DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.12762#0011
PREFACE
Dr. Stephanos Xanthoudides, at present Keeper of the Museum at Candia,
as well as Ephor General of Cretan Antiquities, will be well known to all archaeo-
logists who have occupied themselves with Minoan civilisation. In addition to
the series of investigations that forms the subject of the present volume, he has
already published discoveries on various districts of Central and Eastern Crete
that form welcome contributions to our knowledge of that early story. Such
—to cite only a few—are his account of the Oval House of Chamaizi, of the Votive
Stone Ladle from Arkhanes with a dedication in the Cretan linear-script, of the
Sepulchral Cave at Pyrgos with its rich store of Early Minoan pottery, and
of the storehouse of ritual furniture at Nirou Khani. It must be also said to
his special credit that he has not neglected either the general history or the
Byzantine and Venetian monuments and even the folk-lore of his native island.
He has also done good service by issuing an edition of Erotokrilos, the curious
rhymed romance of Cornaro, giving a picture of Crete as it existed under Venetian
rule, and at the same time forming a rich treasury of Cretan dialectic forms.
It is the more pleasure to me to add a few words to Dr. Xanthoudides' present
work—which in itself needs no introduction from me—that during the long
years in which I have myself been engaged in researches in Crete I have been
constantly indebted to his courtesy and helpfulness, and that, like other fellow-
workers, I have always found him ready to place at my disposal the results of
his discoveries. Owing to adverse conditions, many of those results, especially
as regards the remarkable finds of Mesara, have been too long held up. Pro-
fessor Droop's presentation of Dr. Xanthoudides' very full description is there-
fore all the more welcome. It derives, moreover, special value from the fact
that the translator himself has carried out archaeological work in the island,
and has a personal knowledge of the objects described.
My own particular interest in the group of early monuments on which so
much additional light has been thrown by Dr. Xanthoudides' researches began
thirty years ago, when on my first visit to Crete I was able to describe a remark-
able series of relics that had found their way to what was then the little
Museum of the Syllogos at Candia from an ossuary deposit at Hagios Onouphrios
near Phaestos. This deposit, as was clearly shown by later discoveries, un-
questionably belonged to a primitive beehive vault, destroyed by the peasants,
and from some of the seals and stone vessels that it contained I was enabled to
trace a connection with Egypt going back not only to the beginning of the
Dr. Stephanos Xanthoudides, at present Keeper of the Museum at Candia,
as well as Ephor General of Cretan Antiquities, will be well known to all archaeo-
logists who have occupied themselves with Minoan civilisation. In addition to
the series of investigations that forms the subject of the present volume, he has
already published discoveries on various districts of Central and Eastern Crete
that form welcome contributions to our knowledge of that early story. Such
—to cite only a few—are his account of the Oval House of Chamaizi, of the Votive
Stone Ladle from Arkhanes with a dedication in the Cretan linear-script, of the
Sepulchral Cave at Pyrgos with its rich store of Early Minoan pottery, and
of the storehouse of ritual furniture at Nirou Khani. It must be also said to
his special credit that he has not neglected either the general history or the
Byzantine and Venetian monuments and even the folk-lore of his native island.
He has also done good service by issuing an edition of Erotokrilos, the curious
rhymed romance of Cornaro, giving a picture of Crete as it existed under Venetian
rule, and at the same time forming a rich treasury of Cretan dialectic forms.
It is the more pleasure to me to add a few words to Dr. Xanthoudides' present
work—which in itself needs no introduction from me—that during the long
years in which I have myself been engaged in researches in Crete I have been
constantly indebted to his courtesy and helpfulness, and that, like other fellow-
workers, I have always found him ready to place at my disposal the results of
his discoveries. Owing to adverse conditions, many of those results, especially
as regards the remarkable finds of Mesara, have been too long held up. Pro-
fessor Droop's presentation of Dr. Xanthoudides' very full description is there-
fore all the more welcome. It derives, moreover, special value from the fact
that the translator himself has carried out archaeological work in the island,
and has a personal knowledge of the objects described.
My own particular interest in the group of early monuments on which so
much additional light has been thrown by Dr. Xanthoudides' researches began
thirty years ago, when on my first visit to Crete I was able to describe a remark-
able series of relics that had found their way to what was then the little
Museum of the Syllogos at Candia from an ossuary deposit at Hagios Onouphrios
near Phaestos. This deposit, as was clearly shown by later discoveries, un-
questionably belonged to a primitive beehive vault, destroyed by the peasants,
and from some of the seals and stone vessels that it contained I was enabled to
trace a connection with Egypt going back not only to the beginning of the