On the east slope of Lower Gypsades hill, about 100 metres west of the Temple Tomb, a chamber tomb came to light in August 1958, when a cutting for a new water pipe was driven through the area (A in Plate 9 a). In the course of this operation, part of a plain larnax (iii) was sliced off, and much earth removed from the west end of the collapsed chamber: at no point, however, had the municipal workmen penetrated to the tomb floor.

The chamber was approached by a sloping dromos (Plate 9 a: length 2·80 metres; max. width 1 metre), roughly cut into the natural kouskouras rock: its walls were approximately perpendicular. Although the gradient varied a good deal, there was no suggestion of a stairway.

The blocking wall was found in good condition. Of especial interest were the numerous fragments of larnakes that had been built into its fabric: some of them could be recognized as belonging to each of the three fragmentary larnakes (i, ii, v) whose scattered pieces were found below and around the two undisturbed burials in the chamber (iii, iv). We may thus distinguish two periods in the history of the tomb: larnakes i, ii, and v were evidently smashed up in order to make room for iv and iii, which must have been deposited in that order. The debris of v was found under iv, with a few adult bones in its wreckage. Part of i lay on the floor near the south-west corner, where two plain vases (2, 3) were found in situ, hence, also, came most of the fragments of the fine L.M. IIIA 2 stirrup vase (1), although its other pieces were scattered all over the floor of the tomb. This small group of offerings may belong to the disturbed adult skeleton, whose skull lay up against the lower edge of iii. Curiously, some fragments of i and ii were also found above the broken lid of iv (Plate 9 b): perhaps the lid of the later larnax was accidentally smashed at the time of the funeral, in which case the debris from earlier burials could have been piled up above it, as a rough and ready means of protection.

The following notes were made partly in the course of a voyage taken in a small sailing boat in the late summer of 1922, from Corinth across the gulf, and along the Boeotian coast, during which all the south Boeotian harbours, as well as Voulis in Phokis, were visited, and partly in the course of subsequent visits from the land side. It is hoped that the notes may supplement, if they cannot improve upon, Mr. Gomme's excellent description of this part of Boeotia, and at the same time throw some light on trading relations between the two sides of the gulf in pre-Hellenic times.

Of the three possible harbours from which Thebes could be reached from the south, the nearest to Thebes is Kreusis, or, as it is now called, Livadóstro. The difficulties of the journey from there to Plataea are vividly described by Mr. Gomme (op. cit., p. 204), but there is reason to think that communication between Livadóstro and Thebes has always passed through Parapoúngia or its ancient representative Eutresis, rather than through Plataea. At the present day there are two paths to Parapoúngia, which serve the east and west sides respectively of the Livadóstro plain.

The stratification of cults at famous sanctuaries of the ancient world, reflected for the most part in their local mythology, has long been interpreted as evidence of the invasion of older by newer gods and religious systems. A religion carried by a conquering race or by a missionary priesthood to alien lands superimposes itself, by force or persuasion, on an indigenous cult: the process is expressed in mythological terms under the figure of a personal combat between the rival gods or of the ‘reception’ of the new god by the old. Eventually either one god or the other succumbs and disappears or is relegated to an inferior position; or, again, the two may be more or less completely identified and fused.

Of the religions of antiquity it is seldom possible to do more than conjecture by what methods and processes these transitions were actually carried out. The paper which follows is an attempt to examine some phenomena of the superimposition of cult in the case of a modern Mahommedan sect—the Bektashi—acting on the sanctuaries of the mixed populations of Turkey and in particular on Christian saint-cults. So far as we can see, where Bektashism has gained ground at the expense of Christianity this has been accomplished without violence, either by processes analogous to that known to the ancient world as the ‘reception’ of the new god by the old, or simply by the identification of the two personalities.

The sickle, as attribute of Kronos, was considered by certain scholars to be the sickle with which the corn is reaped, and this would be a reliable argument for the opinion that Kronos was from of old a god of the harvest. Recently W. Staudacher has advanced the opinion that the harpe, as the Greek word is, is a sickle-shaped sword of Oriental origin, and uses this as an argument for deriving the myth of the separation of Heaven and Earth from the Orient; but he has not succeeded in proving his thesis. I have expressed doubt that the harpe of Kronos was a sickle, and said that it may have been a sword, but I have also called attention to the fact that the harpe is said by Hesiod to be provided with sharp teeth, being reminded of certain implements from the Neolithic Age in which sharp chips of flint are inserted in a stick of bone or wood, as in e.g. harpoons.

The building accounts of Epidauros are among the most interesting architectural and economic records of the Classical and Early Hellenistic period. It has rarely been recognized that they deserve to rank alongside the Athenian, Delphian, and Delian inscriptions, but although the Epidaurian material is slighter in bulk than the Delian, and covers a smaller area (politically and economically speaking) than the Athenian, it provides a far more comprehensive picture of that most important cultural activity, temple building. The Epidaurian inscriptions indicate the means by which one Greek city converted its sanctuary into a panhellenic cult-centre, that of the healing god Asklepios, during a period of a hundred years or so from about 370 B.C. onwards.

When I was at Candia in the autumn of 1913, Dr. Hatzidakis, the Ephor of Antiquities, told me that a report had reached him of a Minoan site near the village of Pláti in the plain of Lasithi, and suggested that the School should apply for a permit to excavate it. Before leaving Crete I made a preliminary inspection of the site, and the prospects seemed to justify the School in undertaking the work. The local account was that a woman had had a dream that by digging in a certain place a church bell would be found. The villagers accordingly dug a hole in the place indicated, and found not a bell but an early piece of wall and some fragments of obsidian. A report of the discovery was made to the authorities by the scholarch of Tsermiádo, the chief village of Lasithi, and it was this document to which Dr. Hatzidakis called my attention.

The usual kindness of the Cretan authorities produced the required permit, and by the 25th of April the site had been measured by the government engineer in accordance with the law now in force, and we were able to begin the work. This lasted for exactly a month, until the 25th of May, the number of men employed being for the most part about thirty, and resulted in the discovery of the Minoan settlement described in the second section of this report. The party consisted of Messrs. J. P. Droop, R. M. Heath, and M. L. W. Laistner with the Director in charge throughout.

Results from a recent surface investigation in the southern Dodecanese are presented. New sites and moveable finds are described and roughly dated. Most of them appear to belong to a Late Chalcolithic horizon, in Anatolian chronological terms. Several sites, however, produced also material that could be dated to the Early Bronze and Middle Bronze Ages, whereas M M III to LM I and Mycenaean III A–B pottery comes from Nisyros, Rhodes, and Chalke. In conclusion, the significance and implication of the finds are discussed, and suggestions on future research strategies are made.

In 1950 the Anastelosis Section of the Greek Archaeological Service began the restoration of the ‘Tomb of Clytemnestra’, Fig., Plate 35. In view of our previous researches on the tomb, Dr. Papademetriou and the Anastelosis Section invited us to observe the work and to collaborate by a careful examination of the threshold and other points. Dr. Papademetriou has already published an account of the work himself, and the following notes with the plan and photographs are offered as a supplement to what he has written. We are much indebted to him for his friendly help.

This paper looks at the period of the first regular use of pictorial vase painting in Crete: LM II–III A2 early. The focus is on Knossos, the major findspot for Minoan pictorial pottery of this distinct pre-destruction period. The shapes, motifs and overall character of Minoan pictorial pottery are discussed, as well as the extent of its influence on the earliest Mycenaean figure-style vase-painting.

It is the aim of this note to publish, as soon as possible after its discovery, a single kernos found in the Laureion. The significance of the piece is that it is another example of an uncommon type of pot recently studied and thought to be in effect confined, in Greece, to Eleusis and Athens— apart from one lone stray also found somewhere in that same Laureion district. A further interest is that both Laureion kernoi came from mining sites, but whereas the first was a surface find from a slag heap, the new kernos was found in the course of excavations, in a closed archaeological context.

The Kamares cave on Mount Ida has been known now for more than twenty years as a prehistoric sanctuary, but its full excavation was only carried out in the summer of 1913 by a party from the British School, which thus resumed the work in Crete discontinued since Palaikastro gave way to Sparta in 1906. This early fame of the cave was due to the discovery in it in the early nineties of a number of vases and a few figurines, which Dr. Hazzidakis secured from the shepherd who had found them and placed in what was then the Museum of the Archaeological Syllogos at Candia. Some of the vases bear the marks of the rivets with which their peasant owner mended them.

The results of our excavation have so greatly supplemented this first instalment that the authorities of the Candia Museum have been able to do a great deal in the way of the reconstruction of vases, of which until now only small pieces were available, and these restorations have been put at our service for the photographs which accompany this report.

As soon as these vases were discovered they were at once recognised as belonging to a kind until then almost entirely unknown, and the name ‘Kamares,’ which was at once given to them, still remains current as a general description of that kind of Cretan pottery which has a black ground and white or polychrome ornament, although at the present stage of research rather as a convenient name for the technique than with any chronological meaning.

The passage in Herodotos which above all others is written as if to provide a test on their own ground of the historical application of archaeological discoveries is v, 88, 2: ᾿Αττικὸν δὲ μήτε τι ἄλλο προσφέρειν πρὸς τοἱπόν μήτε κέραμον, ἀλλ᾿ ἐκ χυτρίδων ἐπιχωριέων νόμον τὸ λοιπὸν αὐτόθι εῖναι πίνειν The archaeological results of the victory of Argives and Aiginetans over Athenians are given thus:—

(1) The change of dress in Athens from Doric to Ionic.

(2) the νόμος made by the Argives and Aiginetans, that their pins should be increased to half as large again;

(3) that these pins should be dedicated in the sanctuary of Damia and Auxesia;

(4) that no Attic pot should be brought into the sanctuary.

George Finlay died at the age of seventy-five on 24 January a hundred years ago and I am honoured to pay tribute to this distinguished Scottish scholar and philhellene on the occasion of his centenary. It is indeed fitting that this should take place in the School which possesses many of his books and papers.

It might well be asked why there has as yet—to the best of my knowledge—been no full biography of Finlay. A glance at the available material may suggest the answer. What are usually known as the Finlay Papers housed in the British School comprise a formidable collection. Perhaps the best-known items are the so-called Journals. They are in part genuine journals in the sense of a day to day record, particularly of Finlay's experiences when travelling round the Aegean, or in Turkey, or on a visit to Scotland, journeying via Malta and France or Switzerland.

The town of Amastra (anc. Amastris, med. Samastro), one of the most important of the ancient Greek colonies on the Euxine, and later a Genoese trading-post, lies on the neck and landward slopes of a steep peninsula forming a safe harbour on either side. The peninsula is connected by a bridge with an adjacent island, on which are a few houses still protected on the harbour side by the mediaeval town-wall. The bridge is defended on either side by a gate-tower, and the city proper and castle, which are on the peninsula, retain their lofty walls and towers, built of squared blocks evidently plundered from Roman ruins (Fig. 1). Despite this plundering and the recent construction of the new road (still unfinished in 1910) to Bartin, extensive ancient remains still survive above ground on the mainland opposite the town, notably the large Roman building of brick and opus reticulatum called the Bezestein, two columns of a temple or mausoleum, many built tombs, and considerable remains of masonry embankment and vaulting about the stream which debouches into the smaller (W.) harbour. Saving the change of ownership, the place has altered but little since Clavijo's description in 1404:—

‘The town of Samastro belongs to the Genoese, and is near the sea…. on a very high hill. Opposite this hill, but more inland, there is another on which the town is built; and from one hill to another there is a great arch, like a bridge, by which people pass, and it has two gates, one at each end.

In 1987 an Archaic Argive-type shield and shield-band were discovered in the sanctuary on the acropolis of Oisyme. Such shields are found in the cemeteries of the northern Aegean, including those at Sindos and Archontiko. However, the Oisyme shield is as yet the only one to come from a sanctuary – a fact due, at least in part, to the limited exploration of early sanctuaries on the coast of Aegean Thrace. It is also the earliest known example of its type in the north-eastern Aegean. Considered alongside earlier literary evidence, such as Archilochus 5W, it helps to trace the introduction and development of the hoplite panoply in Thasos and its peraea. The shield and shield-band can be dated to c.575–550 bce on the basis of their repoussé decoration. The dies employed may have been imported from Peloponnesian (Argive or Corinthian) workshops or produced locally. They show stylistic influence from the contemporary Peloponnese, yet they have no known exact parallels. Metalworkers from the polis of Thasos and its peraea are likely to have imitated the products of southern workshops in much the same way that Thasian potters based their own early production on Cycladic, Chian and other wares. The deity worshipped in the Oisyme sanctuary was an ergane and/or a kourotrophic goddess, such as Artemis and Athena at nearby Thasos or the ‘Parthenos’ at neighbouring Neapolis. It is unlikely that rites of passage for hoplites were a central feature of the cult, since we lack the extensive corpus of weaponry (miniature and/or functional) typical in such cases. The limited number of weapons recovered from the sanctuary fits the established model for female poliad deities in smaller poleis. The shield was probably a personal gift, dedicated either by a retiring hoplite or as a thank offering after a military victory.

This paper draws attention to the potential for recognizing exported Attic Protogeometric pottery by macroscopic characteristics of its fabric, whose salient features are described. The utility of these criteria are tested on a group of pottery from Asine in the Argolis whose Attic origin was not recognized in the original publication. A brief survey of the distribution of exported Attic Protogeometric pottery shows it to occur mainly in the southern Aegean, with notable concentrations at Lefkandi, Aigina, Asine and Knossos. A list of exports is appended to this survey.

By the kindness of the Editor of the Annual I am allowed to append to Dr. Schäfer's paper a brief note on two monuments representing likna which came to my knowledge too late for publication in my last article in the Hellenic Journal on the Mystica Vannus lacchi.

Dr. Schäfer's paper is naturally to me of great interestand importance. Egypt has yielded what would have been vainly sought for in Greece, namely an actual ancient liknon of precisely the shape so far evidenced only by representations in ancient art and by modern specimens. Mr. Bosanquet wrote to me last year from Berlin to tell me of the existence of such a liknon; and its publication by Dr. Schäfer in Fig. 15 of his paper makes further comment unnecessary.

The following account is practically identical with section (a) of my Report to the Cretan Committee of the British Association (cf. Reports, Section H, 1903, Southport meeting). On the 26th March, 1903, the day of my arrival at Palaikastro, I commenced work on the ossuary discovered and partially excavated in the preceding year (cf. Report by R. C. Bosanquet, in Man, 1902). The work consisted in exposing the crania in the several compartments of that enclosure, and I soon found that the only reliable method of obtaining satisfactory cranial measurements was to clear away the surrounding earth from each skull and to measure while the specimen was still in situ. Subsequently, each skull (to the number of about thirty) was carefully removed, and then, moistened paper having been spread over and around it, a covering of plaster of Paris was finally applied: in this way it was hoped to render the skulls less liable to destruction in the transit to Candia or to such other destination as might be determined upon.

The excavations of 1908 more than fulfilled expectations in the amount of light that was shed on the later history of the Spartan pottery, so that it is now possible to write an account of the development and decline of the Laconian fabric; which account, beginning in the ninth or tenth century, ends with the latter half of the fourth, when the pottery loses its local characteristics in the various styles that appear to have been common to the whole Greek world during the last three centuries before the Christian Era.

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.