orsi, with big atlas, folio. The influence of Assyria is very marked on many of the bronzes, votive shields, and pateras under discussion; Egyptian designs, however, predominate. As the authors rightly observe, we have here imitations from the Phoenician art of the eighth or seventh century b.c. VOL. I. F F