perished, and the foundations of a new and nobler
civilization were laid. Modern history, as Freeman
maintained, begins with the rise of Hellas in the sixth
century. Egypt, Babylon, Cnossus were then passing,
and a new world was coming into being.

For the last few years we have had in that most useful
periodical, The Year's Work in Classical Studies, a valuable
annual summary of the results of excavation and research,
though the unfortunate absence of illustrations in that
work greatly diminishes its value. And in 1908 was
published in English Professor Adolf Michaelis' Century of
Archaeological Discoveries, which is as nearly complete as
such a work can hope to be. This work I most heartily
commend to all readers. The writer was a man of the
soundest judgement; and he lived in the atmosphere of
archaeological discovery and research. He makes very
few mistakes; and if some explorers, and especially
English explorers, will think that their own particular
discoveries are passed over too lightly, this is a fault
which such a book can scarcely altogether escape.

I propose rapidly to pass in review some of the most
important of the sites which have been investigated in
the present century; and afterwards to mention a few
of the most interesting detached discoveries.

Twenty years ago we were in the full stream of ex-
cavation and discovery. In recent times three great
excavations have proved epoch-making. First came the
great excavation of the sacred enclosure at Olympia by
the Germans in the seventies, which opened the door.
The excavations at Olympia were most thorough and
systematic, going down through the strata of remains to
the virgin soil. They cost the German nation £50,000
or more; and in return for that sum, the nation had no
return save the right of first publication. The one
object of Ernst Curtius and the Academy of Berlin was

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