¹ We are indebted to Dr. S. R. Nockolds of the Department of Mineralogy and Petrology, Cambridge, for permission to use the Department's spectroscope, to Mr. R. Allen for much assistance in its use, and to the Council of St. John's College for a grant towards our work.

² He is indebted to the British School at Athens for the Studentship which made it possible for him to work in Greece in 1963, and to the Ministry of Education of the Greek Government for a Scholarship during 1964.

³ This work, and the securing of specimens, was greatly facilitated by the Greek Archaeological Service and its Director, the late Dr. J. Papadimitriou, as well as the Ephors Dr. S. Alexiou, Dr. Ph. Petsas, Dr. D. Theocares, Dr. N. Zapheiropoulos, and also by Professor S. Marinatos, Miss K. Romiopoulou and Mr. Ch. Doumas. We also gratefully acknowledge the receipt of specimens or of useful information from: Professor D. Berciu, Professor Bernabò Brea, Mrs. K. Bolton, Dr. G. Bushnell, Professor J. L. Caskey, Professor J. Cauvin, Miss M. Cra'ster, Mr. R. Deshayes, Professor J. D. Evans, Mr. D. H. French, Dr. I. M. Yeroulanos, Dr. G. Georgiev, Mr. D. Hardy, Dr. H. Hauptmann, Mr. M. S. F. Hood, Dr. R. Hope Simpson, Professor S. Kansu, Dr. E. Kunze, Professor D. Levi, Professor V. Milojčić, Dr. R. G. Newton, Dr. G. Pasquarè, Mr. A. Renfrew, Mr. R. J. Rodden, Mr. R. Saidah, Miss V. Seton-Williams, Dr. F. H. Stubbings, Dr. N. Taylor, Mr. P. Warren, the Revd. Dr. V. G. Kenna and those mentioned below. Without their help it would not have been possible to undertake this research.

⁴ One from Abydos in the Troad, two from Morali near Manisa, and seven from Boz Dagh near the site of ancient Myndos.

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⁹ We are most grateful to Professor Georgiades for his encouragement, courtesy, and help in the identification of samples on many occasions, as also to Professor Paraskevopoulos.

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²⁹ Nor is there any evidence for sources in Bulgaria or Jugoslavia.

³⁰ I am most grateful for the hospitality and assistance which I received in Melos from Mr. Z. Vaos, the writer of several articles on the history of the island.

³¹ Mackenzie, D., ‘Ancient Sites in Melos’, BSA iii (1896–1897) 77.Google Scholar

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⁴¹ The striated specimens found by Levi in Nisyros may well be of Melian origin. Certainly some of the specimens collected from the site of Palaikastro in Nisyros by Simpson, Hope and Lazenby, , BSA lvii (1962) 169Google Scholar, are of typically Melian appearance. The same probably holds for striated obsidian found by Levi in Tenos, , Ann. viii (1925–1926) 270Google Scholar, and thought by him to derive from Giali.

⁴² Cann and Renfrew, op. cit.

⁴³ Ibid.

⁴⁴ See note 10 above. Op. cit. n. 5, 154.

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⁴⁸ Of the 71 pieces of worked stone from the preceramic layers, obsidian forms about 60 per cent. In a sample of 400 pieces from the later Neolithic layers it forms 87 per cent. of the total. I am most grateful to Dr. Theocares for permission to study this material.

⁴⁹ NN Square A2, Level 1; NN Square A2, Level 3. Cf. Rodden, R. J. in Proc. Prehistoric Society xxviii (1962).Google Scholar

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⁵² An idea of the scale of the trade is given by the quantities found at Saliagos near Antiparos. From a single 4-metre square (N3) 2,400 fragments weighing almost 5 kilogrammes were recovered.

⁵³ Heurtley, op. cit. 22 and 200.

⁵⁴ Several pieces of obsidian were found at Boz Dagh (Bean, G. E. and Cook, J. M., ‘The Halicarnassus Peninsula’, BSA 1 (1955) 108)Google Scholar, and it was reported at Kiliktepe near Miletus (Hogarth, D. G., ‘Hellenic Settlement in Asia Minor’, CAH ii (1926) 55).Google Scholar It is rare at Troy (Blegen, C. W., Caskey, J. L., Rawson, M., and Sperling, J., Troy, i (1950) 46 and 211Google Scholar; ii (1951) 8, 108, and 227; iii (1953) 25), and only one other piece is known in the Troad from a mound east of Abydos. At Pendik on the Sea of Marmara a blade of non-Melian appearance was found which may be of Carpathian origin (Kansu, S. A., ‘Marmara bölgesi ve Trakya de prehistoriki iskân tarihi bakimadan arastirmalar’, Türk Tarih Kurumu, Belleten (1963) 674 and 691, fig. 27).Google Scholar

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⁵⁶ Pieces from Chios are in the collection of llie British School, and others have been found in the excavations of Sinclair Hood at Emborio. One was found in Lesbos (Lamb op. cit. (note 6, above), 181). For Nisyros, Karpathos and Kalimnos see Hope Simpson and Lazenby (op. cit. 169, 160, and 172) and for Kos the report of Levi, op. cit. 279.

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⁶³ The large block containing some prominent phenocrysts figured in PM I. 170 may also be of this material.

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⁶⁵ Heraklion Museum No. 1008. Information kindly supplied by Peter Warren together with the photograph for Plate 63d.

⁶⁶ Platon, N., ‘Excavations at Kato Zakro, Part II’, ILN March 7 1964, 352, fig. 11.Google Scholar

⁶⁷ PM I. 87 and 412.

⁶⁸ BSA viii. 22.

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⁷⁰ Castiglioni, O. Cornaggia, Fussi, F., and D'Agnolo, M., ‘Indagini sulla provenienza dell'ossidiana in uso nelle industrie preistoriche italiane’, I and II, Atti della Società Italiana di Scienze Naturali e del Museo Civico di Storia Naturale in Milano (1962 and 1963).Google Scholar The idea was first put forward by Peet, T. E. (The Stone and Bronze Ages in Italy (1909) 150Google Scholar) and repeated by Evans, (PM I. 155).Google Scholar

⁷¹ Other finds are: a M.M. bowl fragment from Knossos, (PM I. 86, fig. 5c and 178, fig. 127e)Google Scholar; a fragment of a ewer of M.M. III date with relief spirals (PM I. 412 and II. 56); a lump of the raw material from the NW. Quarter of the Palace at Knossos, found under a M.M. II floor (PM I. 87 and II. 56); a lump of L.M. date from Tylissos (Hatzidakis, , AE 1912, 219Google Scholar, no. 19 and fig. 25, 2); several lumps from Hood's Royal Road excavations at Knossos; a small piece from Pseira (Analysis no. 68); and a seal from Mochlos (Warren, P., ‘Two Sealstones from Mochlos’, Kretika Khronika, 1964).Google Scholar

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⁷³ But it may have been used for seals, of which three have been preserved: one in the Ashmolean Museum (K. 160), one in the collection of Dr. V. G. Kenna and one in a private collection in Basle.

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⁷⁷ But he quotes Xenocrates as saying that it is found in India, in Italy, and in west Iberia which is certainly incorrect.

⁷⁸ Some commentators, such as Schramm, A., s.v. ‘Obsidian’, RE xviii. 2, 1745Google Scholar, have claimed ἀνθράκιον (De Lapidibus 33) as obsidian, but Theophrastus states firmly that it is found in Arcadian Orchomenos and in Chios, so that another stone must be meant.

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⁸² Bosanquet, op. cit. 218.

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