The prevalent notions about the Greek house, however much they have varied from one another, have usually agreed on certain essential characteristics; indeed, it may almost be said that there is a general consensus of opinion among archaeologists in favour of a normal plan such as that given in P. Gardner and Jevons' Manual of Greek Antiquities. According to this plan the Greek house consists of two courts; the first, which is entered through a vestibule from the street, is called the ἀνδρωνῖτις it is the court of the men, and is surrounded by colonnades, out of which open the living and sleeping rooms of the male members of the household. Behind this is a passage, closed by the μέταυλος or μέσαυλος θύρα leading into a second court called the γυναικωνῖτις or court of the women. At the back of this second court is the deep recess known as the παστὰς προστάς on the other sides are colonnades; and around the court are the living and sleeping rooms of the women, the largest and most important, the θάλαμος and ἀμφιθάλαμος being on either side of the παστάς

It is a well-known fact that the Scottish painter Gavin Hamilton was the most active and successful of the band of excavators at work on Italian soil in the second half of the eighteenth century. He was employed by several collectors, notably by Charles Townley, and by Lord Shelburne, and, apart from his work as an artist, he carried on an active business in obtaining concessions of promising spots, and in the restoration and export of the proceeds of his excavations.

Until a recent date, our chief information with respect to Hamilton's diggings was derived from a summary, drawn up by Dallaway, of Hamilton's letters to Townley. The original letters appear to be lost, and Prof. Michaelis was unable to trace them, when he was investigating this subject. Other details, copied by Townley from the letters into his MS. inventories, have thence found their way into the British Museum Marbles, and other works on the Townley sculptures.

The discovery of a new “Hittite” inscription was one of the more solid results of a short and too hurried journey in Asia Minor which I made with Mr. J. W. Crowfoot during July and August of last year, and its publication may not be inopportune at a moment when fresh interest has been aroused in this species of script by the discoveries of Mr. Arthur Evans in Crete.

After a rather abortive attempt to re-explore the obscure and rugged borderland between Lycaonia and Pamphylia, the net result of which was the discovery of just enough to make the topography of this dark corner even less intelligible than before, we turned towards Cappadocia, where we had hopes of finding at least some pre-Hellenic monuments. Years ago Professor Ramsay and Mr. Hogarth had heard a report of what was presumably a Hittite inscription near Nev-sheher (Soandos), a town two days' journey west of Caesareia Mazaca: important things were said to have turned up near the latter city since M. Chantre's visit: and we learnt also of the existence of hieroglyphic stones at Arapison (Zoropassos) on the Halys.

The two cultus monuments whose existence is bound up with the solid rock on which the Erechtheion stands have always been eagerly sought for in the hope that they might be used as fixed points from which to determine the complicated plan of the temple.

Perhaps the ‘salt spring’ has attracted less attention than the ‘trident-mark.’ Boetticher supposed it to lie at the lowest part of the middle chamber, where a hollow in the rock, communicating with a still deeper cleft, even now collects water after a shower. As Pausanias states that the ‘spring,’ was ἔνδον this is perhaps the most likely spot, unless we prefer to locate it in the West Hall, and to suppose that it was destroyed when the cistern was built. It is true that J. Fergusson placed the ‘spring’ in the north-west angle of the West Cella, but this is quite an arbitrary hypothesis, and appears untenable, because the rock has here a fall towards the outside through the opening which pierces the north wall and leads into the crypt under the north porch.

There is so much to record from Greece proper and the islands, that it will be necessary to omit Asia Minor from the scope of the present article. It has been a year of surprises, from the episode of the sponge-diver knocking at the door of the Minister of Education to report a shipload of statues lying under the sea, to the rediscovery of Aphaea, the unknown goddess who emerged the other day from the pages of Pausanias and Antoninus Liberalis to receive the honours due to her in the famous temple on Aegina.

In describing the results of excavations it is convenient to begin as I did last year with the prehistoric period and with Crete, where a number of workers, two Italians, two Americans, seven Englishmen, have been exploring early sites. The French School has not excavated there this year, but has organized a geographical expedition under the leadership of M. Ardaillon which is to make a much-needed survey of the island.