Keith Branigan, Professor of Prehistory and Archaeology in the University of Sheffield, has written for us a review article on Doro Levi's massive excavation report on his excavations at the palace of Phaistos in Crete: Festos e la Civilta Minoica I, i and II, ii (Incunabula Graeca LX. Institute for Mycenean and Aegeo-Anatolian Studies: Rome, 1976. 864 pp., 86 col. pls., 248 black-and-white pls., 1,214 figs., 39 plans. Lire 250,000; £162). Professor Branigan was one of only two Britons who had the opportunity to supervise excavations at Phaistos under Professor Levi's direction. In his review here, he concentrates his discussion on the problems of the first Minoan palaces, in the light of the Phaistos excavations.