"During the past season, Evans, discoverer of the now famous early Cretan systems of writing, Halbherr and other Italians, as well as the French, have been proving what was already foreshadowed, that in Crete we find in its purest form and in all its historic and racial phases that Mediterranean civilization,—Pelasgic and Achæan,—that culminated in Tiryns and Mykenae. We now see that Homer sings of the closing years of a culture that dates back of the 'Trojan 'War' at least for fifteen hundred years. Crete is found to be covered with ruined Pelasgic cities, surrounded by gigantic polygonal walls, crowned by acropoli, adorned with royal palaces, defended by forts, connected by artificial highways, and with necropoli of vaulted tombs like those discovered by Schliemann at Mykenae. Already the royal palaces and libraries are being unearthed at Cnossos and 'Goulâs' with sculptures and decoration of the most novel description and early date. A literature in an unknown tongue and in undeciphered scripts is being found, to puzzle scholars as much perhaps as the Hittite and Etruscan languages. Some day these 'Pelasgic' documents will disclose the secrets of a neglected civilization and fill up the gap between early Eastern and Hellenic cultures." _A. L. Frothingham, Jr., Archæological Progress (International Monthly, December, 1900)._ ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH: India: Discovery of the birthplace, tomb and relics of Gautama Buddha, See (in this volume) BUDDHA. ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH: Troy: Later researches on the site. "Dr. Doerpfeld finished in 1894 the exploration which he had begun in 1893 on the site of the excavations of Schliemann at Hissarlik (Troia). It appears to be established that Schliemann, carried away by his zeal, had overlooked the very end which he wished to attain, and that the burnt city, which he thought to be the real Troia, is a more ancient foundation going back beyond the year 2000 B. C. M. Doerpfeld discerned, in one of the layers of ruins (discovered but disregarded by Schliemann), a city which must be the Ilios of Priam contemporaneous with the Mykenai of Agamemnon; he removed the surrounding walls, the towers, and some of the houses that filled it. It is to be understood that this little acropolis, analogous to that of Tiryns, is not the whole of the city but simply its citadel, which Homer called 'Pergamos.' It was surrounded, lower down, by a city reserved for the habitation of the common people, some traces of which also have been found." _American Journal of Archœology, 1896._ ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH: Italy: Excavations at Antemnæ disclose what early Rome was probably like.