Two museums in the city of Liverpool have material from the Sanctuary of Artemis Orthia, Sparta: the Garstang Museum of Archaeology in the Department of Archaeology, Classics and Egyptology at the University of Liverpool, and World Museum, part of National Museums Liverpool.

The artefacts from the Artemis Orthia sanctuary which are now in the collections in Liverpool represent all periods of the use of the sanctuary, between the eighth century bc and the third century ad. They comprise lead figurines and miniature vessels, both characteristic of Laconian sites, as well as other types of pottery and terracotta figurines. Large and more extravagant offerings, such as items made from ivory or bronze, are not represented. However, the range of artefacts, particularly lead figurines, is impressive, and complements the material from the sanctuary which has already been published, primarily in the volume edited by Dawkins and published in 1929. In addition, the collections include a few objects of exceptional interest, mentioned in the article with further details in the Appendix. A full listing of votive offerings from the Sanctuary of Artemis Orthia in Liverpool collections complements the article.

The recently published ‘Stele from the Harbour’ of Thasos provides important new evidence for the topography of the ancient city. Some streets and other topographical features are named or described. There are many problems, however, in locating these features on the ground. These problems are fully discussed and some new solutions are proposed. At the same time, the new evidence bears on several difficult and unresolved topographical questions, which have long engaged the attention of students of Thasos. These questions are, therefore, reconsidered here. Finally, the important evidence for the topography of the city, which is found in the Hippocratean Epidemics, is fully set out for the first time, and discussed in relation to the archaeological evidence.

The construction date of the Tomb of Clytemnestra at Mycenae is disputed, opinion being divided over whether the tomb was erected at the end of Late Helladic IIIA or towards the end of Late Helladic IIIB. The article attempts to resolve this debate by examining all of the dating evidence for the tomb. It stresses that the most valuable clues to the date of the tomb come from the excavations that were carried out in 1952 and 1953 on either side of the Great Poros Wall, the retaining wall that supported the eastern side of the earthen mound above the tomb. Several trenches of these excavations are discussed in detail, specifically V and M, both of which were sunk into the earthen mound behind the wall, and L, P, III and IV, all of which were located immediately in front of the wall. The information on these trenches is drawn not only from the published reports, but also from the original excavation notebooks. The pottery from them is used to determine the date of the tomb. What emerges is that the Tomb of Clytemnestra was, in fact, built at the beginning of Late Helladic IIIB.

Exacavations and study at the ancient theatre of Sparta in the area of the stage building and the west parodos have revealed new evidence for the original stage arrangements of the theatre as built under G. Julius Eurykles, c. 30-20 BC. A new trench laid across the west parodos, and the reopening of trials made by H. Bulle in 1935, have confirmed beyond doubt the existence of a scenery store building (skanotheke), from which three trackways, at least two of which were certainly fitted with continuous grooved blocks, allowed a moveable stage structure to be rolled out roughly into the position later occupied by the existing second phase stage building. Within the west parodos three contiguous channelled blocks have been revealed for the north line, the middle line and two poros bedding blocks for the south line. These indicate a gauge between the outer lines of c. 6 m, within a skanotheke 9 m in width and 36 m long, the walls of which have been confirmed on the north, south and west. Bulle's 1937 hypothesis concerning a rolling stage for Sparta, which was challenged by Buckler in 1986, is therefore largely confirmed. Numerous fragments of a marble Doric columned order reused within the walls and foundations of the Flavian stage building suggest that a colonnaded façade may have fronted the moving stage area, and possibly also enclosed it at the rear.

After we had spent several days in preparations, including the purchase and despatch of timber and other stores, Miss Lamb left Athens for Mycenae on May 11th, and began work the next day with six men. Dr. Boethius arrived on May 12th and the Director on May 13th. The other members of the party, Miss Lorimer, Mr. Heurtley, Mr. Hutchinson and Dr. Smith, arrived on May 16th and 17th. The number of men employed gradually rose to fifty-five, and then towards the end of the excavations was reduced by degrees to thirty, and finally to four when work closed on August 15th. The headquarters were again established in the Metrovgenes house, and accommodation was reserved at the ‘Fair Helen’ Hotel for the women members of the party.

The study of the history of the first excavations on prehistoric Therasia in the nineteenth century, which were carried out in the context of contemporary scientific interest in the volcanic eruptions of Santorini, has led to the systematic archaeological investigation of the island from 2007 onwards. The intensive archaeological surface survey, the geological survey of the geological structure and palaeotopography of Therasia, and geophysical investigations, undertaken in conjunction with the ongoing excavation of the prehistoric settlement at the site of Panaghia Koimisis at the southern end of modern Therasia, have created the conditions for a more comprehensive approach to the archaeological landscape of the island. Based on the results from the excavation trenches in the south and south-east terraces of the Koimisis hill, which have been excavated down to the virgin soil, we present findings on the organisation, architecture and habitation phases of the Koimisis settlement. The site emerges as an important settlement located on the imposing hilltop rising on the west side of the pre-eruption Santorini caldera in the Early Bronze Age, with a long period of habitation to the end of the Middle Cycladic period, when it was definitively abandoned. The excavation of the settlement provides new information on its architecture and spatial organisation during the Early and Middle Bronze Age, completing the picture from Akrotiri, whose early phases are preserved in a piecemeal fashion under the buildings of the Late Cycladic town.

The dead of Pharsalos sleep sound; but more than a century ago their battlefield began to walk; and since Leake a dozen scholars in succession have found it in as many different places, over an area of forty miles by ten.

I must apologise for introducing yet another claimant theory, but I have at least aimed also at reducing the total by the abolition of one or two of its wilder predecessors. I propose, then, to summarise the ancient evidence, to state and criticise the theories based on it, and to conclude with a new attempt at solution, checked by walking over the plains of Pharsalos.

Far the first, then, among our authorities stands of course Caesar himself (Bellum Civile, III. 81–98). After the occupation of Gomphoi and Metropolis, all the states of Thessaly, except Larissa, had declared for him. Accordingly, ‘having found a convenient position in the Thessalian plain,’ he sat down there to wait for Pompey and the final decision. A few days later Pompey marched south to Larissa and joined Scipio. When next heard of, their army is encamped opposite Caesar on a hill.

The Hellenistic period in the Aegean is one notoriously devoid of firmly established chronological markers with more than local significance and which might be used to divide the cultural material into smaller groupings. This is especially true for pottery. The Aegean basin was parcelled out among numerous ceramic provinces which, though all were obviously heirs to the traditions established in the Classical period, yet managed to interpret any new ideas in their own way and at their own speed. These apparently newly emerged styles were in fact of hoary antiquity. They represent the resurgence of local mores and traditions in pottery manufacture whose existence in the Classical and Archaic periods had been well-nigh overlooked by the excessive concentration on the study of the products of Corinth and Athens. Their re-emergence was occasioned by two factors consequent on the establishment of the Hellenistic kingdoms. The first was the collapse of Attic pottery production as a result of a series of disastrous wars and defeats in the later fourth and early third centuries B.C. The second was the very real prosperity enjoyed by the provincial centres in the newly Hellenised world.

The Palace at Mycenae was first found and excavated by Tsountas in 1886, although Schliemann had previously in 1874 dug one or two trial pits on the summit of the Acropolis here. His shafts are shewn on Steffen's excellent plan. Tsountas published a full report of his excavations in the Πρακτικά, and in succeeding campaigns cleared more of the ruins of the Palace, and also laid bare the foundations of the Doric temple which was built over the ruins of the Palace in later times. Unfortunately, no full account or plan of these supplementary excavations has ever been published, so that our knowledge of the Palace at Mycenae was incomplete. In 1914 Dr. Rodenwaldt re-examined the painted stucco floors in the Court and in the Megaron, and at the same time republished, together with important new fragments which he was lucky enough to find, all the known pieces of wall-painting from the Megaron. We began work on the Palace in 1920, and continued our re-investigation of the ruins during the three following campaigns, of which that of 1923 was very short. The results of our observations and the few new points discovered by us are here set out. We have to thank Dr. Leicester Holland for the splendid plan published here (Plate II.). In it all the foundation walls of the Doric temple are omitted and most of the Hellenistic and other late walls, so as not to confuse the plan of the Mycenaean Palace.

A stone built into the church at Kokkinórachi near Sparta carries part of a first-century AD text containing one or more imperial rescripts to Sparta. The author of one section admonishes the Spartans after civil unrest, probably during the lifetime of the dynast Eurykles, his son Lakon, or his grandson Spartiatikos. Epigraphic parallels, and the text's appeal to historic traditions, suggest that the author is Claudius. The document may indicate that communication between cities and emperors by ‘petition and response’ was more widespread now than in the post-Hadrianic era, when cities are thought generally to have addressed the emperor by letter.

In connection with the inscription from Geraki (No. 11) published above, and the parallel inscription from Mantinea, it seems worth while to discuss two obscure points. (1) The history ot Demetrius the Fair, the father of Antigonus Doson. (2) The worship of the earlier Diadochi.

During the course of agricultural operations on the vineyard of one Kosti Psilakis, south of the Temple Tomb and on the opposite side of the Herakleion-Arkhanes road, three vases in stone and two in pottery were uncovered by the cultivator and were appropriated by the Herakleion Museum.

On 24 April 1940 Miss Vronwy Fisher (now Mrs. Hankey) and I excavated the site on behalf of the British School at Athens and uncovered a very small chamber tomb, of which most of the chamber walls and all of the dromos walls had been cut away. One or possibly two L.M. III burials had suffered severely, but the earliest burial on the inmost or western side of the chamber seems to have remained undisturbed until 1940, when Psilakis began to lay out a vineyard here.

A preliminary report of this tomb, dug by Bosanquet in 1902, appeared in BSA viii. 303–5, where it was termed the ‘Beehive Tomb’. This was a misleading term for what was in fact a rock-cut chamber tomb with a dromos. The contents of the tomb listed in that report were not subsequently published in full, although individual items have since been considered of sufficient importance to merit especial attention by scholars. It seems, therefore, worth while to publish all the surviving items of this interesting tomb group, and to re-examine the L.M. IIIA 2 early date assigned to it by Furumark.

Part 1 describes the Mycenaean weapons from Klauss (Antheia) in Achaea: a socketed spear head and a sword of Type II.

Part 2 describes Mycenaean objects from old, clandestine excavations now in the collection of the Ayia Lavra monastery, a jug of LH IIIB-C1 date, a stirrup-jar, either end of LH IIIA or LH IIIB, and a pair of bronze depilatory tweezers.

The principal results of the work of the first two seasons on the Acropolis were described in the Annual two years ago (xxvi. pp. 240–76), and it remains to complete the account for the two following years (1926–27). The task is fairly simple, since the main features of the stratification of the area which yielded finds of predominantly Hellenic date have been already described, and the results obtained from the other parts of the Acropolis which we explored are of much less interest and importance, and can be dismissed briefly. The Byzantine church on the eastern spur of the main summit must be reserved for a separate report.

The influence of the Aegean civilisation on South Palestine can hardly be said to be appreciably felt before the latter half of the Bronze Age. At this period the Mycenaean civilisation, though already decadent, was still flourishing very vigorously in the East Mediterranean, especially in places like Rhodes and Cyprus, the latter of which chiefly concerns us here. In the case of Cyprus this is natural, since, owing to its geographical position, the island served as an intermediary between East and West, and was peopled, partly at least, by representatives of the Mycenaean civilisation—though, of course, this says nothing as to the racial affinities of the area in question—and here seemingly this civilisation lasted on later than in the actual Aegean area.

My object in the following short study is to investigate the subject of honorary statues in Greek times.

Since Stenersen's treatise, written in 1877, I know of no published work dealing specially with this subject, which is interesting from the light it throws on Greek life and political action, and since that date excavation and the discovery of inscriptions have added considerably to the material available. His work is a valuable source for the literary evidence on the question, but his subject is portrait-statues, and he confines himself to those from Athens.

The votive offerings, though much scattered and broken are numerous and homogeneous enough to furnish interesting information. The bulk of them belong to the archaic period and testify to the popularity and prosperity of the Dictaean sanctuary from the seventh to the fifth century. The scarcity of later objects is in harmony with the scarcity of architectural remains of the later temple. It is clear that the terracotta decorations and votive offerings of the earlier period must have been buried at the time of rebuilding, while those of the later period have only survived by exception. Among these earlier anathemata bronze shields both large and small and bronze tripods and bowls predominate precisely as they did in the cave of Zeus excavated by Prof. Halbherr and Dr. Hatzidakes on Mount Ida.

Attention was first drawn to this subject when Mr. Dawkins published in the Journal of Hellenic Studies in 1906, a full account of the masquerade performed by Greeks in the district of Viza in Eastern Thrace. Both he and Mr. Lawson had previously described the Skyros Carnival, and Polites had recorded several instances from Northern Greece. In 1908, Katsarov drew attention to the fact that such mumming was also known among the Bulgarians both near Adrianople and in Bulgaria proper. In 1910, I published in the sixteenth volume of this Annual an account of the Epiphany and Mayday masquerades that Mr. M. S. Thompson and I witnessed in Thessaly. Since then others have noted similar masquerades elsewhere and the evidence of these mumming plays has been used by writers on the origin of Greek tragedy and comedy. The most striking point brought out by recent study of the subject is that such plays are not confined to Greeks alone, they are performed by Bulgarians, Vlachs, Albanians and apparently, even by Gipsies. While travelling in Thessaly and Macedonia during the years 1910–1912, Mr. Thompson and I noted the existence of many similar masquerades.

The initial stages of the excavation of the prehistoric city near the hamlet of Phylákopi in north-west Melos have been reported in previous issues of the Annual (II. and III.). The development of this exploration in its second season (1897) made it imperative that its continuation should be the principal, indeed the sole, objective of the next campaign of the School; and to that end accordingly our funds and energies were exclusively directed in the spring of 1898.