About 100 metres south-east of the new bridge over the Eurotas a line of large blocks can be seen in the right bank of the river running out into its bed. These are the remains of the city-wall, which originally must have made a sharp bend to the south-west, as it reappears in the field of the Heroön. But this angle, and the land which it enclosed, have been carried away by a change in the course of the river. Close to the northern arm of the angle, and abutting on the present river-bank, lies the large structure illustrated in Figs. 1 and 2. Its eastern front has long been visible, but seems to have escaped the observation of travellers. Excavation revealed at a depth of 0·70 m. below the present surface, a great platform 23·60 m. long by 6·60 m. wide and 1·90 m. high. There are four foundation courses, averaging 0·34 m. in height, of a softish crumbly stone, and a sillcourse 0·55 m. high, projecting 0·10 m. beyond the foundations. This sillcourse consists of squared and dressed blocks, which extend all round the building with a uniform breadth of 0·90 m., and vary from 1·60 m. to 2·50 m. in length. Their surface is carefully smoothed, leaving an edge on the outside, raised 0·003 m. and 0·07 to 0·08 m. wide. This careful finish, combined with the regularity of the foundation-courses, and the absence of all trace of bonding-mortar, suggests Hellenic workmanship.

The traveller who approaches Sparta from the north and crosses the Eurotas by the new bridge (P. 12) sees before him a series of low rounded hills which extend across his path in the form of a crescent and hide from his view the modern town. Straight before him the ragged core of the Byzantine fortification wall rises on the crest of the hill, and a bridle-path which climbs the steep slope to the old North Gate of the Byzantine Acropolis (M. 13. 14) is still the shortest way from the bridge to the modern town. The carriage road bends to the left, and runs parallel with the Eurotas for over half a mile through low-lying meadows, then rises to cross the south-eastern horn of the crescent and forthwith turns inland. It is at this point, where the line of heights sinks towards the river and ends in a tongue-shaped precipitous promontory, that the Sanctuary of Artemis Orthia has been found (O. 15). North and north-west of this rocky tongue the ground between high-road and river sinks towards a hollow which in luxuriant fertility surpasses even the water-meadows, with their deep crops of vetch and clover, that line the bank higher up. Olives give place to mulberry-trees, and we enter a garden full of cucumber- and melonbeds, oranges and young peach-trees.

The archaic remains, which the trial trenches have revealed at a level beneath the Roman building and temple described above, present in one respect a striking contrast. Except inscriptions, the later buildings have not yielded many small objects: their importance lies in their architectural arrangement and purpose. In the archaic stratum on the other hand, although some architectural fragments have already been found, and more are expected, the chief interest centres in the wonderful wealth of small objects, doubtless votive offerings, and the light they throw on the early stages of art in Sparta. Before our work this year, this deposit was accessible only from the side of the river, where erosion has produced a section of all the strata from the present surface down to virgin soil. This face, shewn in Fig. 1, p. 319, in its original condition before excavation, we have protected with a wall, to guard the site from the destructive effect of the floods to which the Eurotas is liable, the lowest remains being hardly higher than the level of the bed of the river. Work was begun at this naturally exposed face, where the lead figurines now in the Sparta Museum were found, which gave the first clue to the site, and the number of archaic objects unearthed in the first few hours immediately revealed its extraordinary richness.

The resemblance of certain of the ivories to some in the Ephesus deposit makes it clear that they came from Asia. Close relations and exchange of gifts between Sparta and Lydia are recorded for the sixth century, and have been claimed for the seventh, the age of Alcman. Long ago Curtius pointed out certain affinities between the Lydian goddess of the Lake, Artemis Gygaea, and the Spartan Orthia. Now that Mr. Hogarth has vindicated the Hellenic character of the early worship of Artemis at Ephesus, it becomes probable that the great Ionian sanctuary may have made its influence felt at Sparta as well as at Koloene. The road to Sardis was by Ephesus, and the road to Ephesus by Samos, and with Samos too we have links. The legend of the xoanon found in a thicket of agnus castus is common to the cult of Hera at Samos and of Orthia at Sparta. Again the best parallels for the Spartan masks have been found, as Mr. Dawkins has pointed out, in Samian tombs.

During the excavations along the course of the city wall a great number of fragments of tiles with stamped inscriptions were found. The majority, about a hundred in all, including several examples of the same stamp, came from the well by the Heroön (cf. p. 286). Many were found on the line of the wall further south, and many more in the Artemisium: a few by the Altar and in trial-pits north of the carriage road. It is by no means uncommon to find inscribed tiles in Greece; but in this respect the excavations at Sparta have so far easily surpassed all previous finds. The inscriptions are for the most part easy to read and intelligible, and fall into different classes, which in their turn sub-divide themselves into varieties.

The inscriptions may be classed as follows: (1) about fifty from the Artemisium; (2) a few fragments found near the Altar; (3) about forty from various other sites. The last class includes many which were found built into the late Byzantine walls and a few which were obtained outside the area of the excavation, but are undoubtedly of Spartan origin. A final section deals with the inscriptions copied by Fourmont.

It has been thought best to publish without delay everything but small fragments. The commentary does not claim to be complete; this applies especially to the inscriptions from the Artemisium, where no finality of conclusion can be reached until all available stones have been dug out and read. With very few exceptions the inscriptions are given from my own copies and impressions.

The narratives of the travellers, who have visited the theatre at: Sparta, are for the most part too short and too vague to prove of much real service to the excavator. Leroy, who visited Sparta in 1770, mentions the seats of greyish-white marble and the retaining-walls of fine rusticated stone, and shows in his illustration the Byzantine fortress-wall, which runs southwards from the theatre, with two columns standing outside it. The plans and drawings of the French Expedition sixty years later show the same wall and columns without any trace of the stage-buildings mentioned by Leake (1805) and Dodwell (1819) among previous visitors, and by Curtius in 1852. Neither Clark, nor Wyse, nor Bursian saw remains of a proscenium, so that it appears likely that Curtius at any rate, if not his predecessors, mistook the Byzantine remains in front of the theatre for Roman stage-buildings. It was principally on the evidence of these remains that Leake, Dodwell, and Bory de St. Vincent based their supposition that the theatre was of Roman date.

On the road from new Sparta to Magoula the most noticeable remains of the ancient city are the extensive brick ruins called ‘Arapissa,’ from the localization here of a legend common in all parts of Greece of a negress or a negro guarding buried treasure. Since so large a building, if it existed in the time of Pausanias, is not likely to have been omitted by him in his description of the city, it was decided to test this site to determine its nature and date. Accordingly from April 20th to the 30th twenty-five men were employed digging round the walls visible above the surface, and sinking trial-pits in other parts to obtain some idea of the plan. Owing to the apparent want of symmetry and to the loose nature of the soil, which was full of rubble, the work proved more difficult and dangerous than had been anticipated.

In plan the walls surrounding the Acropolis of Sparta form an irregular oblong, terminated to the east and west by two small hills which formed citadels or outlook points. Though no single complete part remains, and in many places the walls are levelled to the ground, the lines can still be traced fairly completely. (Plate VIII. 3.)

At the south eastern corner are the ruins of a Roman Stoa of the Imperial period (A). They shew a series of small compartments (Fig. 1), covered with barrel vaults, ten on either side of three larger central rooms, which are roofed with crossgroined vaults and large semicircular niches at the back. The ground on the north side is as high as the vaults and originally must have formed a terrace overlooking the street on to which the Stoa opened on its south side.

It is not intended in the present preliminary report to discuss controversial questions of Spartan topography. The solution of some of these will be provided, it is to be hoped, by our future excavations on the site. It is permissible, however, to dwell for a short time on the position of the Acropolis and the Agora, since the information of Pausanias and the results of last year's work are sufficient, in my opinion, to establish their identity.

That the whole surface of the Palaeocastro hill should have been called the Acropolis is unlikely. A passage in Thucydides renders its position on the theatre-hill, or western summit, almost certain. From this passage we learn that Pausanias, the king of Sparta during the Persian wars, was buried ἐν τῷ προτεμενίσματι or, as the Scholiast explains ἐν τῷ προπυλαίῳἐν τῷ πρὸ τοῦ ἰεροῦ προαστείῳ. The Hieron referred to is the temple of Athena Chalkioikos on the Acropolis, and we know that the tomb of Pausanias was opposite the theatre. We may thus legitimately infer that the temple of Athena stood on the theatre-hill.

The writing is neat, and the forms suggest the third century B.C. as a possible date. The sense is doubtful.