The actual nature of the Cretan bull sports can scarcely be in doubt. The wealth of representations of all stages of this extraordinary exhibition are clear enough as far as we are concerned with what actually happened. There remain, however, many unclarified questions about its motivation and purpose, the identity of its performers, its frequency, and above all its location. There has been much speculation on this point, which, reduced to its essence, seems to postulate that the sports took place either in the Central Courts of the great palaces or in some other, as yet unidentified, arena. Evans [I] and Pendlebury [2] both suggest the existence of a temporary wooden palisade outside the palace (at Knossos, on the level ground to the east). Their objections to the Central Court as the site of the bull sports are largely of a practical common-sense nature. An excited bull is a dangerous creature, and extremely difficult to control. To get it on to the court, through the narrow corridors and ornately painted and furnished rooms by which the court is approached, would pose formidable problems ; but once arrived the difficulties could be even greater.