¹ It is our pleasant duty to thank those who supported or assisted us: the British School at Athens under successive directors, Dr H. W. Catling and Dr E. B. French, and the Greek archaeological authorities, in particular the Ephoreia at Thessaloniki. At the latter we are indebted not only to the director, Dr I. Vokotopoulou, but also in particular to Dr B. Tsigarida for her interest and helpfulness in general, and especially for arranging for us to benefit from the presence in 1991 of Mr Chrysoulis and Mr C. Lazarinis from the Ephoreia's excavations at Ierissos, and in 1992 of Mr L. Kephalas, who helped in the preparatory work. We are also obliged to the koinótita at Nea Roda and its próedros, Mr P. Hatzilidis, for various practical assistance. In Ouranoupolis the Eagles' Palace hotel assisted us with practical problems such as transport to site.

In England, we are grateful to Prof. J. N. Coldstream, Prof. D. Dilks, Mr M. S. F. Hood, Sir David Hunt, Prof. H. B. Mattingly, and Prof. A. M. Snodgrass for support; the authorities of the University of Leeds helped the project in various ways, and special mention is due to Dr A. Shivtiel, then in charge of BSJI's former department, who put various facilities at his disposition. We are greatly indebted to those who lent us their financial support: in addition to the BSA the British Academy, the Russell Trust, and the Leverhulme Trust (the last in respect of BSJI's personal researches).

Finally, BSJI wishes to thank his colleagues and collaborators in the field (and here special mention should be made of outstandingly devoted and efficient work of the surveying team, which permitted their large task to be finished in the time available), and his wife for having shared, as on many other occasions, much heat and fatigue.

² Spratt, T., ‘Remarks on the isthmus of Mount Athos’, Journal of the Royal Geographical Society, 17 (1847), 145–50CrossRefGoogle Scholar, with map opp. p. 146; Struck, A., Makedonische Fahrten: Chalkidike (Vienna and Leipzig, 1907)Google Scholar, with map on p. 68; more fully id., ‘Der Xerxeskanal am Athos’, Neue Jahrbücher für das klassische Altertum: Geschichte und Literatur, 10 (1907), 115–30, with map opp. p. 160. Spratt worked with a surveying team, but Struck's work is the result of a remarkable individual effort. (The map in his periodical article is much more serviceable than the one in his book.) He is also the first to include metric spot heights.

³ Isserlin, B. S. J., ‘The canal of Xerxes: facts and problems’, BSA 86 (1991), 85–91Google Scholar; Struck, ‘Xerxeskanal’ (n. 2), 118–27.

⁴ The topographical survey was carried out by a team of four surveyors from the Department of Civil Engineering, University of Leeds. It was headed by JU (team leader), assisted by Dr T. Cousens, Mr R. Trembath, and Mr C. T. Yong. They were able to use up-to-date equipment lent free of charge by Messrs Sokkia, to whom we very much obliged for this support.

Geophysical investigations were, in 1991, headed jointly by REJ and SP; in 1992 fieldwork was directed by SP alone. In both years he was supported by a team trained by him. In 1991 it included Mr Y. Balatzas and Mr Ch. Kappopoulos of GEOME (Patras), besides Miss P. Atsidakou, Miss L. Likaki, Mr Th. Liossis, Miss Z. Riba, and Mr P. Stephanopoulos (Patras University). In 1992 Mr Liossis and Mr Ch. Baphitis, together with Mr Kappopoulos and Mr Balatzas, made up the team. In both years the archaeological interpretation as well as overall direction was in the hands of BSJI, who drafted this text on the basis of reports submitted by REJ, SP, and JU after detailed discussion with them. REJ took a considerable share in this, and also in the preparatory work for the expedition.

⁵ Copies of the maps and drawings have been deposited in the BSA and with the archaeological authorities, especially the Ephoreia in Thessaloniki.

⁶ Cf. Spratt (n. 2), 147; Struck, ‘Xerxeskanal’ (n. 2), 67.

⁷ See Casson, S., Macedonia, Thrace and Illyria (Oxford, 1926), 29 n. 2Google Scholar, where the relevant literature is referred to.

⁸ See Struck, Fahrten (n. 2), 68; id., ‘Xerxeskanal’ (n. 2), 127; Spratt (n. 2), 147. Neither Hdt. nor Spratt offers a figure for the length of the canal proper. Hdt. seems to have assumed it equalled the distance from sea to sea; Spratt merely states that it was somewhat longer than this.

⁹ Electrical soundings were made using a Schlumberger array. The ground-penetrating radar was a GSSI SIR 10 system.

¹⁰ The geological situation is described by Syrides, C. in his Ph.D. thesis Stratigraphic, Biostratographic and Palaeogeographic Study of the Neogene–Quaternary Sediment Formation of the Chalkidiki (Thessaloniki, 1990).Google Scholar

¹¹ Cf. Posener, G., ‘Le canal du Nil à la Mer Rouge avant les Ptolémées’, Chronique d'Égypte, 13 (1938), 259–75.CrossRefGoogle Scholar BSJI has to thank the Egyptian Antiquities Service for a memoir (in Arabic), including bibliography concerning this canal, which was obtained through the good offices of the Egyptian cultural counsellor in London at the request of Dr A. Shivtiel, to both of whom he is grateful.

¹² Prof C. Vita-Finzi, pers. comm., for which the writer is grateful. Regarding local tectonic movements the situation remains obscure.

¹³ Cf. Morrison, J. S. and Coates, J. E., The Athenian Trireme: The History and Reconstruction of an Ancient Greek Warship (Cambridge, 1986), 199, fig. 57Google Scholar; Wallinga, H. T., Ships and Sea Power before the Great Persian War (Leiden, 1993), 52.Google Scholar

¹⁴ Taken by the Greek air force in Oct. 1989 and kindly made available to us.

¹⁵ These latter were called 1992/1, 1992/4, 1992/5, and 1992/6. (1992/2 and 1992/3 correspond to C1–C2 and D1–D2 respectively.)

¹⁶ Such tests with different geophysical apparatus (including seismograph) have now in fact been undertaken (1993), and a core-drilling was effected S of traverse D1–D2. The data obtained is at present being studied, and results promise to be interesting.

¹⁷ As Mr L. Papangelos (Ephoreia of Byzantine Antiquities, Thessaloniki) pointed out to us during a visit.

¹⁸ Struck, ‘Xerxeskanal’ (n. 2), 128, suggested that the canal must have penetrated down very deeply in some places. The opposite hypothesis, that such was not the case, but that it has been elevated c.14.6 m since its construction, was expressed as recently as 1990 in the Blue Guide to Greece (Barber, R. (ed.), Greece (Blue Guides; London and New York, 1990), 199).Google Scholar