During the campaigns at Old Smyrna in 1948–51 several Clazomenian sarcophagi came to light. The directors of the excavations, Professors E. Akurgal and J. M. Cook, kindly asked me to publish them, but by some mischance the completed notes and drawings did not reach me and I was not importunate. Drawings of decoration and shape and most of the measurements came from Miss E. A. B. Petty (now Mrs. G. U. S. Corbett), details of discovery and photographs from Professor J. M. Cook. Mr. J. S. Cole most obligingly checked many points for me in Izmir. I have myself examined only nos. 2, 3, 5, and 11.

The Transitional LH III B2/C early pottery from Thorikos mine No. 3 is of particular importance for the definition of this as yet little-known phase. It is also of interest for its context. The assemblage is unusual; its nature implies a specific function rather than the debris of normal settlement. It is suggested that it may have resulted from mining activity.

The only ancient topographer to mention the Heraion of Perachora calls it an oracle. Strabo's words are: ἐν δὲ τῷ μεταξὺ τοῦ Λεχαίου καὶ Παγῶν τὸτῆς ᾿Ακραίας μαντεῖον ῾῾Ηρας ὑπῆρχε τὸ παλαιόν Commenting on this passage Payne says: ‘No trace of this aspect of the cult has yet been found’. I suggest that it has been found, though not recognised, and may explain a puzzling feature of the site revealed by the excavation.

Bilingual Greek–Semitic inscriptions have been found at numerous places in the Mediterranean—not only on Cyprus, but also on Malta, on Cos, in Athens, Miletus, and elsewhere—and, though not as numerous as Greek–Latin bilingual texts, are nevertheless of considerable interest both in themselves and also as evidence for the coexistence, in individual cases, of the two cultures. Rhodes, from which the three pieces here republished come, had a large foreign population in the Hellenistic period, but bilingual texts are not common there. It is, however, noteworthy that what is probably the earliest bilingual Greek–Latin inscription, of the third century B.C., comes from Lindos (Inscr. Lind. 92).

I. Plaque of dark grey marble, complete on all sides, H. 0·130, W. 0·243, Th. 0·065, letters (Gk.), 0·018, (Phoen.), 0·010–0·015. Rough-picked on all sides for affixing into stele or similar object, but front part of all sides smooth (Plate 12a).

Found, casually, 1968, in area of eastern necropolis near the church of Panagia Phaneromene. Now in Rhodes Museum, Inv. no. ΠΒΕ 1233.

Greek:

Phoenician:

In the rather uninteresting landscape of the Thracian plains artificial mounds are almost everywhere a conspicuous feature. These mounds have long attracted the attention of archaeologists, but, on the Turkish side of the frontier at least, few have been scientifically explored. In Eastern Rumelia, where considerably more has been done, excavation has shewn that a large proportion of the mounds are places of burial, others representing, like the Thessalian magoules, prehistoric settlements, and others again sites of ancient watch-towers or even of Turkish camps.

The neighbourhood of Kirk Kilisse, some thirty-five miles east of Adrianople, boasts its full share of these monuments. About half an hour south of the town is a group of three tumuli in a line running W.S.W. and E.N.E. All are said to have been excavated by the Russians during the campaigns of 1828 and 1878. The southernmost tomb of the group remains open, shewing the arrangement of the tomb-chamber and its approach.

Whilst visiting Ios during his Cycladic tour of 1837, George Finlay purchased a number of Early Cycladic objects, which include four marble figurines (three of folded arm type), three marble vessels and a lead figurine now thought to be fake. This article traces the current whereabouts of these objects, describes and illustrates them, examines the detail of their original purchase and places them within the current framework of Early Cycladic chronology.

The evidence of John Myres's papers and letters in the Ashmolean Museum, and his unpublished memoirs entitled ‘Praeterita’, shows that he planned to conduct excavations at Knossos in 1893. They suggest the reasons which prompted these plans, and the circumstances which led to their abandonment.

This article examines the inception of writing on Crete in the second millennium bc from a fresh methodological perspective. It aims to develop a synoptic understanding of the origin, purpose, experience, and significance of the earliest attestations of writing on the island, to investigate the context of its creation, and to explore the cultural triggers that underlie the application of writing in the context of Middle Minoan Crete. Three key points are considered: the problematic definition of early writing on Crete, the possible identification of the subject matter of the Cretan hieroglyphic inscriptions on sealstones, and the script's level of indebtedness to pre-existing models. These paths of investigation are also crucial points of departure for understanding the phenomenon of early writing in more general terms, from a multidisciplinary perspective that seeks to advocate a synergic collaboration between anthropology, archaeology, epigraphy and sociolinguistics.

There are in existence three more or less representative collections of Argive terracottas. The most complete and important is that from the Argive Heraeum; a good supplementary collection comes from the Heraeum at Tiryns; thirdly, some hundred, mostly fragmentary, but, where the heads are undamaged, highly important Argive figurines have been discovered at the Heraeum of Perachora in the northern Corinthia. A fourth group—from Hagios Sostis or Tegea—is patently within the Argive sphere of influence, but, as we shall see, succumbs very early to Corinthian influence also, and must be regarded as hybrid. Other small groups have been found at a number of sites in or near the Argolid, of which the most considerable was discovered at Argos itself.

The material from the Khaniale Tekke tombs was excavated by me in 1940, but most of it had not been photographed, and some vases had been left still unrepaired when the Germans invaded Crete, and they were inaccessible to me when I returned to Crete in 1945.

The presence of ‘Geometric’ tombs on this site was first reported to me by the foreman at Knossos, the late Emmanuel Akoumianos, whose eagle eye for ancient remains was noted by Sir Arthur Evans. Immediate excavation was necessary, since the owner, Dr. Hatzakis, who has generously foregone his claims for compensation, was proposing to erect a house there.

The first trial trench which I opened on 20th January 1940 disclosed a chamber tomb with a square chamber and a long, narrow dromos cut in the native kouskouras, that white, cretaceous marl which is so prominent a feature of the landscape in Central Crete.

To date, the pottery production of Rhodes, Kos and other ‘East Dorian’ islands and coastal areas remains little understood. This article presents and discusses new neutron activation analysis (NAA) of eighth–sixth-century bc vessels found on Rhodes and in related areas, placing them in the wider context of past and present archaeometric research. The results highlight the role of Kos as a leading regional centre of painted pottery production and export in the seventh–sixth centuries bc, notably of ‘East Dorian’ plates. This includes the famous ‘Euphorbos plate’, which can now be attributed to Koan production. Contemporary Archaic pottery workshops on Rhodes, in contrast, had a less ambitious, if diverse, output, ranging from vessels in a Sub-Geometric tradition, imitation Corinthian wares and modest local versions of Koan- and Ionian-style plates to finely potted and richly decorated ‘Vroulian’ cups and black-figured situlae. It was imported mainland and East Greek wares, however, that dominated the island's consumption of Archaic painted wares. This represents a departure from the preceding Geometric period, which was characterised by a local pottery production of considerable scale and quality, although receptivity to external influences remained a consistent feature throughout later periods. As patterns of demand were changing, the island's craft production appears to have concentrated on a different range of goods in which high-quality figured finewares played a lesser role.

Following the successful identification of at least two different family groups in Grave Circle B using facial reconstruction (BSA 90 [1995], 107–36), a pilot project was carried out at Manchester to identify, analyse and match 22 DNA samples from burials in the Grave Circle. The first step was to determine whether ancient DNA has survived, as proved to be the case; the next was to use this information to sex the individual by polymerase chain reactions (PCRs). In some cases the results provided information which the excavators had not been able to achieve because of the poor state of the skeletal remains; in one there was an apparent disagreement between the DNA result and the conclusion reached on archaeological and anatomical grounds. The overall results suggest that these methods have considerable potential for kinship studies in Aegean Bronze Age populations.

Whether it was caused by enemy action or by earthquake, the destruction of the houses outside the walls at Mycenae, particularly the group beside the modern road, south of the Tomb of Clytemnestra, has left a unique collection of pottery. For the Clytemnestra group at least it is a reasonable hypothesis, which the pottery and tablets do much to support, that the houses were destroyed in a single disaster. Though relatively complete publications of the several buildings in this area have already appeared, the pottery has not been published in detail nor considered as a whole. In this article it is intended to consider solely the evidence which this material gives for the definition of a period in the development of the pottery of Mycenae. This material consists entirely of whole or restorable vases and in this and other respects it is complementary to the group of fragments from the Prehistoric Cemetery (Central), published in the preceding article in this series, which illustrates the same or perhaps a slightly earlier phase.

Four major buildings were excavated in the area: the House of Shields, the House of the Oil Merchant, the West House, and the House of Sphinxes Fig. 1. Very little pottery was found in the House of Shields but in each of the others there was a considerable number of vases both painted and unpainted.

Greece is on the whole a poorly watered country. Its rainfall is comparatively small, and confined to one or two months in the year; its rivers dwindle and its streams disappear altogether except immediately after rain. Consequently the provision of an adequate water supply is always important. In some districts wells must be sunk; but often in more hilly regions a more obvious source of supply is the natural springs which gush out from the rocks.

In the summer of 1952 I visited Cibyra and the other cities of the tetrapolis, Bubon, Balbura, and Oenoanda, crossing from the last by the high pass of Girdev Gölü into Lycia; in the following year I walked from Cibyra eastwards to Lake Caralitis, Lagbe, and the interesting site at Kozaǧaci. The combined results of these journeys are presented here.

What seems to be the case is that Durrës during the late Roman period was incorporated in the network of Byzantine state-controlled supply which operated throughout the east and west Mediterranean, suggesting that the city was more open to the east than to the west in late Antiquity. By contrast, the supply of Tunisian fine ware and amphorae is smaller then the imports from the eastern Mediterranean. However, the persistence presence of Tunisian wares throughout late Vandal and Byzantine period argues for sustained interaction between east and west within the Byzantine world. The presence of local production in the 6th century contexts merits further analysis.

Excavation of the late bronze age destruction of building complex H in the ‘agora’ at Gla revealed widespread traces of charred grain and grape pips. Samples from room H1 contained seeds identified as einkorn (Triticum monococcum L.). This material appears to be unique in Greece in consisting predominantly of grains from two-seeded spikelets of einkorn. It is uncertain whether the lack of chaff and weed seeds in these samples reflects partial preservation and recovery of grain in long-term storage, or represents fully threshed and sieved grain ready to be prepared for consumption

This research project of Roger Moseley, a fourth-year undergraduate student in Princeton University arose out of conversations between Sir Hugh Taylor, Dean of the Graduate College, Princeton, and Dr. A. J. B. Wace of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton at a meeting of the American Philosophical Society in April 1954 in Philadelphia. The questions were directed to the properties of ivory when subjected to the conditions obtaining in houses destroyed by fire as, for example, in the houses excavated by Wace in Mycenae, where, in one case, many fragments of ivory which had obviously been in the fire were discovered.

Samples of old ivories were subsequently provided by Wace and others for examination. These included:

(1) Ivory fragments from Mycenae from houses destroyed by fire. Date: thirteenth century B.C.

(2) Ivory fragments from Syria in the Metropolitan Museum, New York. Pratt Gift. Date: twelfth century B.C.

(3) Ivory fragments from Nimrud, Mesopotamia. Date: ninth and eighth centuries B.C.

An experimental programme on ‘modern’ ivory was put into effect to provide data against which the properties of the ancient ivories could be examined.

The following catalogue is divided into groups according to stratification. Brief descriptions of each piece and reference to similar vases from other sites are given in the catalogue. The chronological significance of the vases from the destruction level is discussed at the end of Section H.

A.Occupation Phase before the Curved Buildings

1. Plate 21. Fragment of rim of large krater.

Diameter about 0·30.

Very pale clay; dark-brown glaze; on the rim groups of short vertical lines; on the shoulder, panel containing hatched maeander; inside, rather streaky glaze varying from dark to light brown.

Weinberg holds that this type of krater developed during the Late Geometric period, but the term ‘Late Geometric’, as applied to Corinthian pottery, wants further definition. This piece must belong to the first half of the eighth century.

Both high- and low-footed examples are found.

Context: Trench H (Plate 74, Squares E-Gxi-xiii), Room XLI between floors at 8·90–8·40.

By ‘Clazomenian’ is usually meant what seems to be the main group of East Greek pottery decorated in a mature b.f. style. It is most obviously distinguished from Attic, on which it is partly dependent, by its greater tendency to decorative forms and details, as for example in the more extensive use of rows of white dots, and by such favourite motives as sirens and scales containing white drops. The home of Clazomenian is in northern Ionia: from Samos southwards, where its counterpart is the reserving and more traditional pottery known as Fikellura, no important b.f. school developed.

The first and still the only big find of Clazomenian pottery was made by W. M. Flinders Petrie in 1886 at Tell Defenneh in Egypt: most of this find went to the British Museum and a selection of the pieces was promptly and fairly published in 1888. In this publication Petrie, though not expert in Greek archaeology, noted the unity of the group, but—mainly (I suspect) on grounds of frequency—considered it to be a local Greek product of Tell Defenneh.