The historiography of Venetian Greece has paid little attention to the colonial experience of Ithaca. While historians are served by extensive published documentary evidence for the administrations of the larger possessions in the region, the uncatalogued Venetian records at the state archive of Ithaca remain unstudied. The recent reopening of this archive has finally made it possible to survey its large Venetian collection and to provide an account of the role of the governors of Ithaca under Venetian rule. The seat of the governor was filled by Cephalonian nobles rather than by Venetian appointees in the manner of the larger Ionian islands. Here for the first time is presented a comprehensive list of Ithacan governors compiled from the Ithacan documents, together with further aid from research in the archives of Cephalonia and Venice. The account of the Ithacan governorship offered here aims to promote interest in the Ithacan archive of the Venetian administration and serve as a guide for future research into this neglected corner of the empire.

In honour of Professor Alan Wace, who has spent some fifty fruitful years in Greco-Roman archæology, I dedicate this paper. During that epoch his efforts in this sphere have been widespread. He has unearthed many finds and various archæological data of the utmost importance in Greece, particularly at Mycenae, and in Egypt both in Alexandria and Hermopolis Magna. By his discoveries and contributions, which have been recognised as worthy of highest esteem, he has shed much interesting light on various aspects of life in the Graeco-Roman world. As an ex-colleague in the Faculty of Arts, Farouk I University, I have been in close touch with him during the last seven years and he has always shown himself to be an indispensable source of information and a scholar of wide learning.

The small Ionic temple that once stood on the banks of the Ilissus has now all but disappeared. Converted into a Christian church during the Turkish occupation, it was completely dismantled in 1778 to provide material for the new fortification walls of Athens. Fortunately, before its final destruction the temple was visited by the English travellers J. Stuart and N. Revett and its appearance, plan (Fig. 1), and dimensions have been preserved by their careful drawings.

Scholars were immediately reminded of these drawings when, in 1834, the remains of the Temple of Nike on the Acropolis were discovered (Fig. 2). The close relationship between the two temples and the likelihood that both were the products of the same architect, Callicrates, have since then been generally acknowledged, and a detailed study of the points of similarity has been made more recently by I. M. Shear.

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.

This is the third and concluding report on the survey and excavations carried out on the site of the Roman Stoa at Sparta in 1988–91, following on from earlier reports in BSA 88 (1993), 219–86 and BSA 89 (1994), 377–432. It presents a catalogue and description of the most significant small finds and fragments of Byzantine wall-paintings recovered, gives a full list of coins found and their identities, and offers a detailed discussion of the environmental programme and its preliminary results. An appendix publishes the results of analysis of concrete samples from the ancient theatre at Sparta, taken during the excavations of 1992–95 (BSA 90 [1995], 435–60).

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.

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 sequence of styles in the evolution of Late Helladic pottery is now well recognized. A sequence dating of finds is thus archaeologically possible. Absolute dating of finds, however, is another and more difficult question. Nothing Late Helladic has any absolute date of its own. We can, however, arrive at approximate absolute dates from Late Helladic pottery found in datable contexts in Egypt or from Egyptian objects found in Late Helladic deposits in Greece. But we cannot always be sure that Egyptian objects found in Greece are contemporary with the Helladic objects with which they are associated. For instance, in Tomb 518 at Mycenae, which is of L.H. I–II date, was found part of an Egyptian porphyry bowl which dates from the First or Second Dynasty. No one would for a moment believe that this Egyptian bowl and the tomb could be contemporary. There are similar cases from Asine and Knossos. It is logical that an early object can be found in a late context, but no one could ever accept that a late object can be found in an early context, unless there has been much disturbance of the stratigraphy.

The three phases of Late Helladic III pottery A, B, and C can be distinguished among themselves with reasonable certainty, although there are always examples which stand on the borderlines. We know that the later Late Helladic IIIA pottery is contemporary with the Amarna Age, because it occurred in quantity in the ruins of Akhenaten's capital. Its latest absolute date is about 1375–1350 B.C., according to the dating placed by Egyptologists on the Amarna Age. There are even a few sherds from Amarna which, if found isolated, might possibly be called L.H. IIIB. Here again another possible difficulty can be glimpsed. A borderline sherd might be called by one archaeologist A and by another B.

While completing a study of an unusual group of Roman Corinthian capitals from Athens, I was led to reconsider the current attribution of two members of the group, an anta and a full capital, to an Augustan propylon said to have been built in the Asklepieion. The capitals shared the same source of design and traits of technique as the series made for Hadrian's Arch and for the interior of the Olympieion. It was difficult to accept their association with an inscribed epistyle block, indubitably Augustan in date, that was said to form part of the Asklepieion propylon. Furthermore, the epistyle was too narrow (0·41 m.) to fit over the bedding surfaces of the capitals (0·70 × 0·70 m.), and there was no indication that a backing block had been used.

South of the well mentioned above and inside the city wall a series of trial pits produced important results (P 13). At a distance of 1·80 m. from the city wall another wall was found which varies from ·50 to ·65 m. in width. Between this, which was followed for some distance, and the city wall, traces of a pavement of beaten earth came to light at a depth of 1·40 m. On the outside of the inner wall a drain was found running parallel to it. We have here, most probably, a street that followed the city wall on the inside. The depth at which it was found agrees very well with that of a similar pavement to the west of the Altar (1·82 m.). The lower level there perhaps indicates an earlier date. In any case the level of the road was raised in a later period, as proved by the tile drain referred to above. Within the inner wall we found distinct traces of a shrine, probably a Heroön. Everywhere, except in the neighbourhood of the well, where the lower strata are composed of gravel, regular stratification ranging from the Geometric age to late Greek times was distinguishable. The Greek layer, which cannot yet be divided into early and late periods, begins at an average depth of a metre. At about 1·90 m. Corinthian pottery was found, which between 2·15 and 2·45 m. was sometimes mixed with Geometric fragments. The Geometric stratum commences at an average depth of 2·30 m., and at three metres or a little deeper the soil is virgin.

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.

Little evidence has survived of the long-distance communication networks established by the Byzantines and Venetians in the medieval period. We know only of a chain of beacons established by Leo the Mathematician in the ninth century, an inscription found in the Peloponnese and a Venetian network in the central Aegean. This article reappraises the existing evidence and introduces new data following a study recently undertaken by the author of the topography of Negroponte (modern Euboea) and the medieval towers of Greece. Making extensive use of early cartographic sources, toponymic studies, and satellite imagery and telemetry, it identifies 142 tower and beacon sites on the island alone, and demonstrates, utilising archaeological evidence, how complex messages could be sent between towers. The research also uncovers a new term – the pyrgari, which appears to apply to a circular beacon tower. Combining this new evidence and the topographic study, the article then delineates, using GIS mapping, four Middle Byzantine and Venetian long-distance communication networks. The paper concludes by proposing a theoretical framework for the tower based on its role in communication and defence. Such work potentially helps us to understand in a more nuanced way the administrative and military organisation of the Byzantine themata and the Venetian Empire. The methodology also has potential for application in other regions: in essence it looks at the landscape not as a collection of nodes – bishoprics, cities and fortresses – but as a network of connections.

A53 (red) from Mycenae is identical with two of the Kyprianon samples (Ky 3 and 4) and differs from two others (Ky 6 and 7) only in the composition of one accessory mineral, viz. the feldspar. These are all typical rosso antico marbles.

A51 (grey-green) is not exactly matched either in texture or by accessory minerals with any single sample from Kyprianon, but all its accessories, and approximations to its structural characters, are found among different grey-green (Ky 2, Ky 7) and white (Ky 5W) samples. Further search would probably yield an exact match.

The evidence indicates that a source for the Mycenae marbles on the outcrop of the beds exposed in the Kyprianon quarries is highly probable.

In this paper, we present findings from a field inspection of the Knossos aqueduct undertaken in 2019. A key contribution of our fieldwork was the architectural identification of the Roman channel underlying the nineteenth-century wall of the Ottoman-Egyptian aqueduct supplying Iraklio. While reuse of the Roman aqueduct in the nineteenth century was known from historical reports, the structural overlap has never been identified in the field or documented archaeologically, until now. We recorded the Roman channel lined with opus signinum running along the base of the nineteenth-century aqueduct's wall between Fundana and Spilia. Through this realisation in the field, we were able to establish diagnostic styles of masonry for both periods. Our architectural distinction between the overlaid aqueducts allowed us to integrate previously disarticulated components of the later system, like the reused Roman tunnel at Skalani and the nineteenth-century bridge at Spilia, into an integrated Ottoman-Egyptian water supply for Iraklio. As we approached Knossos from Spilia, we were also able to identify the point at which the Venetian aqueduct supplying Iraklio converged with the Roman system. Consequently, our 2019 fieldwork not only mapped the length of the Roman aqueduct supplying the city of Knossos but also that section of the nineteenth-century Ottoman-Egyptian aqueduct of Iraklio built directly over it and a shorter tract of the Venetian aqueduct of Iraklio that either ran alongside it or was, in turn, itself partially overlaid by the nineteenth-century system.

A Minoan potter's wheel is published, with the peculiar element of appliqué relief sea-shells. The object was found by chance a few years before World War II near the village of Skhinias, in the Upper Mirabello region of NE Crete, and remained unknown until now. It is the first instance of real decoration on a potter's wheel. It can be dated between MM II and LM I and could have come from Malia.

Even the sites of the Eretrian colonies Methone, Dicaea and Mende in the area of the Thermaic Gulf were unknown ten years ago. Topographical research and excavation reports by Greek scholars have now provided much information on which this article is based.