The ancient approach to the Lion Gate (Fig. 1) probably began at the north-west angle of the circuit wall, and thence gradually ascended to the gate itself. Thus all possible assailants would have to pass through the fire from the west side of the north-west angle, even before they reached the court-like area directly before the gate. Here they would be faced with a triple fire, from the gate, from the great rectangular bastion (1) which flanks the gate on the west, and from the wall immediately to the east of the gate. Exactly the same defensive plan is provided for the so-called Postern Gate in the northern circuit wall not far from the original north-eastern angle. Some have suggested that the terrace wall (2), which is called a kyklopische Stützmauer by Steffen, and juts below the north-west corner of the rectangular bastion, is part of the ancient roadway, which mounted here in zigzags, and then turned abruptly to the right to enter the gate.

In i.1–21 Thucydides gives a brief interpretation of early Greek history. This is important not only for the critical standard of its author, but also because in ten instances he says what his evidence is. Twice his evidence is archaeological. The two passages deserve careful study.

Mycenae had been destroyed by the Argives in the 460's and was deserted till the third century B.C. Thanks to modern archaeologists and Pausanias we can form some idea of what was to be seen in the time of Thucydides. Much of the Bronze Age wall, including the Lion Gate, should have been above ground; it was anyhow visible to Pausanias, and before him the Hellenistic fortifiers had made use of it. Some of the tholos tombs were open, to judge by finds made in their excavation and by Pausanias's mention of ‘underground treasuries of Atreus and his sons’. Of the Bronze Age palace and houses nothing was left above ground, so the stratification suggests. But the ruins of the city demolished in the 460's must still have survived, and its sanctuaries may have been intact; it would have been natural enough for the Argives to spare them, and there is some positive evidence that the temple on the summit of Mycenae and the sanctuary near the fountain house outside the Lion Gate were both kept in repair and that the Agamemnoneion over half a mile to the south was still visited.

One of the goals of the Vrokastro Survey Project, based in west-central Mirabello, eastern Crete, was to identify a site within the boundaries of the survey study area worthy of further investigation, including excavation. The settlement selected, based on its complexity and long lifespan, was Priniatikos Pyrgos, a harbour community and ‘gateway’ of the Vrokastro region. As a preliminary to excavation, the Istron Geoarchaeological Project was initiated in order to document the nature, condition, and resources of this site and its coastal environment. This multidisciplinary program was implemented through fieldwork, laboratory analyses, and geophysical prospection. Results include new data concerning the industrial aspects of Priniatikos Pyrgos, the changing topographical situation of the site and coastal zone, the overall size of this diachronic harbor settlement, and the regional resources involved in ceramic and metallurgical production.

A not unprofitable search among the manuscripts of the British Museum for travellers' accounts of Cyzicus and its neighbourhood, has persuaded me that an annotated list of those manuscripts which deal with Levantine geography may be a useful contribution to the bibliography of travel. It is needless to say that this paper has no palaeographical pretensions; such points as the dates of handwriting have been for the most part supplied me by Mr. J. A. Herbert, to whom I am also indebted for much other assistance.

The MSS. I have examined fall generally into one of three rough classes:—

(1) Isolarii and accounts of individual Aegean islands.

(2) Voyages and travels to Constantinople.

(3) Travels in Asia Minor.

Basic to a study of the Knossos sealings are questions of provenance and identification. Seal-impressed nodules were excavated from various parts of the Main Palace and its dependencies, both as isolated finds and as hoards. What sealings were found in which places? And how many can be identified with actual examples in Herakleion and Oxford? Those are the two questions to be considered in this article.

The documents available for this research vary in reliability. Among published accounts, reports in BSA have the virtue of being written in the same year as the excavation, though even they are subject to occasional errors arising out of misread notes. SM i compiled a few years later contains a more mature assessment of the material but is mainly limited to the Hieroglyphic Deposit. More detailed information is to be found in PM i–iv; but because of the time that elapsed between the important excavation seasons at the beginning of the century and the publication of this work, the advantage of Evans's greater experience of Minoan archaeology is outweighed by a greater tendency for mistakes to enter unnoticed.

Excavation and research in the Cyclades in the last thirty years have added substantially to the body of evidence for the Late Bronze Age in the islands. Whilst much of the excavated material is not yet fully published, our understanding of the culture and history of the LC period has been considerably extended. Below, I review this evidence and make some suggestions as to its interpretation.

Although one of the smaller and less well-known cities in Thessaly Halos in Achaia Phthiotis has played an important part in history. Tradition attributes its origin to Athamas, and its position guarding the coast route between Othrys and the sea into the Spercheios valley, brought it on several critical occasions into prominence. In 480 B.C. together with the rest of Thessaly it submitted to Xerxes without a struggle, but in 346 B.C. it withstood a long siege by Philip and Parmenio. Some mediaeval and Turkish fortifications on the ancient Greek acropolis show that its strategic importance continued down to the last century. The walls which surrounded the city in the plain and the citadel on the hill to the west can still be traced, but of the city itself nothing is now visible. The acropolis is the last peak of the projecting spur of Othrys, which running down towards the bay of Halmyros shuts off the plain of Sourpe from that of Halmyros. This is now a bare limestone hill covered with scrub, and whatever may exist in the plain is hidden beneath the cultivated fields.

Nowadays new country tracks are constantly being opened all over the Greek countryside, as demanded by the general mechanization of agricultural work. This is at once the hope and despair of the archaeologist in charge of the area as it often reveals and sometimes destroys antiquities otherwise completely buried and unsuspected.

A new country track of this kind following the foot of the northern slope of the Anemospiliara Hill just to the west of the loftier Petsophas at Palaikastro ran very near the top of the side of a curious round construction with burnt edges, a small section of which was barely visible below a thick bush of prinos (Plate 1). The area, known as Στῶν Μανϱοκουκουλήδων οἱ πεζοῦλες, is about 400 metres from the sea and 300 metres SE of the excavated parts of the Minoan town of Palaikastro at Roussolakkos. From it there is a splendid view over the whole site and the small bay of Palaikastro, with the trapezoidal Kastri Hill dominating the horizon in the background (map Fig. 1).

Accepting the prevailing view which holds that the battle of Oinoe took place during the Pentekontaetea, this paper attempts answers to the triple problem raised thereby: A. The Artistic: is it likely that (as Pausanias alleges) the Stoa Poikile contained among its other paintings, all (so far as we know) scenes from the glorious epic or near-epic past, a picture showing a recent battle against the Lacedaemonians? It is argued that the other pictures usually cited in comparison are not analogous, and the contemporary evidence of Aeschylus and Herodotus is invoked to suggest that more probably the painting showed a mythical subject harmonizing with the rest, although admittedly commemorating a recent campaign (as perhaps the rest did also). B. The Historical: when did this battle take place? It would seem to fit best into Thucydides' narrative of the Pentekontaetea if it is set shortly after the battle of Oinophyta; it could even, perhaps, be included in the exploits of the general Tolmides. C. The Historiographic: why does this battle survive only in the record of Pausanias? Thucydides' silence cannot be satisfactorily explained. But a confusion, perhaps made by Ephoros, in the account of Oinophyta could explain why there is no reference—at least, no direct reference—to Oinoe by any later historian. Pausanias evidently knew it from a bare tradition preserved by successive antiquarian writers, or guides, in their descriptions of the two monuments which commemorated the victory, the painting in Athens and the bronze group at Delphi.

In a rescue excavation at Knossos in 1977, a building dating to the last years of the hellenistic period was discovered. In it were an area with a stone tub and lid, the use of which was unknown, a well, and a wine press. The wine press had a treading-floor with remains of flooring composed of flagstones and plaster, which sloped towards a hole in a low barrier wall. The hole gave onto a stone spout, set above a tank coated in waterproof plaster. Adjacent was part of a store building, which was probably used as a cellar: it contained one pithos and there were indications that there had been others. Two tests below the building uncovered the violent destruction of a house of earlier hellenistic date, a stratum with sherds of the end of the 8th cent.–beginning of the 7th cent. BC, and scanty remains of the Minoan period.

The bridges that served the city of Sparta are known to us from archaeological evidence, inscriptions, and references in the historical sources. These are brought together to examine changes in the activity of bridge-building from the Archaic to Byzantine periods. The conclusions from this analysis are associated with the findings of the Laconia Survey. Some topographical issues arising from the survey results are also examined.

At the turn of the nineteenth century there arose an interest in the origin and development of the Minoan larnax. After many years of research it is understandable that we find the views published at that time inadequately furnished with arguments. The scholars of the past investigated only some selected questions, because their studies were prompted by the finding of a single tomb containing larnakes, as when in 1890 the larnakes at Pentamodi and Vasilika Anogeia were discovered, and P. Orsi published a study on the origin of the chest-larnax. Nevertheless in the early stage of these studies no one could imagine that the coffin chest was a shape of short duration and one which was introduced into burial rites rather late. This is of some importance for the study of the origin of the chest-larnax.

There is the very interesting problem of the theoretical background of the views expressed at that time, which we shall here pass briefly in review. The opinions published at the time were influenced by a general theory of culture which was rather vaguely accepted by scholars. The three main ideas were as follows (1) the theory of diffusion, (2) the belief in the evolutionary development of society, and (3) a supposition that there existed an interconnection of shape, plan, and to some degree of furnishing between grave and house.

One of the specialist contributions often appended to an archaeological report is the analysis of human skeletal material. Such an analysis is rarely of sufficient interest to be included in the main report, largely because the excavator has not set pertinent and soluble problems for the analyst. The time of specialists has been wasted measuring morphological minutiae in a vain attempt to track down quasi-tribal entities in which archaeologists no longer believe. The assessment of the age and sex of a skeleton, however, follows a firm methodology, is far less time-consuming, and yields relevant information.

The excavations at Antissa took place between May 29 and July 3. The most important area was that of the apsidal buildings, AC, but further exploration was carried out in the tombs south and south-east of the Acropolis, and tests were made on the promontory and the coast east of the promontory.

The working party consisted of myself, Miss Six and Mr. J. K. Brock for the duration of the dig, together with Mr. R. Cook for the last fortnight. Mr. Brock was in charge of the excavation of AC, and many of his notes and conclusions are incorporated in this report. Mr. Paraskevaïdes, Ephor of Antiquities, was present for four of the five weeks, and gave us invaluable help in archaeological and business matters. We would like to take this opportunity of expressing our gratitude to Professor Oikonomos for the many facilities provided for us at the National Museum.

Thirty Roman mosaics are now known from the Knossos Valley. The Villa Dionysos, with eight mosaics thus far uncovered, forms the largest coherent group. Recent work undertaken at the nearby bath house has revealed a small group of three mosaics. For the most part the remainder are isolated examples, commonly found during rescue excavation and often not well preserved. The mosaics range in date from the late first to the late third century AD and they display a variety of styles from black and white to polychrome and themes from simple geometric to complex figured designs. This paper presents a catalogue of the mosaics followed by a synthetic analysis, providing cultural evidence for the hitherto not well-understood Roman period of Knossos and adding to the corpus of mosaics in Greece.

Despite the limitations of such a study, imposed by the nature of the recovery of the material culture, it is possible, through an understanding of mosaic distribution, context and type, to make suggestions regarding the function of different areas within the city. An analysis of chronology and evidence for workshop production provides data for economic and cultural fluctuations and, importantly, a study of the mosaics helps to place Knossos within the broader context of the Roman Empire.

The operations of the British School for the first two months of the excavation season of 1900 extended more or less over the whole site of Knosso the summit of the Kephala hillock excepted, which had been bought and reserved by Mr. Evans. In selecting this wide area I had for objective the cemeteries prior to the Geometric Period, the situation of which was, and I regret to say still is, unknown. In the event I found what I had not expected, namely a well-preserved early town.

A medium-size Amenhotep III scarab recently discovered in the excavations at Tel Beth-Shemesh, Israel, together with two decorated Late Minoan IIIA1 cups enables a fresh look at the synchronism between Late Minoan IIIA1 and Amenhotep III. The scarab is identified as commemorative, produced on the occasion of Amenhotep III's first Jubilee or Sed festival. In light of this interpretation a new examination of the renowned and debated Amenhotep III scarab from Sellopoulo Tomb 4 is presented. It is proposed here to identify this scarab also as commemorative as it includes, in addition to the pharaoh's prenomen, an epithet which relates it too to Amenhotep III's first Sed festival.

Both scarabs, from Beth-Shemesh and Sellopoulo, are shown to have been produced between Amenhotep III's Regnal Years 28/25 and 34 respectively – most probably around Regnal Year 28 – and presumably reached their destination about that time. Further analysis led to the conclusion that the envisioned Egyptian embassy to the Aegean, which may have been the source for the ‘Aegean List’ of Kom el-Hetan, took place also during Amenhotep III's Regnal Year 28.

The two culturally different and geographically remote contexts in which the Beth-Shemesh and Sellopoulo scarabs were found – a destruction layer in Canaan and a tomb in Crete – tell the same story: Late Minoan IIIA1 was in vogue at least until the last decade of Amenhotep III's reign in the mid-fourteenth century bc. This conclusion has important implications for the political and cultural history of Knossos and may anchor the sequence of events of the Final Palatial period in a more solid chronological framework.

The following notes are an attempt to classify on the basis of shape some of the Attic red-figured choes of the later part of the fifth century B.C. and a few sundries of the early part of the fourth. The connection of these vases with the festival of the Anthesteria has given them a prominent place in the study of religion and of children's pastimes. Their scenes have been considered by several scholars, the foremost of whom are Frickenhaus, Deubner, van Hoorn, S. karouzou, and Metzger. Metzger, though taking a less extreme position than Rumpf who challenged the validity of much of the earlier work, has given a refreshingly sane view of several aspects of the iconography. Mrs. karouzou has confined herself in her published work to particular pieces and particular aspects of the festival.

In a series of soundings made in the West Court of the palace at Knossos by John D. Evans in 1969, three basement rooms of an EM IIA building were uncovered almost directly beneath the pavement of the West Court. A rich and homogeneous deposit of pottery came from these rooms, associated yard levels to the west, and fill above. Certain features, such as the pattern-burnished stemmed goblets, put the West Court House pottery at the very beginning of the EM II sequence at Knossos. A discussion of the stratification and architecture of the West Court House is followed by a representative selection of the pottery. The West Court House not only adds to our knowledge of the EM IIA settlement at Knossos, but also provides new evidence for contacts with the rest of Crete and the Aegean.