Page:History of Art in Primitive Greece - Mycenian Art Vol 1.djvu/463

436 Primitive Greece : Mvcenian Art. respecting whose internal arrangement no satisfactory information has reached M. Halbherr. The museum at HeracHon, the chief centre of Crete, contains vases from various spots of the island which are classable in the primitive period ; but we are utterly in the dark as to the necropoles in which they have been collected.' Nor has search been made for very ancient defences, whether towers or walls, on the sites of the most ancient cities, which from lofty ridges and cliffs look down upon the sea washing their base ; such as Phalasarna, Polyrrenia, and Eleuthera, or the ruins scattered over the valley of the Vlithias leading to the White Mountains, in the province of Selino, where remains of fastnesses without number frown upon the traveller as he toils up towards the heights. The most important go by the name 1 The account published by M. J. Chatzidaki, the founder of this collection which is in process of being formed, is very meagre and unsatisfactory in r^ard to the localities where the necropoles are situated. It is entitled, Karakoyor rir IV Moufftiji TDu ^iXeoraiStvriraD avK6ymi 'H/KurXi/ov apyauir^Tmr, Heraclion. Two other collections are being formed at Hierapetra and Retymo.