title: Minotaur: Sir Arthur Evans and the Archaeology of the Minoan Myth
author: J. A. Macgillivray
description: Arthur Evans leapt into the public imagination with his 1900 discovery of Crete's Palace of Knossos, interpreted as the lair of the mythical Minotaur. Though his findings were a crowning achievement of archaeology's golden age, then, as now, questions have been raised about Evans's excavations and the conclusions he reached. In the richly detailed <i>Minotaur</i>, Joseph Alexander MacGillivray, who has himself excavated Crete, suggests that the man who gave us the very term <i>Minoan</i> provides a prime example of "how archaeological discovery occurs first in the mind." By examining Evans's life and work through his actions and correspondence, MacGillivray shows that Evans's evidence was "fully, even exaggeratedly exploited" but rarely reviewed. Adventurous, energetic, and highly observant, Evans also displayed "single-minded arrogance," "pomposity and manifest racism"--traits that invited misinterpretation, MacGillivray writes. The book also incorporates an interesting history of war-torn Crete and the Balkans as well as Evans's involvement in the region's politics. It finally outlines modern theories on Minoan civilization, though the "Palace and surrounding buildings are crumbling as fast as Evans's intellectual reconstruction," so that solid proof of any thesis is increasingly problematic. Fascinating as a portrait of the man who "gave the world a new chapter in its ancient history" and for its portrayal of the developing discipline of archaeology, <i>Minotaur</i> also poses some important questions about whether archaeologists are ever impartial observers. <i>--Karen Tiley</i>
zlib_text: The Lord of Lowhill
  
  Douglas Niles
  
  Pawldo emerged from his burrow to bask in the air of a rare summer morn: not
  too hot, neither windy nor cloudy, with just a kiss of warm breeze to carry
  the scent of ripening grapes and lush, well-watered pastures. A mile away, the
  waters of Corwell Firth gleamed in the sunlight, the barely rippled surface
  casting a million diamond-spots of reflection between encircling arms of
  verdant land.
  
  The stout halfling stood before his sturdy, whitewashed wooden dwelling. In
  typical halfling fashion, it was buried halfway into a grassy hillside, but
  the burrow was unquestionably the largest house in Lowhill The air of
  affluence extended to the occupant of the burrow as well.
  
  Pawldo's long hair, slightly gray, curled below his ears and just touched the
  edge of his elegant silken collar Even this early in the day he wore well
  tailored, expensive clothing Any observer would know immediately that he was a
  halfling who knew the finer things in life.
  
  Below and b