Syria and Crete: Further Discoveries

Abstract

SIR LEONARD WOOLLEY'S further report on his excavations in Syria is a striking justification of the prescience which sought in the area at the mouth of the Orontes evidence for the early relation of the civilizations of Crete and western Asia. The evidence which has been brought to light since the dispatch of his first report (see NATURE of June 13, p. 979) carries the story of the JEgean connexions of Syria from c. 900 B.C., the point at which the settlement at Tell Sheikh Yusuf begins, back to the Middle Minoan age of Crete, somewhere between 1700 and 1580 B.C. At Tell Atchana, a mound near the bank of the Orontes, half-way across the Amk plain in the rear of the Amanus mountains, Sir Leonard reports in The Times of June 25, trial excavations in a single trench, which lasted for no more than a fortnight, produced evidence of the existence in the heart of Syria of a city settlement, which was predominantly Cretan in character, and was deserted entirely not later than the twelfth century B.C. At an earlier stage of its history this city had been ravaged by fire and sword, as was shown by the evidence of the large buildings, of which the fire-scarred remains were uncovered. Here the floors were littered with fragments of pottery, among which Syrian wares were mingled with sherds showing characteristic Minoan motifs, as well as with specimens of the art of, at present, unknown provenance previously reported. The evidence indicates that the destruction of the building took place before the Late Minoan age began. The find of a Minoan bronze sword is balanced by a Mesopotamian bronze axe and chisels and cylinder seals. The link between Crete and the site on the Amk plain has yet to be demonstrated; but a clue is afforded by the ridge-top acropolis site at the head of the delta, where surface finds on one hand match the pottery of various periods at Tell Sheikh Yusuf, and on the other include fragments of Mycenaean and Cypriote bronze age wares corresponding with the later levels of Tell Atchana.