A rock-cut tomb excavated in 1978 at the south-west end of Lake Vouliagmeni, Perachora, contained the remains of some ten skeletons, and a large quantity of EH II pottery. The best-preserved examples of the pottery are described, and parallels for them adduced. It is argued that the tomb is an ossuary rather than a simultaneous burial.

In 1939, during road construction near the modern village Dimitra in the district of Gortynia in north-western Arcadia, digging works brought to light considerable prehistoric remains from the eastern slope of a small hill called Troupes (= ‘holes’) about 2 km. north-east of the village of Dimitra.

Early in August 1937 the fragments of a marble Kouros were conveyed in three packing-cases to the National Museum at Athens from Paris, where Greek police officials had received it from M. Roussos, an antique dealer who had been resident in that city for some time. It was subsequently confirmed that this statue had been smuggled out of Greece by sea a few years ago from Anavysos near Laurion, a district whose sparsely populated coast-line has been for years the scene of a systematic traffic in antiques.

While accepting A. J. Graham's interpretation of the ‘stèle du port de Thasos’ (SEG 42. 785) as presenting regulations aimed at checking prostitution and associated soliciting in late Archaic Thasos, this article seeks to clarify some specific issues in the text. It urges (i) that the correct reading at l. 31 is κατοικιῶν, with the meaning ‘dwelling’; (ii) that θῆς ἓνεκεν (l. 32) should bear a passive sense, ‘for the sake of being seen’, and, likewise, θήσθω (l. 33), which necessarily picks up θῆς ἓνεκεν, should be regarded as conveying not only the idea of looking out but also of being seen by prospective clients; thus ll. 30–3 are to be rendered ‘no one shall go up onto the roof of maisons publiques in order to be seen, nor shall any woman either show herself from the windows’; and (iii) that προïστάσθω (l. 45) is not to be taken in conjunction with ἐσβαλλέτω (ll. 44–5) as governing the object κόπρον, nor as intransitive in the sense ‘solicit as a prostitute’, but rather as transitive middle, with the subject ὁ ἐνοικέων (l. 34), in the sense ‘exhibit women for sale’.

This article examines the impact of sea level (water table) on archaeological research at Butrint (Bouthrotos/Buthrotum) from 1928 to 2014. Rising relative sea levels over the past three thousand years have shaped the actions not only of its ancient inhabitants but also of its modern archaeologists, conditioning archaeological objectives, fieldwork and the interpretation of the archaeological record. Butrint's first archaeologist, Luigi M. Ugolini, considered groundwater to be a detriment to archaeological research at the site. Subsequent archaeologists have viewed it as the limit of excavation. Battling water at Butrint, archaeologists have shared a universal perception of groundwater as an enemy and thereby have overlooked one of Butrint's most important areas of archaeological research – its wetland and wet-site archaeology. The Roman Forum Excavations (RFE) Project undertook the first wet-site excavations at Butrint, reaching depths of up to four metres below the water table in stratigraphic excavations in the ancient urban centre. The results demonstrate that the ancient urban centre formed much later than is presently thought: the lower city emerged as dryland in the second half of the second century bc. Relative sea levels have increased since antiquity at many coastal regions in the Mediterranean, often submerging archaeological sites either partially or completely. Butrint is a case study that shows how sea level is inextricably tied to archaeological practice and interpretation at this major ancient Mediterranean seaport.

This article argues that Ionia, located in the central part of western Anatolia, was one of key areas of metallurgical innovation in the Aegean during the transitional period from the Late Bronze to the Early Iron Age. Recent evidence from this region challenges the established narrative that envisions a rather consistent diffusion of iron technologies from Cyprus arriving predominantly via the western part of the Aegean region. This contribution provides a new understanding of the spread of iron technologies in the Aegean by paying particular attention to the social context of technological change and by stressing the need for regional approaches within the Aegean. Crucially, it reassesses the latest evidence from central western Anatolia, and contextualises it within the key cultural, social and technological axes of continuity and change between the Late Bronze and Early Iron Age. This study complements the recent methodological discussions related to the integration of bronze and iron technologies that foreground regional perspectives and pay attention to local knowledge-scapes.

In the summer of 2019, members of the CARTography Project set out to re-create the route that Patrick and Joan Leigh Fermor took during their first visit to the Deep Mani in 1951. The project involved meticulously analysing the couple's notebooks and photographs to glean details about where they had ventured, using least-cost analysis to model their potential routes and ground-truthing the results by walking and boating the routes ourselves. As in much of rural Greece, Mani's topography has changed substantially in the seven decades since the Leigh Fermors’ journey, with paved roads having replaced many of the Ottoman-era footpaths that locals once relied on for travel and transportation. While the transformed landscape we encountered prevented a complete re-enactment of the Leigh Fermors’ journey, it also offered an opportunity to embody key parts of their travelling experience. The results of our study are twofold: first, a detailed map of the route the Leigh Fermors followed based on our reading of their documentary sources; and second, an assessment of the utility of using least-cost analysis to model the routes of historical travellers.

Naxos, the largest of the Cycladic islands, offers a nuanced insight into Iron Age funerary behaviour in the Cyclades and relations between social groups as reflected in the archaeological record. The focus of this paper is the cemetery of Tsikalario in the hinterland of the island, with emphasis on two burial contexts which exhibit a range of activities related to funerary ceremonies and the consumption of grave-offerings. The grave-tumuli found in the Tsikalario cemetery comprise a mortuary ‘phenomenon’ not found otherwise on Naxos during the Early Iron Age. Such a differentiation in mortuary practice can be interpreted as a strategy used by the people of inland Naxos to distinguish their funerary habits from the more typical Naxian practices of, for example, the inhabitants of the coastal Naxos harbour town. This distinctive funerary practice can speak in favour of an attempt by the kinship group(s) that buried their deceased in the cemetery of Tsikalario to articulate status and identity. Beyond these tumuli, evidence from a different type of grave context at Tsikalario – Cist Grave 11 and its vicinity (Burial Context 11) – offers an additional example of a well-thought-out staging of funerary beliefs in the inland region of Naxos. Not only does it illustrate the coexistence of other types of burials in the cemetery, but, alongside the tumuli and their finds, it also demonstrates, through the symbolic package of the grave-offerings and the multifaceted network of interactions they reveal, that inland Naxos participated in the intra- and supra-island circulation of wares and ideas.