The following pages give an account of the first half of the excavations conducted on behalf of the British School in June 1937. The party consisted of Mr. J. D. S. Pendlebury, Miss M. Money-Coutts, and Miss M. Pascoe. Emmanoueles Akoumianos was again kindly lent by the School to act as foreman. Thanks to the courtesy of the authorities we had the pleasure of the assistance of Mr. Kh. N. Petrou, Assistant-Director of Candia Museum. His arrival did not take place until after the excavations here described had been finished. He was, however, present during the trial excavations on Karphi and the Papoura, at Donadhes, Kolonna, and Kerasa, the results of which will be the subject of a later report. We also wish to acknowledge the help and interest shown by the local authorities of Tzermiadho, particularly by Mr. Sphakianakes, the Schoolmaster. Figs. 2–6 have been redrawn from our surveys by Mr. C. Hart of Cambridge.

The following objects, all said to be from the Cave of Trapeza or immediately outside, were recovered from the peasants in 1937 and 1938.

1. (Fig. 1a). Pedestalled cup in mottled limestone. This joins one of the fragments numbered 16 in the catalogue. Height 4·4 cms., diameter 5·3 cms.; cf. a finer example from Mokhlos, Tomb XXI, No. 7. Probably EM II but, owing to its coarser shape might be EM III.

2. (Fig. 1a). Small lid in brown steatite pierced for strings to tie it on to a vase. Height 1·0 cm., greatest diameter 2·9 cms. Cf. caps of clay vases EM I, e.g., from Agios Onouphrios (P of M I Fig. 23). EM II.

A. Some 70 metres east of the cave, close to the south-east corner of the hill, a few fragments of an undecorated Middle Minoan I pithos and a fragment of a stone axe too small to give any idea of its type were found in a shallow deposit on a small terrace.

B. In a cleft in the rock 40 metres east of the cave, dignified by the name of Τοῦ Γρυμάνη τὸ σπήλαιο, were found most of the pieces of a Neolithic vase (see below p. 16 and Plate V, 1), a handle of a fabric similar to ‘Trapeza Ware’, and a number of sherds, including the base of a tripod which could not be dated more closely than to the Early Minoan Period generally. A few Byzantine sherds also occurred.

A quarter of an hour north of the village of Tzermiadho runs a line of cliffs which eventually join the west end of the Trapeza plateau. They are fronted by a thick growth of ilex trees, which makes the examination of them a matter of some difficulty. Many shallow caves occur, and from the top left-hand corner of one, 2 metres above the floor, a narrow hole about 50 cms. in diameter leads to a small chamber some 4 metres by 2, with a height never exceeding 70 cms. Only the inmost 2 metres contained any earth. This had been covered with a thin film of stalactite, above which was found the small Early Minoan I suspension pot (see p. 22 and Plate IV, 2). There is a stalactite pillar near the south wall. In the main body of the cave the first 20 cms. below the surface produced sherds from open bowls, tubular handles, rims, and other sherds of Late Neolithic date, some with a good burnish, but most rough, as well as a few sherds of typical Trapeza Ware. There were many bones, mostly of animals, but some, including a jaw bone, undoubtedly human. Below this arbitrary level to bed-rock, which slopes down to a maximum depth of 50 cms. to the southwest, the same Late Neolithic ware was found, but with a bigger proportion of well-burnished and well-finished fragments. A few incised and punctuated sherds appeared also. Bones, again mostly animal, occurred.

This cave lies about 400 metres east of the Skaphidhia Cave. It is entered from a small flat terrace in a fold of the cliffs behind the Trapeza Plateau. From the entrace the cave runs due west for about 6 metres, then, after a quick turn north and east, continues towards the north for another 15. At the entrace the height is nearly 2 metres, but diminishes steadily until at the far end the roof is within 40 cms. of the floor. The width is fairly constant at 2 metres. The depth of earth varies consistently from 40 to 60 cms., though outcrops of rock almost reach the surface in places. Five tests were made. Few sherds were found, all belonging to MM I or MM III, with the exception of three Neolithic sherds. There was no stratification, but in the third test, which was made in the turn of the cave just before the final stretch, the remains of a MM I pithos and human bones were found crushed under a fallen rock. No other human bones were found in the cave, and the only object not of pottery was an iron nail in two fragments (370), which is probably modern.

The Kastellos Tzermiadhon is a bold bluff which runs out from the slopes of Psarokorphe about ten minutes east of the village. It rises to a height of about 320 ft. above the plain. To west, east, and south the sides are fairly precipitous, but to the north it is connected with the cliffs behind by a kind of causeway, from the end of which a steep path reaches the summit.

It can never have been of strategic importance. It dominates one route into the plain of Lasithi—that from Potamoi via Zarams —but that was never an important route. Its nearest water supply is, to-day, at the wells called Pigaidhakia, which lie behind the Trapeza Plateau. It did however, in early times offer a safe habitation, well above the then marshy plain, and easily defensible in case of need.

The site of Karphi, comprising Karphi proper, Mikre and Megale Koprana, was discovered, like most prehistoric sites in Crete, by Sir Arthur Evans. In June 1896 he visited Lasithi and cleared one of the tombs at Ta Mnemata (see below, page 101). With his usual generosity, he lent the writers the diary of his travels, which contained, besides other valuable information, an admirable sketch plan of the surface remains on Karphi and the Kopranas.

In 1935 Miss Money-Coutts and J. D. S. Pendlebury ascended from Kera to the West. The impression then gained from the sherds on the surface of the city site was that it was of Late Minoan date, an excusable mistake, as will be seen from the finds.

A detailed description of the district known as Lasithi, as well as of the ancient remains found in it, has already been given in the accounts of the present expedition's previous explorations. A brief account therefore will suffice here.

The plain of Lasithi lies towards the east end of Crete, about 2800 feet above sea level, and is completely surrounded by the mountains known in antiquity as Dikte. It was thickly populated in antiquity, and the many tracks, practicable in all weathers for pack-animals, which led up to it from every direction kept it in touch with the outside world.

The hills which fringe the plain to the north are to-day drier and more inhospitable than those to the south. In ancient times, however, there is reason to believe that they were at least as well wooded.

In this section a detailed description of each room will be given, as well as a catalogue of the objects found in it. The numbers given to each object refer to the general catalogue of antiquities from the excavations in Lasithi. Missing numbers in the sequence are from other sites cleared during the three seasons. Only important pottery and variations from the usual proportion of types are mentioned specifically. Rooms generally contained coarse sherds from 3–6 pithoi, pithoid jars, jars, tripods, kalathoi and dishes, and from 1–2 large stirrup-jars, basins, lamps and lids, fine sherds from 4–6 bowls or cups and from 2–3 stirrup-jars, jugs, spouted-jars, pyxides, kraters and kylixes and one or two fragments of blue ware. In bulk coarse sherds averaged about ten times more than fine, but this naturally depended more on the size than on the number of the vessels represented. There were also, as a rule, rough stone grindingslabs, many stone-pounders, fragments of pumice and the remains of animal bones. The different classes of objects are treated separately in section V. The pottery will be discussed in a future article as soon as its study can be completed. The type numbers given below refer to the corpus of shapes which will then be published.

The tombs fall into two groups. The first and, as far as can be seen, largest, at the spot called τὰ μνήματα (the tombs), lies round about the spring Vitzelovrysis on the way up to the city from the plain. The second, close to the spring Astividhero (Brushwood spring), lies near the path up to the city from the plain of Nesimos.

The tombs in each group were numbered as they were excavated, not in chronological order, and the objects from them were catalogued in the general series with the prefix M. (for Ta Mnemata) or A. (for Astividhero), followed by the tomb number.

Bronze, iron and lead are all represented at Karphi, bronze being especially plentiful and giving evidence of some skill in workmanship. The complete absence of the more precious metals is easily explained, since there is no sign of violent destruction, and in the event of a peaceful desertion the inhabitants would naturally take with them whatever gold or silver they possessed. The same explanation may apply to the very small quantity of iron found in the city. Implements of the recently-introduced metal would obviously be too valuable to be left behind. The tombs were probably despoiled of most of their original contents at an early date, and it is possible that later burials gave the occasion for much of this spoliation.

The period to which the occupation of Karphi belongs is clearly the dark age which follows the end of the Bronze Age. This period is often known indiscriminately as the Sub-Minoan or as the Proto-Geometric Period, that term being used which seems to fit best the results at the particular site to which it is applied. Neither term, however, is satisfactory when applied to the period as a whole.

Sub-Minoan pottery is clearly contemporary with Proto-Geometric. It would be absurd to apply the term Proto-Geometric to a city like Karphi, where only one or two sherds of the true Proto-Geometric style have appeared. On the other hand, the term Sub-Minoan takes no account of the very considerable non-Minoan elements which have crept into the architecture and other manifestations of culture. In the same way, it would be absurd to apply the term Sub-Minoan to the Early Iron Age cemeteries of Knossos. Here the term Proto-Geometric is more excusable, though it still takes no account of the many Minoan features which survived there.

In the following register the Arabic numerals denote the page on which the quarter, house or room is the main topic of mention and the italic numerals denote casual mention in the text.

In the past the inaccessability of the Lasithi district of Crete has made a thorough botanical survey difficult. Its flora is still imperfectly known, but as far as can be ascertained at present, it is definitely not as rich in rare plants as several other Cretan districts. Even so, it contains well over a dozen of the island's most spectacular endemics.

The Lasithi plain itself is too well cultivated to allow many plants to grow, but the annual Crepis rubra, with flowers like clear pink Dandelions, is a weed on many of the banks. During late summer the grey spiny hummocks of Cichorium spinosum are none too lavishly dotted with their soft sky-blue flowers of typical Chicory shape, and in the walls at the western end of the plain Aristolochia sempervirens is firmly established. The leaves are shaped like arrow-heads, of a dark and glossy green, and among the long twining stems hang down the flowers. Their bent tubular shape is weirdly fantastic and their colour equally so, being dark brownish maroon with a startling golden blotch on the lip.