DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1117#0011
PREFACE ix
beyond the Aegean shores to Egypt and the Ancient East, has gone before
his time. Gone, too, but in the fullness of his years, is Friedrich von
Duhn, the revered German 'old master', whose broad sympathetic mind
preserved to the last a fresh interest in the wider archaeological bearings
of the discoveries at Knossos. More prematurely, again, has passed away
from us, Salomon Reinach, who, out of his universal learning, first appraised
their far-reaching significance, and whose stimulating interest and goodwill
not even ' Glozel' could seriously interrupt. And, then—as the last Sections
of this Work neared completion—the sad news reached me of the death of
Lewis Farnell, most loyal of friends, whose great work on the Cults of the
Greek States had clone much to secure the recognition of the abiding
influence of Minoan Religion.
The recent loss of Federico Halbherr, to whom the final Volume of
this Work is dedicated, so intimately concerns the first beginnings of scientific
research into the monuments of Ancient Crete and touches my own early
efforts in that direction so nearly, that some fuller appreciation is due in
this place. For he was the first in the field, the Patriarch of Cretan
excavation. Already in 1884—a worthy reward of long epigraphic study—
he had made his great discovery of the Inscription of the Laws of Gortyna.
This was ten years earlier than the date when the urge towards exploring
what lay behind the traditions of Minos and Daedalos, and of the fabled
Labyrinth, together with the quest of a still earlier form of writing, had
led me to Knossos. There it had materialized in the acquisition
of proprietary rights on the site from its then Turkish owners (since
transferred to the British School at Athens). During the critical times
that followed, when Turkish obstruction blocked all work on the site itself,
it was largely due to Halbherr's friendly help and advice and to his seasoned
knowledge of local conditions that I was able, amidst difficulties and some
dangers, to continue my explorations in quest of pre-Hellenic remains
throughout the Centre and East of the Island, till finally—as the result
of the Cretan Insurrection, bringing with it the arrival of Prince George of
Greece, and not a little through his kind offices—it was possible to begin
the excavation.
Himself an Italian of Alpine stock, austere by nature and devout,
Halbherr's apparently slight frame showed itself capable of singular endur-
ance, and, though at times prostrated by fever, he pursued his extraordinarily
successful researches under the roughest conditions of life and travel. His
beyond the Aegean shores to Egypt and the Ancient East, has gone before
his time. Gone, too, but in the fullness of his years, is Friedrich von
Duhn, the revered German 'old master', whose broad sympathetic mind
preserved to the last a fresh interest in the wider archaeological bearings
of the discoveries at Knossos. More prematurely, again, has passed away
from us, Salomon Reinach, who, out of his universal learning, first appraised
their far-reaching significance, and whose stimulating interest and goodwill
not even ' Glozel' could seriously interrupt. And, then—as the last Sections
of this Work neared completion—the sad news reached me of the death of
Lewis Farnell, most loyal of friends, whose great work on the Cults of the
Greek States had clone much to secure the recognition of the abiding
influence of Minoan Religion.
The recent loss of Federico Halbherr, to whom the final Volume of
this Work is dedicated, so intimately concerns the first beginnings of scientific
research into the monuments of Ancient Crete and touches my own early
efforts in that direction so nearly, that some fuller appreciation is due in
this place. For he was the first in the field, the Patriarch of Cretan
excavation. Already in 1884—a worthy reward of long epigraphic study—
he had made his great discovery of the Inscription of the Laws of Gortyna.
This was ten years earlier than the date when the urge towards exploring
what lay behind the traditions of Minos and Daedalos, and of the fabled
Labyrinth, together with the quest of a still earlier form of writing, had
led me to Knossos. There it had materialized in the acquisition
of proprietary rights on the site from its then Turkish owners (since
transferred to the British School at Athens). During the critical times
that followed, when Turkish obstruction blocked all work on the site itself,
it was largely due to Halbherr's friendly help and advice and to his seasoned
knowledge of local conditions that I was able, amidst difficulties and some
dangers, to continue my explorations in quest of pre-Hellenic remains
throughout the Centre and East of the Island, till finally—as the result
of the Cretan Insurrection, bringing with it the arrival of Prince George of
Greece, and not a little through his kind offices—it was possible to begin
the excavation.
Himself an Italian of Alpine stock, austere by nature and devout,
Halbherr's apparently slight frame showed itself capable of singular endur-
ance, and, though at times prostrated by fever, he pursued his extraordinarily
successful researches under the roughest conditions of life and travel. His