Red-figure pottery of Laconian manufacture was found in the excavations of the British School at Sparta in 1906–10 (Artemis Orthia, Acropolis) and 1924–8 (Acropolis), in particular the Roman theatre. This is entirely fragmentary, and is here published with full catalogue. Stratigraphical information is slight. Most fragments are from the Acropolis, particularly the area between the south wall of the shrine of Athena Chalkioikos and the retaining wall from the cavea of the Roman theatre. The most common shape is the large one-handled mug, which had a brief vogue in the last quarter of the fifth and first quarter of the fourth century. Other open shapes are craters, cups, plates. Closed shapes are far fewer, and exact forms not easy to determine: possibly pelikai and hydriai. There is a general stylistic connection with Attic red-figure of the last fifteen years of the fifth century and the first decade of the fourth.

The following is an account of some expeditions made from Knossos by members of the British School. It is hoped in time to make a complete register of all ancient sites on the island (more than six hundred are already known). How much is still to be done is shewn by the fact that over thirty-five new sites were found during the course of the journeys here described.

The names of the sites here given must be taken with reserve. Pronunciation varies so much from one district to another that accuracy is exceedingly difficult. Moreover, the Turkish names are hard to reproduce, since the Turkish č is written and pronounced ts by the educated, and written ki, while pronounced as English ch by the peasants. The n is liable to be dropped in Crete: thus Alexadros for Alexandros.

Shells from the excavation of the West Court House at Knossos are analysed and compared with those from other Neolithic and Early Minoan sites.

In an article on the difficulty of identifying marbles from the Aegean area Mr. Colin Renfrew and Dr. J. Springer Peacey rightly criticize the careless use by later scholars of the results obtained in 1890 by G. R. Lepsius, who, by cutting thin sections of various marbles and examining them under transmitted light, claimed to be able to identify Pentelic, Hymettan, Parian, Naxian, and, less specifically, ‘Island’ marbles.

It seems, however, that even when applied with care the method is useless, and Renfrew and Peacey will have none of it. ‘The use’, they say, ‘of the terms “Pentelic”, “Hymettan”, “Parian”, “Naxian”, and so forth, applied to ancient sculptures on the basis of simple visual inspection or of microscopic examination of thin specimens, is not justified…. No single characteristic or combination of characteristics is sufficient to identify with certainty the source of a single given specimen…. No reliance can be placed on Lepsius' marble identifications, and even less [sic] on those authors who have ascribed marble to supposed sources on the basis of colour and grainsize…. Those who make them or follow them are perpetuating a myth which is just eighty years old…’

Though tortoises are not objects of value, and unlikely to have been used as sacrificial victims, Pausanias describes representations of them in conjunction with a deity in a few sanctuaries. The reasons for this, and the part played by tortoise shells in cults is discussed.

The report of last Season's work must necessarily be of a somewhat summary character. The fuller description and elaborate plans and sections required for the due illustration of the results of the complete excavation of the Grand Staircase will find a more fitting place in the forthcoming general work on the Palace. On the other hand as it was only possible to lay bare a section of the large building on the hill to the West of the Palace, it has seemed undesirable at present to publish anything beyond a very brief account of the portion as yet explored, except so far as relates to the Shrine of the Fetish Idols. I have only to add that throughout the recent explorations I had, as before, the valued cooperation of my assistant Dr. Mackenzie.

Our operations in this island, which lasted in all from March 20th until the end of May, were mainly tentative in character; it contains evidently a large number of ancient sites, but unfortunately, in most of them, a great deal of unsystematic and unrecorded digging has been for a long time carried on. It seemed, therefore, desirable to ascertain, first, whether it would be necessary to continue for more than one season; and, secondly, what sites would best repay investigation.

The inscriptions here published, which were found in the Anglo-Turkish excavations at Old Smyrna between 1948 and 1953, are mostly fragments from the short, trivial writings of daily life. There are also one or two dedications, and a few inscriptions painted by potters on their wares. No inscriptions on stone were found, but this is not surprising, for the parts uncovered were chiefly private houses and stretches of the city's great wall. One important temple of a goddess, perhaps Artemis, was located and cleared, but it had unfortunately been much eroded. No other public building was reached, nor an agora: so the present epigraphic harvest should more properly be called gleanings, some of it merely owners' or merchants' marks—single letters or signs—on domestic pottery.

The South Stoa at the Argive Heraion is the best-preserved Peloponnesian stoa of the fifth century B.C., and one of the earliest anywhere with substantial remains of a stone entablature; it shows definite evidence of features which are rarely found elsewhere. The publication of it by Tilton at the beginning of this century certainly does not do justice either to the interest of its design or to the quality of its workmanship, and a complete republication of the existing remains would be well worth while. The present paper does not attempt to fulfil this need, however; it is directed instead to two interrelated features of the stoa which, it appears, were not fully understood by Tilton, the roof structure and the outer colonnade, and to a brief consideration of their significance.

In his admirable paper ‘Ravennatum Palatium Sacrum’ (Det Kgl. Danske Videnskabernes Selskab. Archaeologisk-kunsthistoriske Meddelelser 3, 2. Copenhagen, 1941) Dr. Einar Dyggve has revealed to us the type of the emperors' reception halls—la basilica ipetrale per ceremonie—in the late Roman empire. Analysing in a masterly way the famous mosaic of S. Apollinare Nuovo showing the Palatium of Theoderic, the missorium of Theodosius, the literary evidence for the Magnaura of Constantine, and architectural material, such as the palace of Diocletian in Spalato, from the fourth, fifth, and sixth centuries A.D., he defines a highly monumental tripartite architectural complex consisting of a tribunalium, also to be styled atrium or basilica discoperta, with a triumphal arch at its upper end, then a triclinium behind the atrium, and finally a most holy innermost absidal room, a choir.

Two cult structures from Mycenae and from a sanctuary recently discovered at Phylakopi, on the island of Melos, shed a new light on the sacred architecture of the Aegean at the close of the Bronze Age. This paper suggests that the edifices of both these sites should be classified as popular places of worship. This suggestion is based on their location, layout and size as well as on their foreign architectural affinities. The Phylakopi sanctuary, located against the fortification wall of the town, consists of a major temple to which a subsidiary shrine is attached. The pair of adjacent structures located on the lower terrace of the acropolis of Mycenae, are of approximately the same size, presumably possessing the same religious status. The three edifices bear several asymmetrical features, such as indirect entrances and corner platforms that have no parallels elsewhere in the Aegean. These features are diagnostic to a special type of Canaanite temples that prevailed in maritime posts and harbour sites. There are indications, however, that in spite of the foreign architectural affinities, the cult practised in the Mycenae structures and in the major temple of Phylakopi was distinctively Aegean. On the other hand, architectural and contextual data seem to support the assumption that the subsidiary shrine of Phylakopi was reserved for foreign cult, practised by Canaanite traders.

A third season of excavations at Palaikastro was concentrated on the central area of the new site where four main structures have been identified; Buildings 1, 3, 4 and 5. This report highlights the more interesting finds, including the head of the ivory statuette, the torso and arms of which were found last year, and the first evidence for the LM II reoccupation of east Crete in the form of a Palace Style sherd and part of a central Cretan Ephyraean goblet.

A Permit was granted for the School to carry out a trial excavation at Haliartos in Boeotia with the object of establishing the plan of the ancient walls of the city and testing the future possibilities of the site.

Digging was begun on March 30th on the west wall of the Acropolis—Mr. Woodward being present to direct operations for the first two days. Five men were employed at first, but after the opening week the number was raised to six.

For about a fortnight the workmen were employed in determining the lines of the walls of the Acropolis. It was found impossible in the limited time available for the excavation to include the outer town walls in the investigation. For the second fortnight the men were chiefly engaged in excavating a sanctuary and adjacent buildings which were discovered within the Acropolis. Work was continued until April 28th.

This article is the fourth in a series designed to chart the diffusion of Hellenistic motifs, not only from province to province but also across craft boundaries. We are seldom able to measure these processes with any degree of chronological precision, but when we can the evidence indicates the astonishing speed with which even the most complex decorative innovations could become common property over wide areas. The Medusa Rondanini and a closely related body of derivative material provide one of the few easily documented cases for such rapid diffusion. Though we cannot expect to understand completely the mechanics of the process, the isolation and examination of its visible proofs provide some valuable controls for a much wider group of objects.

The tripod-lebes is characterized by two round vertical handles cast with a plate behind and a strap in front, both of which are riveted to the cauldron, and by three legs, each cast with a plate, also riveted to the cauldron and supported by struts. Schwendemann asserts that it is properly a cooking-pot, for in Homer a mixing-bowl is a krater, but a big tripod is put on the fire to provide bath-water, and a hog could be seethed in a lebes. The monuments support this view, for the tripod-lebes is not used as a mixing-bowl in a komos scene or the like, even long after it had lost its function—to be set on the fire and then taken off again.

In the following paper an attempt has been made to bring together scattered notices from printed sources regarding the geographical distribution of the Bektashi sect, as indicated by the position of existing or formerly existing convents of the order. I have further included such information on this subject as I have been able to obtain from my own journeys and enquiries (1913–15) among the Bektashi: nearly all this information is gathered from Bektashi sources, and much from more than one such source. I hope to have made a fairly complete record of Bektashi establishments in Albania, now the most important sphere of their activities, and a substantial basis for further enquiry in the other countries where the sect is to be found, with the exception of Asia Minor, for which my sources are at present inadequate.

From the evidence at our disposal the Bektashi establishments in Asia Minor would seem to be grouped most thickly in the ‘Kyzylbash’ or Shia Mahommedan districts, especially in (1) the vilayets of Angora and Sivas, and (2) in the south-west corner (Lycia) of that of Konia, where the Shia tribes are known from their occupation as Tachtadji (‘wood-cutters’). For the third great stronghold of Anatolian Shias, the Kurdish vilayets of Kharput and Erzeroum, no information as to Bektashi tekkes is available.

Remains discovered in excavations at Naxos in 1981–3, underlying structures belonging to the settlement which has been recognized as the mansio mentioned in the Antonine Itinerary, have now been firmly identified as the dockyard of the Greek city, the first Greek colony in Sicily and a Chalcidian foundation; an ally of Athens in the fifth century, it was therefore destroyed by Dionysios I of Syracuse in 403 BC. One rock-cut shipshed has been excavated for its surviving length (the lower end is lost under modern buildings); there is pottery evidence for the construction of its north wall in the mid-fifth century BC.

As with the installation of the democracy after the return of the Chalcidian exiles from Leontinoi, the work may have been inspired and encouraged by Athens. Installations of an earlier phase are also starting to appear. A selection of pottery evidence and of the remains of roof components (tiles and antefixes) is published.

The side walls of at least four shipsheds have been found just inside the city wall, and these respect the orientation of the fifth-century urban plan. The clear width of the shipshed excavated (5.45 m) confirms the evidence of other recent excavations: the previously held view that trireme shipsheds had a clear width of 5.75–6 m will have to be revised. The back 5–6 m of the shipshed do not seem to have been part of the slipway proper; possible explanations are suggested.

This paper presents evidence for the later (mostly Geometric) use of the Μycenaean cemetery at Agios Vasileios, Chalandritsa, at the eastern side of the Pharai plain, 20 km south-east of Patras. This evidence comprises surface material and a burial in the dromos of Tomb 17 (with a preliminary analysis of the human skeletal remains), plus finds from the tomb chamber, and finds from the chamber of Tomb 24.

This contribution focuses on a study of the pottery assemblage deposited in the space occupied by the House of the Fallen Blocks and the House of the Sacrificed Oxen at the south-eastern corner of the Palace of Knossos. This deposit was crucial for Arthur Evans’ definition of the ‘Great Earthquake’ destruction at Knossos, because, together with fallen blocks, it was considered to be the consequence of a massive destruction. From the outset, the deposit associated with this event has played a de facto role in the definition of the New Palace era, and, in this respect, it is very important with regards to the history of the Palace of Knossos. There is no sign of stratification above the floor levels of the houses, with the material of the deposit usually interpreted as a post-destruction fill. The abundance of ceramic material and the broad representation of forms prompted Evans to call this deposit a storehouse of Middle Minoan (MM) III domestic pottery. Here, the nature of the deposit will be examined, taking into consideration information from the excavation notebooks and a detailed study of the retained pottery. The main conclusion is that the material is not MM IIIB as ascribed by Evans, but can be dated to an earlier part of the period, i.e. MM IIIA. This is significant because it might contribute to a critical reassessment of the destruction horizon generally attributed to MM IIIB. The large quantities of pottery from these houses also provide a fuller picture of what types and styles were prevalent in MM IIIA, given that there are not many published deposits of this date from the palace or town of Knossos.

This paper presents a new edition of a boundary stone between Capua (on Crete) and Knossos. I identify the post of Publius Messius Campanus as procurator Campaniae rather than procurator Caesaris. The appearance of the procurator Campaniae on Crete is linked to a dispute between the colony of Capua and a private citizen called Plotius Plebeius. This new reading has several important historical consequences: first, it is the earliest attestation of a procurator Campaniae (and the first outside Italy); second, it offers a new interpretation of the juridical category of Knossian lands as part of the ager vectigalis of the Italian colony of Capua in the form of a praefectura Campana or Capuensis; third, it proposes a reinterpretation of the process of arbitration between a public entity (Capua) and a private owner.