FOR several years past the attention of archaeologists has been directed more and more to Crete. The reasons for this access of interest in the antiquities of the great Mediterranean island have already been explained in the two articles on the “Older Civilisation of Greece,” which appeared in NATURE, vol. lxiv. p. n, and vol. lxvi. p. 390. In Crete, revelations of the older culture of the Greek lands are now being made at a very rapid rate, and it is to Mr. Arthur Evans that the palm for these revelations must be awarded. Through many years of greater or less success he has explored the byways of Crete, convinced that the great island would eventually yield results of the greatest importance for the elucidation of the early history of Mediterranean civilisation, and now he has had his reward in the remarkable discoveries which have attended the systematic excavations which he has at last been able to carry out on the site of the ancient Knossos? the city of Minos himself. It is the excavation of Knossos which has directed public attention to the possibilities of Cretan exploration, and there is no doubt that in importance this excavation ranks far higher than any other in Crete. This being so, it is with Knossos that we may fitly commence our survey of these Cretan; explorations. Enough has been said in the two articles previously mentioned to give the reader a general idea of the discoveries at Knossos, and of the peculiar characteristics of the earlier Mycenaean age in Crete which we ought, perhaps, rather to designate, with Mr. Evans, the “Minoan”; age-which have been revealed by these discoveries.