Death may be the great leveller, but some families can mark the event more spectacularly than others. In an attempt to set the royal burials at Vergina into some form of mortuary context, the cremated remains from three rich, non-royal 4th-century Macedonian tombs – Nea Mihaniona II and III and Derveni Beta – were studied with an eye on both biology and mortuary practices. This investigation showed that: (i) a neonate cremated and buried with its mother can survive both events remarkably well, with important consequences for the Vergina debate; (ii) the Derveni crater contained two individuals; (iii) the Nea Mihaniona, Derveni Beta, Vergina II antechamber, Vergina III and Phoinikas (report in preparation) cremations form a homogeneous group in terms of fragment size and weight. This sets them midway between (a) their far less substantial Dark Age forebears and (b) the unique whole cremated skeleton from the main chamber of Vergina Tomb II.

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.

These differing conclusions, regarding early Euboean trade at Al Mina, from leading Students of the School may seem to contain the seeds of another internecine, Lelantine War. So, since the author has a homely interest in the Plain, and counts the two contestants among his friends, he thought he might intervene, though with no pretence to the same expert knowledge of the period in question and with a strong vested interest in Euboean enterprise.

The point at issue is the source of a distinctive group of sherds from Al Mina, probably the earliest Greek pottery found on that site; they belong to rather shallow skyphoi, or cups, decorated on each side with two groups of compass-drawn semicircles pendent from the lip and usually overlapping.

Early in 1915 during a short journey in Macedonia I took the opportunity of exploring the site and neighbourhood of Olynthus (Fig. 1), because it is hoped that the British School at Athens will before long be able to begin excavations there. I spent two days in the territory of Olynthus examining sites at Hagios Mamas, Myriophyton and Molivopyrgos as well as the ruins at Pizla, Magazudia and Palaioportes, all near Polygyros, which are those of mediaeval or modern villages. Although somewhat impeded by a heavy fall of snow I had the satisfaction of seeing for myself the comparative warmth of the climate of Olynthus even in winter. All about the reputed site of Olynthus the snow soon melted, whereas to the west beyond the village of Portaria towards the Kara Burun promontory, the snow remained for several days. The biting north-west Vardar wind which freezes the western end of Chalkidike in winter is kept off from Olynthus by the range of hills behind Polygyros, some of which are over three thousand feet high. Along the coast from Hagios Mamas to Molivopyrgos the territory of Olynthus is warm, faces south and is fertile, producing oil, corn, wine and silk. The low ground towards the coast is covered with olive groves, while the hills to the north are clothed with oak woods which were undoubtedly finer in antiquity than they are to-day. In most of the houses in Polygyros the doors and floors are of oak instead of the usual pine. These circumstances, coupled with the good anchorage at Molivopyrgos (the ancient Mekyberna), make it easy to understand the wealth and commercial importance of Olynthus. In addition to its other advantages, from Polygyros there runs the best road northwards into the upper country. Iron is said to be found in the hills and to-day mines of chrome and magnesite are worked along the coast.

None of the inscriptions discussed here is as complete as one would like, but by the end I expect that the reader will consider the title justified. Whether he will be much the wiser is another matter, since questions are raised to which there are no ready answers. Modern graffiti (or dipinti?—I do not wish to argue terminology here) are often more explicit, though perhaps usually less deliberate.

These fragments of inscriptions were found on the Altar-hill at Praesos in the excavation of 1901 and 1904 (B.S.A. viii. 254–260; x. 115, 247). The two Eteocretan inscriptions and the terracottas and other minor finds were published forthwith. The stones now described are of some interest as indicating that the sanctuary on this hill—Dr. Halbherr's ‘Third Acropolis’— was the place where official records of treaties and other public documents were exhibited.

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.

In the summer of 1951 N. Dadoudis, while digging a deep trench to bury stones from a plot of land belonging to him on the east edge of Makritikhos village, about 250 metres north of the Palace of Minos, found a complete Minoan amphora (Plan, Fig. 5, no. 3). He reported this discovery to the Ephor of Antiquities for Crete, Dr. N. Platon, who invited Piet de Jong, then the School's Curator at Knossos, to examine the area. Excavation revealed a small room, against the east wall of which the amphora had evidently once stood. The room was cleared by Piet de Jong assisted later by Sinclair Hood. To judge from the character of the vases found in it, the room might have been used as a kitchen.

The ground on the edge of Makritikhos village here slopes steeply down through a series of terraces to the bed of the Kairatos stream about 40 metres to the east. The ‘Kitchen’ lay just below a high bank, forming the western boundary of the plot of ground, with the natural rock exposed at the north end and Minoan house walls showing in it to the south. There seems to have been a marked slope down towards the north as well as to the east here in Minoan times. The wall a–a (Fig. 2) at the north end of the original trench dug by Dadoudis, of squared limestone blocks measuring up to about half a metre in length and 0–35 thick, lay at a lower level than the Kitchen, although it appeared to be of the same period with it. A roughly constructed wall b–b south of a–a may have supported a terrace marking this change in ground level. The corner d–d of another, presumably contemporary, house built of squared limestone blocks was exposed in the south part of the original trench.

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.

The oldest domestic structures at Mallia are three houses lying at the southern border of the later palace. Among them is a building which clearly was not domestic, but may have been a tower. Certain indications in the architecture of Houses A and B suggest that there was a broad road flanked by a tower which crossed the southern limit of the later palace at a slight angle in the direction, but east of, the western block of palace magazines where traces of much older structures have been found. This paper tries to show the reasons for this assumption.

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.

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.

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 number of fresh inscriptions found in 1909 compares unfavourably with those of 1906 and 1908. This is hardly surprising, for the sanctuary of Orthia, which had previously yielded about one hundred different inscriptions, was known to be almost worked out as far as this class of finds was concerned, and in fact only four new texts were discovered here as the results of this year's excavations. In addition to this, the examination of the foundations of the late-Roman walls, which had yielded a plentiful crop of inscribed marbles in the three previous campaigns, was practically finished as regards the southern side, which, as being nearest to the Agora, was more likely to reward our search than the other sides. It seemed advisable, however, to continue the exploration of these walls on the eastern and northern faces, and this work was not fruitless, for, somewhat contrary to expectation, a large number of inscribed statue-bases of the Imperial age were found within a small area along the northern side of the walls.

The earliest pottery yet discovered by the excavations at Sparta is of the Geometric (post-Mycenaean) style.

In 1906 a thick deposit of this ware was revealed by the trial trenches at the site of the temple of Artemis Orthia, and it was also found in the trial pits at the Heroön by the river bank. In 1907 the further excavations at the Orthia site produced a sufficient quantity to allow of a definite report on the nature of this style in Laconia: a task which has been greatly helped by the discovery of a fresh deposit of the pottery on the Acropolis by the site of the Chalkioikos.

The Toumba and Tables of Vardaróftsa lie at the south end of a ridge that separates Lake Amátovo and the Vardár river (Fig. 1), some 35 kilometres N.W. of Salonika (Fig. 2). To south and east the ridge falls gently to the lower levels; more abruptly on the west to the river's edge. Northward, the ridge extends to where the Toumba of Várdino crowns its other extremity, looking down on the flats round Karasouli.

Between the Toumba of Vardaróftsa and the river, where now stand the village church and a few houses, rises the fine spring which no doubt attracted the original settlers to the site and assured its continuous occupation. A further reason for the selection of the site was perhaps the fact that the river is easily fordable at this point, and travellers passing from the Struma valley into Western Macedonia would make the crossing here. In Homeric times, when the Vardár formed the frontier of Priam's kingdom, the place must have had strategic importance, and in later times, when the successive settlements had raised the artificial mass high above the surrounding level, it must have offered a valuable strong-point from which the whole country-side could be commanded.

The ridge known as the Kephala is the middle part of the long ridge that extends from Zafer Papoura on the south to Isopata on the north. The numerous Late Minoan and Protogeometric tombs uncovered on the west slopes of this ridge suggest that there was here in all probability a Minoan Appian Way connecting Knossos both with the harbour town at the mouth of the Kairatos and with the naval station at Amnisos. Years ago Professor Marinatos pointed out to me what appears to be a clear section of the same Minoan way where the modern road from the aerodrome dips to cut through into the Karteros valley.

In December 1938 the Ephor Dr. Platon informed me of the possible existence of a Minoan tomb on this ridge, and permission was granted for me to excavate it on behalf of the British School at Athens. I was assisted by two students of the school, Mr. Vincent Desborough and Miss Vronwy Fisher (now Mrs. Hankey). Miss Fisher kept the catalogue of small finds and is responsible for the published account of them. Mr. Desborough was responsible for the planning and surveying of the tomb, and also for most of the photographs taken during the excavations. Mr. Gerald Young, then Director of the School, kindly came over and took some photographs of the tomb and the inscription (Plate 10b). The foreman was my old friend the late Emmanuel Akoumianos.

On the north-west side of the great central cone of Mount Ossa a wide fissure runs right across the mountain from Mega Keserlì to Tságezi. On the south side of this fissure and at the base of the central cone lies the village of Spiliá, which is to be distinguished from another village of the same name near Laspochori at the eastern entrance to Tempe. To the north of the fissure rises a peak known as Pláka, which is the part of Ossa that directly overhangs Tempe. A little below the bare rocky summit of this peak, which rises to a height of at least 3,500 feet, and on its south side about an hour's walk from Spiliá, is a cave, which, though long known to the inhabitants of the district, has never before been visited by archaeologists.

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.