An account is given of the adult life and career of Peter Megaw, from his first admission to the British School at Athens as Walston Student in 1931, to his Vice-Presidency of the School at the time of his death in 2006. His years (1935–60) as Director of the Department of Antiquities, Cyprus are described, and the great importance stressed of his work in preserving the island's architectural heritage of the Christian period. His Directorship of the British School at Athens is described. His publications are noted, including his (posthumous) Kourion: Excavations in the Episcopal Precinct.

A final report is presented here on the excavation of four Areas at the prehistoric site of Kouphovouno, Sparta, Lakonia. Areas A and D were excavated as trials in 2001 and lie outside the land purchased by the BSA for the main campaigns, so they could not be excavated further, whilst Areas E and F had extensive deposits of historic date and were not further explored as being outside the remit of the main Kouphovouno Project. The excavations have yielded important Neolithic and Early Helladic II deposits, plus Bronze Age burials and later Roman remains. After summarising the aims of the Project and mentioning earlier work at the site, the report gives an account of the stratigraphy and finds and includes specialist reports on the human and animal bones, the ceramics, the chipped and ground stone and other finds. Also discussed is the relationship between the surface remains reported in BSA 99 and the excavated material.

The excavations of the Cambridge Keros Project at early bronze age Dhaskalio and Dhaskalio Kavos on the Cycladic Island of Keros during the 2006 and 2007 seasons are described. They were directed by Colin Renfrew with Olga Philaniotou as Associate Director and Neil Brodie and Giorgos Gavalas as Assistant Directors. The site of Dhaskalio Kavos is well-known for the extensive looting which took place there during the 1950's. Rescue excavations by Christos Doumas in 1963 and by Photeini Zapheiropoulou in 1967, and a project in 1987, directed by Renfrew, Doumas and Lila Marangou, defined the extent of the looted ‘special deposit’, assigned to the early bronze age Keros-Syros culture (Early Bronze II). At the beginning of the 2006 field season a separate and unlooted special deposit was located at the southern end of the Kavos site (the ‘Special Deposit South’). Its excavation yielded thousands of fragments of marble vessels and potsherds, and hundreds of broken marble figurines. These had been deliberately broken elsewhere, brought to the site and deposited there in what appears to be a ritual context. Work on the Special Deposit South continued in 2007, and excavations on the extensive Early Cycladic settlement on the small (200 metre) but precipitous island of Dhaskalio were initiated. Well preserved building remains were uncovered with abundant Early Cycladic domestic materials.

Dhaskalio island may now be recognised as a major settlement of the Keros-Syros culture (c. 2800 to 2300 BC). Kavos, immediately opposite on Keros itself, is confirmed as the locus for two separate areas of structured deposition of high status materials, brought from a wide range of sources in the Cyclades and possibly beyond, apparently already in fragmentary condition, and placed there in a series of prestations for which a ritual context may safely be inferred. Dhaskalio Kavos may now be claimed as the first major symbolic centre of the early Aegean.

One of the most exciting discoveries in Greek prehistory is a type of building of Early Helladic II date, discussed earlier by the present author and nicknamed “Corridor House.” The present study concerns itself with the relative chronology of seven of these, using two main criteria. One criterion concerns structural changes that can be ordered chronologically, namely the use of partial or complete “corridors” alongside a series of axially set rooms, with the more complete corridors, housing stairways, being later. A new structural criterion is whether the building used roof tiles. For instance, the lack of tiles, combined with the simple plan of the corridor house at Thebes, places it at the beginning of the development. Further, a restudy of the corridor house with an undeveloped plan at Akovitika has shown that it was without tiles, the tiles found near it actually belonging to a later building. Thus special roofing seems to have been introduced midway into the sequence. The second criterion makes use of recent publication on EH pottery. For instance, the style associated with the Theban building was Thebes Group A, earlier than the Lefkandi I style characteristic of the later corridor house on Aegina (The Weisses Haus). Clearly the Theban building is at the beginning of the development, with the later examples at Aegina and Lerna at the end. Other examples fall somewhere in between. Terms suggested for the architectural stages discernable are “rudimentary,” “transitional,” and “coalesced.”

Results of excavations in 1962–3 at the Minoan coastal town of Palaikastro were published in the Annual in 1965 and 1970, as PK VI and PK VII. While those publications did report on all excavated contexts, in some cases this took the form of a preliminary report pending fuller study. The current paper (PK VIII) fills in most of the main gaps, particularly where the Middle Minoan period is concerned, but also with some attention to the Early and Late Minoan periods. Contexts and deposits from different blocks in the town are presented, as well as from outside the main town towards the area known as Sarantari. These provide good evidence for the existence of particular phases of occupation in the town, notably throughout the Middle Minoan period (MM IA, IB, II, IIIA and IIIB), as well as in EM IIB and LM IB. Some of these phases are not very well known at Palaikastro, or in east Crete more generally. This paper thus contributes to a fuller characterisation of certain ceramic phases at the level of both the site and the region, as well as supplementing our knowledge of the long-term occupation of this important coastal town throughout the Middle Bronze Age.

Scientific analysis of samples takes from metal objects and metallurgical products excavated during the 1960s at Kastri on Kythera provide new evidence concerning, variously, the Aegean metals trade and metallurgy on Kythera. The samples date to the Second Palace (Neopalatial), Classical and Late Roman periods. The Bronze Age material comprises fragments of copper ingots and silver cups, neither of which metal is locally available in Kythera, and the later material relates largely to local smelting and possibly smithing of iron, whose origin is uncertain. These activities are related to preliminary information concerning the distribution at each period of metallurgical activity across the island that has been generated by the intensive surface survey of the Kythera Island Project.

The article examines the importance of the Aegisthus tholos tomb in the formation of the tripartite chronological scheme of the Mycenae tholos tombs by A. J. B. Wace. The scheme is assessed in the light of the epistemological debate between Wace and Evans concerning the nature and extent of Minoan influence on mainland Greece in the early Late Bronze Age. It is here suggested that the two-phase construction identified by Wace in the Aegisthus tholos contributed significantly to the establishment of the structural development of the Mycenae tholoi, an important point against Evans's views on the subject. The two-phase construction is re-visited with a view to highlight its importance in Wace's scheme but more significantly to shed light on the planning and execution of the Aegisthus tomb. While the two-phase construction cannot altogether be dismissed, it is suggested that the ashlar façade of the Aegisthus tomb was not an afterthought, as is largely maintained, but a preplanned action and part of the tomb's original design.

This article re-examines the Isopata cemetery, a Final Palatial burial site north of the Knossos palace excavated in 1909–10. After presenting unpublished material from the excavations, including a previously unknown tomb, the article compares the cemetery with other contemporary burial sites in the Knossos valley and at Poros. While all tomb use in this period appears to have been a statement of high status, Isopata (and several of its tombs in particular) nevertheless stands out in terms of architectural extravagance and in its appeals to prestige symbolism - including the continuation of actual ritual practices - from the Neopalatial past.

The remarkably high numbers of silver items (traded goods and coins) found around the Mediterranean during the Hellenistic period, compared to the earlier periods, is inextricably bound with the increase in the amounts of silver extracted and with the wider recognition and acceptance of this metal in the Hellenistic world. Not least, the fact that silver, through its dual role as money and as a commercial commodity, binds use value with exchange value in Hellenistic societies, challenges one to explore the economic behaviour of this metal within the broader economic picture.

The present article offers a multidisciplinary approach to the role of silver in Hellenistic economies along these lines. Through the study of literary, epigraphical and archaeological evidence, it embarks on a survey of the ways in which mining, the function of metal workshops, trade and population movements, wars regulated or influenced the spread of silver commodities around the Mediterranean. The construction of a theoretical model regarding the economic behaviour of silver enables us to identify broadly the mechanisms of (re)distribution of silver items in Hellenistic micro- and macroeconomics.

This article examines Schliemann's own description of his journey through Greece and the Troad in 1868. It begins in Corfu and Kephalonia, and moves on quickly to Ithaca. The article examines Schliemann's concern with Homer in relation to his activities on these islands, as well as relating a Homeric narrative for his journey to concerns in his personal life, and picking out details emphasizing his increasing interest in archaeology. The scene moves on to Athens and Schliemann's view of modern Greece, then to the Peloponnese and his reaction to Mycenae, Tiryns and other Argolid sites. Part two concerns Schliemann's time in the Troad. It deals with the Homeric question and the location of Troy in scholarship up to 1868; an outline of Schliemann's itinerary in the Troad; Schliemann's search for Troy, including excavations at Bunarbashi; and the question of his acquaintance with Hissarlik. The views put forward differ significantly from those previously expressed in regard to the question of Hissarlik. The article concludes with two appendices, one offering extracts from Schliemann's Ithaca diary, the other extracts from his Troad diary.