Types of pulse cultivated for human consumption in present-day Thera (and adjacent islands) and archaeobotanical material from Akrotiri are identified. It is suggested that they are both the same variety, not identified elsewhere as used for human consumption, suggesting it is particularly suited to the local environment.

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.

This paper gives a preliminary account of the structural and small finds from the excavations of 1985–1988 in the cemetery of Orthe Petra at Eleutherna. Discussion concerns particularly the funerary pyres in trenches with stone lining, the tomb enclosures, pithos-burials and the larger built tombs which date from protogeometric at least to the archaic period. Preliminary comparisons are made with similar customs in other regions as well as Crete, trade links are discussed between Eleutherna and the other cities of Crete, the rest of Greece and the Eastern Mediterranean, revealed particularly by the small finds.

The sequence of construction of the Propylaia to the Acropolis of Athens is reassessed in the light of Pontus Hellstrom's suggestion that the two unbuilt east halls, and the original plan for the S.W. hall were intended to be dining halls like the Pinakotheke. It is argued that the objections of the various priests are unlikely to account for changes in plan; that the east halls were abandoned before work started on the S.W. wing; and that the cause of the change was financial, the need to economize in the face of the growing certainty of war with Sparta.

The factors adduced by Dr Lambrou-Phillipson at the 6th International Colloquium on Aegean Prehistory for identifying enclave colonies, small groups of resident foreigners, are discussed. It is suggested that they are not conclusive, particularly with respect to the ivory industry at Thebes and elsewhere.

This article concerns the plague of 746–747, which took the lives of many in the Byzantine empire, especially in Constantinople. After discussing the main sources (i.e. the patriarch Nikephoros, Theodore the Stoudite, and Theophanes), mention is made of the possible influences which the plague had on developments in the iconoclastic controversy during the reign of Constantine V (741–75). The persecution of iconophile monks as well as attacks against the Holy (e.g., churches, icons, holy relics etc.) is placed in a more general psychological context which is at least partly explained by the plague. Finally, a brief reference is made to the Life of Leo of Katania which may reflect iconoclastic opinion on the matters given above.

Several fragments of 4th-century BC Athenian decree-inscriptions are discussed. Joins are made between IG ii2. 13a and 68 and Hesperia, 40, no. 3; IG ii2. 257 and 300; 242 and 373; 407 and SEG 32. 94; IG ii2. 309 and 552; 530 and 590. Attributed to the same stele, but not joining, are IG ii2. 139 and 289; 277 and 428; 540a and SEG 24. 117; IG ii2. 540b and Hesperia, 21, no. 17; IG ii2. 286 and 625; 414a and 403; 398a (+ 438) and 612; 484 and 558; 489 and 532; 495 and 709; 405 and Hesperia, 4, no. 32. Other decrees discussed, mainly in light of the work of A.S. Henry on the formulae of Athenian decrees, are IG ii2. 44; 81; 121; 129; 147; 154; 155; 156; 285+ 414d; 321; 335; 364; 406; 416; 1001; and SEG 21. 362 and 25. 85.

It is argued that the Egyptian statuette-fragment of User, discovered by Evans early in the 1900 excavations at the Palace of Knossos, was not found in association with datable pottery, and that it should no longer be regarded as one of the key finds for Aegean chronology.