This article presents the results of Neutron Activation Analysis (NAA) of, altogether, 145 pottery and clay samples deriving from five sites located in the Thessalian region of Magnesia: Dimini, Nea Ionia, Kastro/Palaia (Volos), Pefkakia and Velestino. Chronologically, the sampled pottery covers the entire Late Bronze Age (LBA), with a few samples dating to the Middle Bronze Age. Within this broad chronological range, Mycenaean-type pottery dominates, the majority of it being decorated, with an addition of fine unpainted pottery and such used for transport and cooking. Pottery of non-Mycenaean derivation is represented by a variety of types belonging to the early LBA as well as two classes of the early post-palatial period (i.e. after 1200 BC): Handmade Burnished Ware and Grey Ware. Importantly, samples associated with two pottery kilns at Dimini and Velestino were included in the project, although no kiln wasters were identified. Results of the analysis provide important insights into both local Thessalian pottery production and inter- and intra-regional pottery exchange. Local production utilising clay beds around Dimini is best evidenced, with a distribution of its products reaching beyond Thessaly. Two further chemical patterns appear to be associated with Velestino, while an additional two small chemical groups are likely Thessalian as well. In terms of identified imports, the Argolid stands out as the major source of non-local pottery from the beginning of the LBA until the end of the palatial period. Other regions and production localities play a significantly smaller role as sources of supply. On the basis of the study, for the first time the local production as well as importation of pottery in the region of Magnesia is documented by scientific means, opening new research perspectives and strengthening the region's standing as part of the Mycenaean world.

This paper presents the collections history and typological characteristics of a small collection of Laconian lead figurines from the sanctuary of Artemis Orthia currently held in the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. The collection, which first belonged to Ramsay Traquair, serves as a case study for the applicability of the traditional lead figurine typology to decontextualised artefacts, demonstrating its limitations for assigning precise and accurate dates based on style without the benefit of stratigraphic and contextual evidence. The paper further attests to the value of comprehensively analysing small museum and gallery collections in order to gain more individualised understandings of the figurines within the large Laconian corpus than could be afforded upon excavation. Thus, this study helps to elucidate some of the limitations to the means by which we interpret Laconian material culture as well as to nuance our understanding of Laconian lead figurines by demonstrating the varied capability of the typology and published comparanda in dating and stylistic description.

The paper presents the results of an intensive survey of two upland basins in eastern Crete. Following a description of the geology and topography of the area, the methods of survey, data manipulation, and pottery analysis are described. There follow catalogues of ceramic type fabrics and other finds. The results of the survey are then presented in three chronological phases (Neolithic, Bronze Age, Graeco-Roman), interpretations are suggested, and a final section provides an overview of the development of human settlement in the region. It is suggested that initial colonisation took place in the Final Neolithic but was short-lived. The basins were only reoccupied during the Protopalatial period, when both nucleated and dispersed settlements were occupied. There is no certain evidence for continued occupation after LM IIIA and the third phase of occupation did not begin until the fourth century BC. Hellenistic and Roman occupation in both nucleated settlements and farmsteads seems to have prospered over a period of eight or nine centuries.

In 1956 the Greek Archaeological Council decided that there should be no excavations at Mycenae. The Anastelosis Department was still busy with the rebuilding of the Cyclopean walls of the Citadel along the western side and along the stretch of ashlar work in conglomerate from the Lion Gate to the north-western angle. At the actual north-western angle the Cyclopean work of the northern wall of the acropolis had originally met the conglomerate work in ashlar with a straight vertical joint. This has now been obscured in the rebuilding. The Archaeological Service was also planning and preparing to put into effect various measures to protect the site from damage by the large numbers of tourists who visit it every year.

Since we were thus not able to excavate, we devoted ourselves to studying and preparing for publication the finds from the excavations of previous years in the museums at Athens and Nauplia. In Athens the Director of the National Museum, Dr. Karouzos, and his wife, Mrs. Semne Karouzou, made us very welcome and afforded us every possible facility. Mrs. Sakellariou and Mr. Papathanasopoulos, assistant curators in the museum, also gave us much friendly help. At Nauplia Mr. N. Verdeles, the Inspector of Antiquities, and Miss Protonotariou, the Epimeletes, made special arrangements for our work and gave us every support.

Considered here is the ‘Labyrinth Fresco’ (or ‘Maze Fresco’), fragments of which were found by Sir Arthur Evans in the Minoan palace at Knossos. Interestingly, the pattern was rendered through engraving, with the exclusively red colour used applied within the grooves. Oddly, this design is very similar to one shown as a patterned floor in a recently excavated wall painting discovered by the Austrian excavator Manfred Bietak, at Tell el Dab'a, in the Nile Delta area of Egypt, where it depicts an arena used for bull leaping. The present article therefore raises the question of whether the ‘Labyrinth Fresco’ from Knossos was actually decoration on a patterned plaster floor rather than a wall, and could have acted as the model for the one depicted in the Tell el Dab'a painting. One possible explanation for this phenomenon is that the Tell el Dab'a painters were Greek expatriate artists – a matter that prompts questions about actual international contacts between the Aegean and Egypt in the mid-second millennium bc The paintings in Egypt clearly imply travelling Aegean artists, though further and more formal contacts probably also existed between the two countries.

The characteristic terracotta plaques with seated figures accompanied by snakes were created for local use, as they are hardly ever found outside Laconia and Messenia. They served a type of cult, the heroic, as shown by both their widespread distribution in this region and their complete absence from divine sanctuaries. Their generalised and standardised iconography made them versatile offerings that could be used in various contexts, with the seated figure acquiring the identity of the locally honoured hero in a specific sanctuary setting. Distribution patterns also show variety. In Laconia, plaque findspots show this type of offering was favoured much more in the region inhabited by the homoioi. By contrast, the Messenian plaques, offered both at Bronze Age tombs and at urban sanctuaries, must have been dedicated primarily by perioikoi. The similarities between Laconian and Messenian types of plaques need not be correlated with the contested ethnic identity of the Messenians. Rather, they should be attributed to the flexibility and variety in their use. The Messenian cults that attracted plaque dedications honoured heroes not necessarily because they were Achaean, but because they were celebrated local mythical or historical figures. Creating a link with the past through heroes was a well-established way to articulate a strong local and communal, but not necessarily ethnic, identity.

This article focuses on some central supporting walls one can see in certain buildings at Early Minoan Hagia Triadha, Fournou Korifi (Myrtos) and Vasiliki. The walls, which have Π-, C-, and L- shapes, have been viewed as central ceiling/roof supports. But that interpretation is only a partial one, for it does not explain the walls' ‘enclosing’ shapes. The solution I argue for here is that a ladder was set in each, providing access to the roof in single-storeyed buildings, as at Hagia Triadha, or to a second floor, as at Vasiliki. My investigation attempts to clarify one of the unique characteristics of Early Minoan architecture as well as how that form may have been adapted to provide access in buildings with more than a single storey.

This paper investigates the transformative effects on technology of state collapse and related major cultural transitions in the period 1200–1000 BC (Late Bronze to Iron Age). It documents and assesses a notably large, preserved metal artefact assemblage (mainly bronze) from one of the best-known Mediterranean sites of the period. This is the large mountaintop town of Karphi, recently confirmed through excavation as occupied solely at the Bronze–Iron transition. Few other contemporary Aegean settlements sharing these characteristics of size, complexity and single-period occupation have been excavated, producing a lack of comparably informative metals assemblages. This contextual interpretative study considers in-depth knowledge of the archaeology of the site and its landscape alongside the results (published and discussed in Archaeometry in 2021) of surface HH-XRF testing on the whole assemblage. The latter is preserved in similar condition throughout, offering opportunities for broad internal alloy composition profiling by the latter method, as well as limited general compositional comparison with other assemblages from the contemporary Mediterranean. Comparisons of an interregional nature are attempted through typological, technological and contextual study of the Karphi material. In considering using this range of evidence, and considering how procurement, manufacturing technology and consumption processes around bulk metals and metal artefacts changed following state collapse, the analysis dwells on and highlights signs of locally centred, agent-driven shifts in contact, cultural and economic networks. On the basis of the full range of evidence addressed, it argues that Lasithian groups made specific, informed choices about manufacture and consumption without relying on specialised manufacture and supply from other points within Crete.

This article presents the Late Minoan II–III B and the Late Helladic I–III C pottery from the 1911 excavations of J. Dawkins and J. Droop at Phylakopi on Melos.

The material from the 1911 excavations fills gaps in the corpus of pottery provided by the 1896–9 excavations and the 1974–7 excavations. It fills out our knowledge of the LH III A2 pottery and adds a considerable amount of LH III A1 and LH III C material. A small group of vessels caught in a LM I B/LH II A destruction confirms the supposition that full Marine Style was circulating together with open ground Marine Style and Alternating Style vases. The LH III C pottery adds some more parallels to the pottery from Koukounaries on Paros and also has one or two parallels to pottery from the east Aegean and pottery exported from there to the Levant.

Σε αυτό το άρθρο παρουσιάζεται η Υστερομινωική II–III B και η Υστεροελλαδική I–III Γ κεραμική από τις ανασκαφές των J. Dawkins και J. Droop το 1911 στη Φυλακωπή της Μήλου.

Το υλικό από τις ανασκαφές του 1911 συμπληρώνει τα κενά των δημοσιεύσεων της κεραμικής από τις ανασκαφικές περιόδους 1896–99 και 1974–77. Συμπληρώνει τη γνώση μας για την YE III A2 κεραμική και προστέτει μία σημαντική ποσόθητα υλικού της YE III A1 και YE III Γ. Ένας μικρός αριθμός αγγείων, που εντοπίστηκε στην YM I B / YE II A καταστροφή, επιβεβαιώνει την υπόθεση ότι ο πλήρης θαλάσσιος ρυθμός ήταν διαδεδομένος συγχρόνως με το θαλάσσιο ρυθμό επί ανοικτού βάθους και με τα αγγεία του εναλλασόμενου στυλ. H YE III Γ κεραμική προσθέτει ορισμένα ακόμη παράλληλα στην κεραμική από τις Κουκουναριές της Πάρου. Επιπλέον παρουσιάζει ένα ή δύο παράλληλα με την κεραμική του ανατολικού Αιγαίου, όπως και με την εξαγόμενη από εκεί κεραμική προς τη Συροπαλαιστίνη.

In this article we describe the evaluation of two prehistoric sites situated within the coastal zone of south-western Albania, originally investigated by the Italian prehistorian Luigi Cardini in 1939. The first is a cave site in the town of Himara; the second a rock-shelter at Kanalit in the Acroceraunian Mountains to the north. Investigations at both locations revealed stratified evidence of prehistoric activity dating from the mid-Holocene. At Kanalit, an extensive lithic assemblage provided evidence for the exploitation of the adjoining coastal lowlands during the Mesolithic, while at Himara, a largely unbroken sequence of deposits records often intensive human activity at the cave from the Early Bronze Age. Radiocarbon dates have provided a significant independent chronological marker for Early/Middle Bronze Age horizons. The ceramic evidence indicates a predominance of local influences, the site not becoming part of wider trading networks until the late Iron Age, c. seventh to sixth centuries BC.

Σε αυτό το άρθρο πραγματευόμαστε τη σημασία δύο προϊστορικών θέσεων, οι οποίες βρίσκονται στην παράκτια ζώνη της ΝΔ Αλβανίας. Οι θέσεις αυτές είχαν αρχικά ερευνητεί από τον Ιταλό προϊστορικό αρχαιολόγο Luigi Cardini το 1939. Η πρώτη θέση αφορά ένα σπήλαιο στην πόλη της Χειμάρρας και η δεύτερη μία βραχοσκεπή, στη θέση Kanalit, στα Ακροκεραύνια όρη προς βορρά. Έρευνες στις δύο θέσενς αποκάλυψαν στρωματογραφημένες ενδείξεις προϊστορικής δραστηριότητας, που χρονολογούνται από το μέσο Ολόκαινο. Στη θέση Kanalit ένα ευρύ σύνολο λίθινων αντικειμένων παρέχει στοιχεία για την εκμετάλλευση των γειτονικών παράκτιων πεδινών περιοχών κατά τη Μεσολιτική περίοδο. Στο σπήλαιο της Χειμάρρας μία σειρά από αδιάσπαστες, στο μεγαλύτερο μέρος τους, αποθέσεις μαρτυρεί συχνά έντονη ανθρώπινη δραστηριότητα από την Πρώιμη Εποχή του Χαλκού. Οι ραδιοχρονολογήσεις παρέχουν ένα σημαντικό ανεξάρτητο χρονολογικό δείκτη για τους ορίζοντες της Πρώιμης/Μέσης Εποχής του Χαλκού. Η κεραμική φανερώνει την επικράτηση τοπικών επιρροών, με τη θέση αυτή να μην λαμβάνεν μέρος στα ευρύτερα εμπορικά δίκτυα πριν από την όψιμη Εποχή του Σιδήρου, περίπου τον 70 – 60 αιώνα π.Χ.

The Greek temples on the summit of the citadel at Mycenae were discovered and partially cleared by Ch. Tsountas in 1886, but the major excavation was undertaken in 1939 under the direction of A. J. B. Wace. The results of this season have never been fully studied. This article is based upon a new examination of the material evidence and the documents in the Mycenae archives of the British School at Athens. Previously unpublished architectural drawings, photographs, plans, and sections make it possible to assess the nature of the Archaic and Hellenistic temples at Mycenae. The evidence points to the establishment of the cult in the Geometric period, along with the construction of the northern terraces, followed by a significant reorganization of the temenos and the construction of the first stone temple in the early Archaic period. Preliminary analysis of the preserved architectural elements indicates a strong connection between the Archaic temple at Mycenae and the early temples at Corinth and Isthmia. The well-known stone reliefs from Mycenae, dated c. 630 BC, should also belong to this early structure. In the third century BC, when Mycenae had been resettled as an Argive kome, the temple was rebuilt, incorporating Archaic material in its foundations.

This paper discusses four Hellenistic inscriptions in the Sparta and Larissa Museums recording decrees for foreign courts. New proveniences, from Krannon and Peparethos, are suggested for two of the decrees. A full restoration, based on a parallel document, is provided for the Peparethian decree. New readings and restorations are also offered for the two other decrees. The paper concludes with a brief discussion of the significance of these texts for the history of the late Hellenistic period.

The season of 1910 closed the excavations of the School at Sparta which were begun in 1906 under the direction of Professor Bosanquet, and, although much work remains to be done in the Museum in preparing the finds for publication, especially those from the Sanctuary of Artemis Orthia, no further excavation is contemplated. The results achieved have been regularly reported each year, and the objects discovered at the various sites have been nearly all published, with the important exception of the great mass of objects from the Orthia Sanctuary, which are so numerous that their adequate publication will require a separate book. An important series of Byzantine painted pottery and some jewellery of the same period also await publication. The nature of these previous annual reports makes it unnecessary here to do more than give the usual short summary of the year's work which is more fully described in the following sections, and again to express the thanks of the School for the continual support of the Hellenic government, which was this year again ably represented by Doctor Rhomaios.

The strict Lenten fast of the Greek Church is preceded by a carnival of a fortnight's duration. The week from Septuagesima Sunday to Sexagesima is celebrated with feasting and merriment subject to no religious restrictions; in the second week, although similar festivities continue, heightened rather than abated, no meat may be eaten; and on the morrow of Quinquagesima (for Monday is the first day of the Greek Lent), the full regulations as to fasting come into operation, not only meat, but fish, eggs, milk, cheese and oil being almost universally prohibited. None the less a free use of wine makes the Monday the climax of the carnival.

The distinction between L.H. IIA and L.H. IIB as stylistic and historical phases was set out by Furumark over twenty years ago, but the terms have still not come into general use. Instead, L.H. II is treated as a unit, roughly equivalent to the fifteenth century B.C. Yet it is now generally agreed that there was an important historical ‘break’ in the middle of the century, marked by the destruction of many sites in Crete, which roughly coincides with the suggested division between L.H. IIA and L.H. IIB. The distinction between material preceding and following this ‘break’ on the mainland is likely to be of importance for the general history of the period.

In his discussion of these phases, Furumark was forced to rely very largely on tomb-groups, and his total material was not very great. He was conscious that additional evidence was needed for L.H. I and L.H. IIA, and commented on the general dearth of stratified material, accepting only one site, Korakou, as showing a L.H. I–II stratification.

The origin of the sealstones in the British School of Archaeology at Athens is rather obscure. Although they have sometimes been referred to as the Finlay collection, this is apparently incorrect. That collection is now in the museum of the University of Manchester. Numbers 1–18 below (M30–M47 in the School's museum inventory) consist of three Minoan gems of the ‘talismanic’ type and fifteen ‘Melian’ Island gems. The combination of Island with a small admixture of Minoan gems, especially ‘talismanics’, seems to have been characteristic of material derived from Geometric tombs in the cemeteries of Trypiti, Trion Vasallon, and elsewhere on Melos during the latter part of the nineteenth and the first years of this century, in particular during the period in which the British School was excavating on the island at Phylakopi.

‘The vases of the Acheloos Painter and those in his manner might have been included in the long Leagros list, as they are central examples of the Leagran style: I have placed them in a list of their own, but would insist that they are no less Leagran than the others.’ Thus Beazley, in the introduction to the long Leagran chapter in ABV. The Leagros Group is a large and embarrassingly homogeneous group of late sixth-century Attic black-figure vases; so stylistically homogeneous is it, in fact, that even Beazley admitted a certain defeat when it came to attributing most of them to their painters. As a group they have a well-defined personality, and much of what is true of any one vase is also true of the others, whence the particular problems of attribution. It is an important group because it is contemporary with the red-figure Pioneers, Euphronios, Euthymides, Phintias, and their coterie, and stylistically like their work; Beazley claimed in the ABV introduction that the Leagran pots were painted in the same workshop.

In the spring of 1896, a small excavation conducted by Mr. Cecil Smith, then Director of the British School, resulted in the discovery of the site of the Kynosarges gymnasium on the left bank of the Ilissus below Callirrhoe.

The excavation also brought to light a considerable number of ‘Dipylon’ tombs. It is unfortunate that, according to the law as it then stood, the larger part of the vases found in these tombs passed into the hands of the owner of the site and are now beyond reach, but a certain number are preserved in the Museum of the British School, and these, to judge from a photograph of some of the lost vases, I believe to be good representatives of the whole group. I have to thank Mr. Cecil Smith for permission to publish them.

There are in all forty-four vases, many unfortunately very fragmentary. Besides these there are three pieces which show traces of later oriental influence. The numbers are those of the Museum Catalogue.