British School of Archæology at Athens, 1935–36

Abstract

ALTHOUGH the Annual of the British School at Athens no longer provides a general view of the activities of the School and its students—information which now must be sought in a separate publication—its contents continue to record the more important operations of its members. The volume for 1935–36 (London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1939. 42s. net), however, opens with an account, very fully illustrated, by Dr. Alex. Philadelphus, director of the National Museum of Athens, of the Anavysos Kouros, a remarkable example of archaic art, in fact “one of the most perfect and almost the last link in the long chain of Apollos or kouroi that have come down to us”, probably dating at about 530 B.C. This statue, which was recovered in fragments from an antique dealer in Paris, had been smuggled out of Greece by sea a few years ago from Anavysos, near Laurium. Of the remainder of the contents of the volume the greater part is given up to the excavation of the cave of Trapeza on the plain of Lasithi in eastern Crete. This cave was first discovered by Sir Arthur Evans in 1896, who refers to it as containing objects mainly of the Hellenistic period, but also a faienco figure of Bes and fragments of gold leaf, which afterwards found a parallel in the Early Minoan jewellery at Mokhlos. Apart from mention by Taramelli and Bosanquet, it received no attention from archæologists until 1935, when it was visited by members of the School. In 1936, between May 4 and 19, it was excavated by Miss Money-Coutts, Mr. and Mrs. J. D. S. Pendlebury and others. Judging from the finds, the contents of the cave originally must have been rich. Although metal was comparatively rare, gold, silver, bronze (or copper), and lead were all represented. The deposits in the cave, however, had been much disturbed by treasure hunters, and in one spot only were they intact. It has, therefore, been possible to study the pottery found for the most part on stylistic evidence only, and to reconstruct the history of the cave accordingly. It would appear to have been occupied as a habitation site in Late Neolithic, and to havo been used for communal interment from Early Minoan II until the end of Early Minoan III.