The initial stages of the excavation of the prehistoric city near the hamlet of Phylákopi in north-west Melos have been reported in previous issues of the Annual (II. and III.). The development of this exploration in its second season (1897) made it imperative that its continuation should be the principal, indeed the sole, objective of the next campaign of the School; and to that end accordingly our funds and energies were exclusively directed in the spring of 1898.

When we began excavation at Phylákopi in 1896 we did so with the great advantage of knowing from what was visible on the surface that nothing would be found on the site that was later than Mycenaean. This fact simplified vastly the problem of excavation as compared with that offered by sites like Mycenae and Troy. The evidence we were in search of was presented from the surface downwards without any later admixture. Thus we had our attention directed exclusively to prior questions in which the problem ot the Mycenaean civilization would present a final stage.

Perhaps the main interest of the prehistoric deposit at Phylákopi consists in the fact that of sites hitherto excavated it alone covers the centuries which separate the Mycenaean age from the earliest culture known to us on Greek soil. To discover a few landmarks between those two limits and provide as far as possible a scale of comparison by which to determine the relative date of more isolated finds has been one leading aim of the excavation. For such a purpose no other material is so important as pottery, merely because no other material is so plentiful; in houses and tombs alike it is the one thing that is never lacking.

A scheme of exploration in the central and eastern parts of Asia Minor was inaugurated last year by a series of journeys in Phrygia, the main results of which have been published in the Journal of Hellenic Studies (for 1897 and 1898). During the present season I had the good fortune to be accompanied by Mr. J. W. Crowfoot, to whom the opportunity was afforded by the liberality of the supporters of the Asia Minor Exploration Fund, and our energies were devoted chiefly to the exploration of Galatia, a country which has received but scant attention from archaeological or other travellers. But on our way thither, we did a piece of preliminary work in the shape of re-examining two difficult inscriptions which I had copied last year and visiting an unknown corner of Phrygia on the north of Mt. Dindymos (Murad Dagh). In the following paper we propose to give a full account of this preliminary excursion, and a brief sketch of our work in Galatia which will indicate in detail the routes we followed, and so impart a good deal of information that will be of use to future travellers, but cannot be conveniently repeated in our detailed discussion of the district.

Phrygia is remarkable for the variety (and number) of its funeral monuments: in one place the sarcophagus, in another the altar, in a third the stele. The last named was fashionable in the land of the Praipenissians, whose ancient centre was Soa in the neighbourhood of Altyn Tash. The Phrygian stele was often of considerable size, six feet or more in height, and fixed upright in the ground or in a socket by a wedge-like tongue, which still remains in some cases.

The central field is filled sometimes by figures of the deceased, often more than life-size, never by ridiculous little dolls such as are found further east. The place of the figures is sometimes taken by a door: in this case the busts of the departed are occasionally sculptured in an arch-shaped pediment above (cf. Texier, Description de I'Asie Mineure, Pls. 38, 51). Otherwise the pediment is filled by various symbolic or decorative subjects—two lions with a prostrate bull or merely its head between them, an eagle with wings “displayed,” dolphins with small fishes in their mouths, and in one case Herakles and Cerberus.

From the modern town of Kos, on the site of the ancient capital at the north-east extremity of the island, to the village of Kephalos at the southwest end is a ride of eight hours.

The village stands on a chalky plateau which beyond the isthmus marks the beginning of the mountain district of south-west Kos. This in turn is a repetition on a smaller scale of the mountain region, at the other end of the island, which forms the lofty termination to the long central tableland. The highest points of the mountain district are towards the south-east where the fall to the sea is very rapid. The highest neighbouring peak, Mount Ziní, is about an hour distant from the village in a south-easterly direction, while all that lies to the north-west of the main range is high pastoral country with many torrent beds.