Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-l7hp2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T05:45:51.599Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

1 Introduction and overview

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 March 2023

Yannis Galanakis
Affiliation:
University of Cambridge [email protected]
Tulsi Parikh
Affiliation:
British School at Athens [email protected]

Abstract

This introduction presents the structure and contents of the current issue of Archaeology in Greece. It also offers an overview (not meant to be exhaustive) of archaeological activity in Greece over the past 12 months, focusing on major exhibitions and other cultural events as well as on important recent publications.

Type
Article
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies and the British School at Athens

Over the past months we welcomed the resumption of archaeological activity, both in terms of excavation and survey projects and of museum exhibitions, for the most part to pre-pandemic levels, especially during the spring and summer of 2022. For AR, however, this was a very difficult year: back in January, our production editor since 2005, Gina Coulthard (Fig. 1.1), suddenly and so untimely passed away. Gina, who succeeded Lyn Rodley in this role, worked with several AR editors. She brought to publication 15 AR volumes, from no. 53 in 2006–2007 to last year’s no. 67. Gina also oversaw the transformation of this journal from one that reported archaeological news from Greece to a publication that now includes overviews and thematic essays. Her long association with the Hellenic Society included, since 2008, the production of The Journal of Hellenic Studies, while she was also typesetting the ARGO magazine and managing several publications for the British Institute at Ankara. Gina was tremendously efficient, a warm-hearted individual, extremely supportive, pro-active, and solution-driven. Even when deadlines seemed sometimes impossible to meet, Gina would always find splendid ways to make sure publication happened. We will miss her dearly. As a small token of our gratitude for her outstanding work for AR, we dedicate this volume to her memory with the hope that she approves and does not find many typos! To her daughter, partner, and wider family we express our most sincere condolences.

1.1. Gina Coulthard on a trip to Morocco. © Michael Forrest.

Reporting on Archaeology in Greece has certainly evolved in its long, 134-year, history. Since 2020, AR has included a colour, online edition, while from this year we also initiate supplementary digital content that accompanies two of this volume’s contributions (Loy and Mylona), which readers can access online. Uploading information on AGOnline has continued, in collaboration with the EfA, and by August more than 16,500 publicly available entries had been compiled (https://chronique.efa.gr). All of us involved in the production of AR feel that the time has also come for a survey of the journal’s structure, content, and presentation. After nearly a decade of publishing in the current format, we conducted a survey in September to hear feedback from our readers and all interested parties. We will report on this survey in the next issue of AR. We are committed to make reporting of archaeological news and scholarly overviews more useful and accessible to our readers, and for this reason we are always keen to hear from you.

Archaeological activity in Greece in 2021 continued dynamically: a survey on the work of the Ephorates of Antiquities for the past year, prepared and released by the Hellenic Statistical Authority in October (https://www.statistics.gr/documents/20181/5bbaef74-5491-41ee-6b47-41676b6a660d), captures this picture quite well. The Ephorates were responsible for 1,609 archaeological projects, the highest number since 2011. These projects focused on 739 sites and involved the discovery of more than 60,000 registered antiquities. The Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Sports also declared 12 new archaeological sites, while 2,921 antiquities were handed over to the authorities, which also made 130 confiscations of illicit material. From this vibrant activity, readers of AR get in this issue a glimpse of some of the year’s highlights stemming from the work conducted by the Greek authorities and the local and foreign institutions operating in the country.

This year’s volume begins with a report on the BSA’s activities for 2021–2022 by its director, Professor John Bennet. Emphasis is placed on the BSA’s innovative approach in the promotion of research of international excellence in all disciplines pertaining to Greek lands, from fine art to archaeometry, and in all periods to modern times. This innovative approach, as the director underlines, is coupled with the BSA’s long and well-established tradition in Greece – tradition that has also relied on philanthropy, an element important in the School’s establishment in the 19th century and also now in the 21st century as we look forward, in great anticipation, to the realization of projects such as Knossos 2025 (https://www.bsa.ac.uk/join-us-2/knossos-2025-project/). This last year, the School has run an extensive and dynamic programme of events while also engaging in leading, high-quality research (excavation, survey, and archival work), including major partnerships such as PlaCe (https://place-itn.cyi.ac.cy/) – a high-profile partnership to train early-stage researchers in the interdisciplinary study of pre-modern plasters and ceramics, with the Ismene and Marc Fitch Laboratory playing a major role.

In addition to existing projects, two new collaborations were initiated in 2021 by the BSA focusing on archaeological surface survey in the North Aegean: the Emborio Hinterland Project (Ephorate of Antiquities of Chios/BSA) aims to document the diachronic development of Emborio, including in relation to the history of the island of Chios as a major industrial centre in the Mediterranean; and the West Area of Samos Archaeological Project (Cambridge/Vienna/BSA) which studies the economic and settlement history in an otherwise underexplored area of the island. Both projects seek to understand better the position of the islands within the wider Anatolian-Aegean landscape.

The director includes in his report a farewell note, this being his last report following the completion of his tenure (2015–2022). We wish him all the very best for the future and take this opportunity to thank him warmly for the excellent collaboration with successive AR editors these past seven years. As we type these words, the new director, Professor Rebecca Sweetman (St Andrews) is assuming the role – the AR team wishes her every success in her directorship and is looking forward to working in close collaboration with her for the production of this journal.

In the ‘Newsround’, Daphne Martin (Cambridge) reports some highlights from the archaeological discoveries made in 2021–2022. Martin provides an overview of a busy year of projects at sites across Greece dating from the Neolithic to the present day. In particular, the past year saw the continuation as well as the launch of several underwater excavations, including, for example, the investigation of shipwrecks off Kythera, Antikythera, and in the Fournoi Archipelago in the Aegean, and the submerged settlements of Agios Petros off Alonissos, as well as at Asine and Salamis. Particularly significant was the preliminary exploration of the submerged Neolithic settlement of Agios Petros (EUA/University of Thessaloniki), identifying anthropogenic remains that provide important information about the first communities settling in the Aegean islands just before 6000 BC. Highlights from the past year also include the discovery of a Bronze Age settlement around Ioannina, contributing to the study of habitation patterns within Epirus; the discovery of various grave offerings at the Mycenaean necropolis of Trapeza, important for the study of the relationship between the local community and palatial centres; and the discovery, during rescue excavations in Veroia, of an unfinished one-metre marble statue of the Roman period, providing potential evidence for craftsmanship and processes of sculptural production.

The thematic papers this year start with Dimitra Mylona (INSTAP, Crete). Mylona’s overview covers recent zooarchaeological research in Greece (since 2010). This period coincides largely with the financial crisis in the country – and across the world – while its end was affected by the pandemic. Nevertheless, as Mylona’s critical overview makes clear, the field retains its innovative dynamism and has become an integral part of archaeological practice, even more so in research-focused projects. With the number of specialists increasing, with novel methods now available for the study of the zooarchaeological material, and with more efforts to integrate this data into the wider archaeological and historical narratives, there is clearly a very promising future ahead. To make sure this momentum persists, Mylona also stresses the need for maintaining or, in the case of Greek institutions, strengthening the representation of specialists and enhancing existing zooarchaeological infrastructure. For the compilation of this overview, Mylona made use of 268 publications, which are presented as supplementary material online.

The next contribution, by Stephanie Aulsebrook (Warsaw), focuses on recent developments in archaeometallurgical research in Bronze Age mainland Greece, Crete, and the islands. Aulsebrook discusses the rapidly changing story of Early Aegean metallurgy, not least by discoveries made by the BSA/Cambridge Keros project. Her detailed overview considers the employment of experimental archaeology as an analytical method for understanding ancient production and practice, the further development of scientific techniques, including the expansion of their use, and experimentation with ‘big data’ approaches. In her discussion, Aulsebrook also takes into account the varied role of indirect evidence such as iconography, Linear B documents, tool marks, and the analysis of dental calculus. As in the director’s report and other AR papers, the capacity of archaeologists to find innovative ways to interrogate the past is also underlined here. While provenance and production studies remain popular and important, there is now (as with the zooarchaeological data noted by Mylona) more effort and willingness to integrate this field and its results into broader social research questions and complex narratives about the role of metals in ancient societies. Understanding the actual use of artefacts and related social practices remains a desideratum. As Aulsebrook underlines, Aegean Bronze Age archaeometallurgists have access to one of the most diverse datasets in Europe and for this reason they ought to work on unlocking its potential in terms of these research questions, continuing to push the potential of scientific analyses, and place the Aegean within its wider context (geographical and chronological as well as social and cultural).

Alexandra Alexandridou (Ioannina) and Alexandros Mazarakis Ainian (Thessaly) provide us with a discussion of recent archaeological work in the Cyclades, from the Geometric to the Hellenistic periods. The last decade saw the initiation or continuation of a number of projects in the islands, not only the larger ones – that had traditionally attracted attention – but also the smaller ones (for example, thanks to the work of the Ephorate of Antiquities of the Cyclades and of several foreign schools and Greek universities). New data emerged as settlement, cemetery, and cult sites continued to be excavated, while survey work on land and underwater provides important diachronic insights onto the islands’ occupation and use (for example The Small Cycladic Islands Project, ID17975). Particular attention is drawn to the sites where the authors are engaged in archaeological work: on Despotiko and Tsimintiri near Antiparos, and on Vryokastro and Vryokastraki on Kythnos. The importance of recent discoveries in elucidating the maritime landscapes and the shifting operating trading networks of the Cyclades in the first millennium BC is highlighted and discussed. Notably, the need for publications of excavation and survey work is stressed if archaeologists are to successfully integrate this new data into their interpretations of the Cyclades. The authors also pay particular tribute to the protection, restoration, and enhancement of archaeological sites and monuments in the region by the Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Sports. The Ephorate’s activity underlines the concerted effort for the promotion of the cultural heritage of the Cyclades to locals and visitors alike – work most certainly does not finish with excavation or survey. The restoration of the second–third century AD Roman mausoleum at Episkopi on Sikinos, which was later transformed into a Christian church, is highlighted as one such prime example having just received an Europa Nostra Prize (https://www.europeanheritageawards.eu/winners/monument-of-episkopi/).

Following the overviews by Legarra-Herrero (AR 65) on the Early Bronze and by Christakis (AR 66) on Palatial Crete, Antonis Kotsonas (ISAW, New York) explores recent archaeological work on Crete from the 12th to the mid-fourth century BC. Kotsonas stresses the important archaeological activity of recent years, including the opening and reopening of as many as eight archaeological museums. For Kotsonas, the potential of the island lies in that these recent discoveries can revolutionize the, largely Athenocentric, paradigm that still pervades the study of ancient Greece. Instead of still treating Crete during the historical periods as marginal, Kotsonas advocates the need for its integration into broader archaeological, historical, and art-historical narratives of the Aegean and the wider Mediterranean. Part of the problem is the limited final publication of large bodies of Cretan material for the period in question, a situation that is more severe on the western half of the island. Kotsonas stresses the need for a wider discussion of how the reporting of archaeological material should take place – a point also raised by Alexandridou and Mazarakis Ainian in their overview, where a number of rescue excavations are not found, while work on many Cycladic islands escapes reporting.

The overview by Philip Sapirstein is a welcome addition to a body of evidence not often reported in AR: research on Greek architecture, from prehistoric to Hellenistic times, covering the period from 2012 to the present. His critical review logically starts where that of Barbara Barletta ended back in 2011. With some 1,000 studies taken into account, innovation is also underlined by Sapirstein as an element that is driving the ways we look at, record, study, and ultimately understand and use these monuments in archaeological thinking. Palaces and sanctuaries, traditional foci of architectural study, continue to receive wide attention, though now approached in new and methodologically sophisticated manners. Widespread 3D recording and modelling, remote sensing, compositional and quantitative analysis all contribute to the reshaping of the field. There is also a growing interest in planning and construction, from the scale of the sources of building materials of an individual architectural member up to a territorial defence network. Fortifications, harbours, and urban planning attracted a great deal more attention in the last 10 years than in past decades. With architecture understood in its wider, social sense in this paper, there is still considerable potential, as Sapirstein notes in his concluding remarks, for diachronic study and collaboration through many of the categories of architectural analysis reviewed: for example, the design and uses of houses, cities, fortifications, and other territorial defensive networks, or water access and management. Furthermore, more intensive study and inter-site comparison of the monuments in the northern Balkans and Black Sea, Cyprus, and the Levant should be encouraged: an interaction that could yield important new insights for the roles that architecture – in the broadest sense of the term – had in the ancient social life of the Mediterranean.

The final contribution to this year’s AR comes from Michael Loy (BSA), who introduces readers to the history of the BSA study collection. A valuable resource for teaching and research, the collection includes some 4,000 individual artefacts and more than 46,000 potsherds. Ranging from the Neolithic to the Late Byzantine periods, it comprises ceramics, metals, and stone artefacts, some of which had been on display in different parts of the BSA over the course of the past 130 years. With only a small portion of this collection published or known, the BSA has undertaken a systematic study documenting for the first time the entire material as well as its history. Following the completion of the collection’s digitization, efforts have since focused on outreach and public engagement. The aim now remains the same as that envisaged by Ernest Gardner at the end of the 19th century: to have this resource accessible for teaching and research. While comprising principally decontextualized objects, the BSA’s obligation is to publish and to curate the collection in a socially responsible way. This study collection is also important for the institutional history of the BSA and its archaeological practices in Greece as well as for better understanding certain individuals, including their collecting habits and research interests (for example, those of George Finlay). After all, and as also noted in the contributions by Alexandridou and Mazarakis Ainian and by Kotsonas, work does not end in the field, but continues with the recording, publication, and dissemination of the archaeological material. As data becomes available, new opportunities emerge, new connections can be established, and new knowledge can be produced about the past and its curation and study in the present. Loy’s contribution is also supplemented by two finding aids made available online.

Loy has been awarded an Early Career Leverhulme Fellowship and will be based in Cambridge from January, when he will also take up the role of co-editor for the next four issues of AR. We would like to thank him for everything he has done for AR so far as well as for all his excellent work with AGOnline in his role as assistant director of the BSA (2019–2022), during which time he prepared and uploaded thousands of entries to the database. He is succeeded in this role by Dr Giorgos Mouratidis (St Andrews).

Before presenting the list of publications that have appeared since the last volume of AR, it is customary to report briefly on exhibitions and new museums in Greece. Following two difficult years for the tourism and cultural sector in Greece because of the pandemic, 2022 witnessed very high numbers of tourists visiting the country (around 30 million is the current estimate). For all visitors, there is now a new, dedicated webpage for Greek archaeological museums (https://archaeologicalmuseums.gr/). All those interested in cultural news and events in Greece should make use of the new portal recently introduced by the Ministry (https://digitalculture.gov.gr/). For researchers, the national aggregator of digital cultural content, SearchCulture (https://www.searchculture.gr/), is particularly useful. One can find on this portal images of archaeological objects and archival content as well as digitized publications, including, for example, past issues of the Aρχαιολογικόν Δελτίον (ADelt). SearchCulture is also Greece’s certified digital content provider to Europeana, the European cultural heritage digital library, museum, gallery, and archive (https://www.europeana.eu).

2021 saw the opening of the Loverdos Museum – Ziller Mansion, a department of the Byzantine and Christian Museum; Arethousa – the archaeological museum of Chalkis; the archaeological collection of Same on Kephallonia; as well as the Xenokrateion Archaeological Museum of Missolonghi. In 2022, four more museums opened their gates to the public: the new Archaeological Museum of Chania, the Museum of Alexandroupoli, the polycentric museum of Aigai (Vergina) and the permanent archaeological collection of Polygyros. In August 2022, three more underwater archaeological sites were added to those that divers can now visit. They include the shipwrecks at Kikynthos, at Cape Glaros, and at Cape Telegraphos in Amaliopolis, Magnesia, in the vicinity of the west Pagasetic Gulf. Along with the underwater archaeological site of Alonissos, they now form an important new destination for scuba diving tourism (https://museum.alonissos.gov.gr/en/home/). Back in March 2022, recreational scuba diving was permitted for the first time at 91 sites by the Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Sports, mostly on wrecks of the Second World War. To dive these historic sites, one has to complete the necessary paperwork and submit it for approval to the Ministry. Strict rules apply with regard to the protection of the sites, and visitors are forbidden altogether from removing objects.

Wide coverage was received by the permanent return of the Fagan Parthenon fragment from Sicily to Greece and to the Acropolis Museum – a return that the Greek government considers extremely important for re-uniting all Parthenon fragments one day. Another important repatriation was the Mycenaean gold signet ring from the Nobel Foundation in Stockholm. Discovered in 1927 in chamber tomb 61 at Ialysos during the Italian excavations at the time, the ring was stolen during the Second World War and was later purchased by the Hungarian Nobelist-laureate writer Georg von Békésy, whose collection was bequeathed to the Nobel Foundation following his death (https://digitalculture.gov.gr/2022/05/chriso-mikinaiko-dachtilidi-epistrafike-stin-ellada-apo-to-idrima-nobel/). Forty-seven trafficked ancient artefacts from the Steinhardt collection are also being returned to Greece. The objects come from Central Greece, Crete, the Cyclades, Samos, and Rhodes, and include a Minoan clay larnax, a fragmentary marble kouros, a bronze griffin head from a cauldron, bronze swords, Cycladic vessels, and terracotta figurines (https://digitalculture.gov.gr/2021/12/epistrefoun-stin-ellada-47-archea-antikimena).

Notable exhibitions that have recently been hosted in Greek museums, or are still on display, include: Stone Paths – Stories Set in Stone: Jewish Inscriptions in Greece, a collaboration between the Epigraphic Museum and the Jewish Museum of Greece; an exhibition on death and burial at ancient Melos in the local archaeological museum; an exhibition on The Inscribed Bronze Tablets from Argos: The Economic Archive of the City of Argos in the First Half of the 4th c. BC; Kallos: The Ultimate Beauty, on the philosophical concept of beauty in Greek life as conveyed through art and archaeology, hosted by the Museum of Cycladic Art; Bath Time! Body – Water – Dialogues at the new Chania museum in partnership with the Musée des Civilisations de l’Europe et de la Méditerannée in Marseille on bathing practices through time; and exhibitions at Thessaloniki, Larisa, and Mykonos dedicated to the 200th anniversary of the start of the Greek war of independence (with events relating to these bicentennial celebrations covered in the last issue of AR but ultimately reduced in number in 2021 due to the pandemic). Internationally, 2022 was also the year of a major exhibition dedicated to the life of Heinrich Schliemann in the Museum of Prehistory and Early History in Berlin in celebration of the bicentennial of his birth, while an event in London, organized by the Institute of Classical Studies, celebrated the life of Michael Ventris as an architect and decipherer of Linear B, marking the 70th anniversary of this major breakthrough moment in Aegean archaeology.

Readers of AR may be happy to learn that volume 139 of Aρχαιολογία & Tέχνες, a well-established Greek magazine dedicated to archaeology and arts in the country, has been devoted to the BSA in 2022, its history and its archaeological work. Edited by John Bennet, it includes sections on the BSA’s research (by the director), on the ‘Minoans at the Ashmolean Museum’ (Andrew Shapland, Oxford), on the relationship between the BSA and anthropology/anthropologists (Margaret Kenna, Swansea), on the School’s library (Evi Charitoudi, BSA) and archives (Amalia Kakissis, BSA), and on the Fitch Laboratory (Vangelio Kyriatzi, BSA). The issue is also accompanied by a brief archaeological guide to Knossos prepared by Kostis Christakis (Knossos Curator/BSA).

Our own, non-exhaustive list of publications that have appeared since the last volume of AR follows.

Apostolakou, V., Betancourt, P. and Brogan, T.M. (2021) Bramiana: Salvaging Information from a Destroyed Minoan Settlement in Southeast Crete (INSTAP Prehistory Monographs 66) (Philadelphia)

Arrington, N. (2021) Athens at the Margins: Pottery and People in the Early Mediterranean World (Princeton)

Barringer, J.M. and Lissarague, F. (eds) (2022) Images at the Crossroads: Media and Meaning in Greek Art (Edinburgh)

Bennet, J. (ed.) (2021) Representations: Material and Immaterial Modes of Communication in the Bronze Age Aegean (Sheffield Studies in Aegean Archaeology 13) (Oxford)

Benzi, M. (2021) An Island in Prehistory: Neolithic and Bronze Ages Finds from Kalymnos, Dodecanese (Monografie della Scuola Archeologica di Atene e delle Missioni Italiane in Oriente 30) (Athens)

Boswinkel, Y. (2021) Labouring with Large Stones: A Study into the Investment and Impact of Construction Projects on Mycenaean Communities in Late Bronze Age Greece (Leiden)

Bourogiannis, G. (ed.) (2022) Beyond Cyprus: Investigating Cypriot Connectivity in the Mediterranean from the Late Bronze Age to the End of the Classical Period (Athens)

Chapinal-Heras, D. (2021) Experiencing Dodona: The Development of the Epirote Sanctuary From Archaic to Hellenistic Times (Berlin)

Cucuzza, N. (2021) Haghia Triada IV. Gli edifici Tardo Minoico III del settore meridionale (Monografie della Scuola Archeologica di Atene 32) (Athens)

Cutler, J. (2021) Crafting Minoanisation: Textiles, Crafts Production and Social Dynamics in the Bronze Age Southern Aegean (Oxford)

D’Agata, A.L., Girella, L., Papadopoulou, E. and Aquini, D.G. (eds) (2022) One State, Many Worlds: Crete in the Late Minoan II–IIIA2 Early Period (Studi Micenei ed Egeo-Anatolici suppl. 2) (Rome)

Damaskos, D., Karanastasi, P. and Stefanidou-Tiveriou, T. (2022) Πλαστική στη Ρωμαϊκή Eλλάδα: Νέα Eυρήματα και Έρευνες (Thessaloniki)

Darcque, P., Koukouli-Chryssanthaki, H., Malamidou, D., Treuil, R. and Tsirtsoni, Z. (2021) Village Préhistorique de Macédoine Orientale, II, 2: Histoire d’un Tell: Les Recherches 1986–2016 (Athens)

Demesticha, S. and Blue, L. (eds) (2021) Under the Mediterranean I: Studies in Maritime Archaeology (Leiden)

Dietrich, N. and Fouquet, J. (2022) Image, Text, Stone: Intermedial Perspectives on Graeco-Roman Sculpture (Berlin)

Dillon, S., Prusac-Lindhagen, M. and Lundgren, A.K. (eds) (2021) The Portrait Face: Understanding Realism and Verism in Greek and Roman Portraiture (Athens)

Docter, R.F. and Webster, M. (eds) (2021) Thorikos XII. Reports and Studies: 2018–2022 (Leuven)

Dosuna, J.M., Palaima, T.G. and García, C.V. (eds) (2022) TA-U-RO-QO-RO: Studies in Mycenaean Texts, Language and Culture in Honor of José Luis Melena Jiménez (Washington, DC)

Doumas, C.G. and Devetzi, A. (eds) (2021) Akrotiri, Thera: Forty Years of Research (1967–2007): Scientific Colloquium, Athens, 15–16 December 2007 (Athens)

Driessen, J. and Knappett, C. (2022) Megistos Kouros: Studies in Honour of Hugh Sackett (Aegis 23) (Louvain)

Driessen, J., Anastasiadou, M., Caloi, I., Claeys, T., Déderix, S., Devolder, M., Rubois, R., Gaignerot-Driessen, F., Kress, N., Langohr, C., Letesson, Q., Magno, L.M., Mathioudaki, I., Mouthuy, O., Schmitt, A., Terrana, T., Tsafou, E. and Wolf, D. (eds) (2021) Excavations at Sissi V: Preliminary Report on the 2017–2019 Campaigns (2 vols) (Aegis 21) (Louvain)

Fachard, S. and Harris, E. (eds) (2021) The Destruction of the Cities in the Ancient World: Integrating Archaeological and Literary Evidence (Cambridge)

Faraone, C.A. and Polinskaya, I. (eds) (2021) Curses in Context III: Greek Curse Tablets of the Classical and Hellenistic Periods (Athens)

Forsén, J. (ed.) (2021) Agios Elias of Asea, Arcadia: From Early Sanctuary to Medieval Village (Stockholm)

Frederiksen, R. and Vikatou, O. (2022) The Ancient Theatre at Kalydon (Aarhus)

Georgopoulou, M. (2021) The Free and the Brave: American Philhellenes and the ‘Glorious Struggle of the Greeks’ (1776–1866) (Athens)

Godart, L. (2021) Les Scribes de Pylos (Pisa and Rome)

Gotter, U. and Sioumpara, E.P. (eds) (2022) Identität aus Stein. Die Athener Akropolis und ihre Stadt (Munich)

Greenberg, R. and Hamilakis, Y. (2022) Archaeology, Nation, and Race: Confronting the Past, Decolonizing the Future in Greece and Israel (Cambridge)

Hall, J.M. (2021) Reclaiming the Past: Argos and Its Archaeological Heritage in the Modern Era (Ithaca)

Harris, S., Brøns, C. and Żuchowksa, M. (eds) (2022) Textiles in Ancient Mediterranean Iconography (Oxford and Philadelphia)

Harter-Uibopuu, K. (ed.) (2022) Studien zu Bau und Recht in der Antike (Stuttgart)

Hasaki, E. (2022) Potters at Work in Ancient Corinth: Industry, Religion, and the Penteskouphia Pinakes (Hesperia supplement 51) (Princeton)

Hasenohr, C. (2021) Les Italiens à Délos (Paris)

Hölbl, G. (2022) The Shrine of Eileithyia: Minoan Goddess of Childbirth and Motherhood at the Inatos Cave in Southern Crete. Volume I: The Egyptian-type Artifacts (INSTAP Academic Press) (Philadelphia)

Holtzmann, B., Biard, G. and Imbs, M. (2021) Études Thasiennes XXVII: Deux Ensembles Votifs Reconsidérés – Le Grand Monument Votif du Dionysion & Le Portique aux Statues de l’Artémision (Paris)

Johannessen, L.O. (2021) Constituting Artemis: The Social and Cultural Significance of Votive Offerings in the Cults of Artemis at Brauron, Ephesos and Sparta (Athens)

Kalantzopoulou, T.I. (2022) Taking the High Road. Prehistoric Habitation and Exploitation in the Mountains of East Crete: New Evidence from the Extensive Survey (Aegis 22) (Louvain)

Kanta, A., Davaras, C. and Betancourt, P.P. (2022) Honors to Eileithyia at Ancient Inatos. The Sacred Cave at Tsoutsouros, Crete: Highlights of the Collection (INSTAP Academic Press) (Philadelphia)

Karantzali, E. (ed.) (2021a) 3rd International Interdisciplinary Colloquium: The Periphery of the Mycenaean World, May 18–21, Lamia 2018/Γ΄ Διεθνές Διεπιστημονικό Συμπόσιο: H Περιφέρεια του Μυκηναϊκού Κόσμου, Λαμία 18–21 Μαΐου (Athens)

Karantzali, E. (ed.) (2021b) Tο Έργο της Eφορείας Aρχαιοτήτων Φθιώτιδας και Eυρυτανίας, 2016–2021 (Athens) https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ptNZUL6R7R_siWMQ-_P6WbHGfM5zBihY/view

Koehl, R.B. (2021) Koukounaries I: Mycenaean Pottery from Selected Contexts (Oxford)

Kokorou-Alevra, G. (ed.) (2021) Aλάσαρνα. VII: Ιερό του Aπόλλωνα Πυθαίου/Πυθαέως και Πρώιμος Bυζαντινός Οικισμός. Κοροπλαστική, Νομίσματα, Μεταλλικά Eυρήματα (Athens)

Kolonas, L. (2021) Bούντενη Ι: Ένα Σημαντικό Μυκηναϊκό Κέντρο της Aχαΐας (2 vols) (Athens)

Kondyli, F. (2022) Rural Communities in Late Byzantium. Resilience and Vulnerability in the Northern Aegean (Cambridge)

Kopanias, K. (2021) Ahhiyawa: Tο Μυκηναϊκό Aιγαίο μέσα από τα Χεττιτικά κείμενα (Athens)

Korka, E. and Rife, J.L. (eds) (2022) On the Edge of a Roman Port: Excavations at Koutsongila, Kenchreai, 2007–2014 (Hesperia supplement 52) (Princeton)

Kountouri, E., Masouridi, S., Xanthopoulou, K. and Chatzidimitriou, A. (eds) (2021) Περί των Aρχαιοτήτων Ιδίως. Η Aρχαιολογία στην Eλλάδα του 19ου αιώνα Μέσα από τις Πηγές του Aρχείου των Υπηρεσιών Aρχαιοτήτων. Πρακτικά Συνεδρίου, 22–24 Οκτωβρίου 2014 (Athens)

Kouremenos, A. (ed.) (2022) The Province of Achaea in the 2nd Century CE: The Past Present (New York)

Lagogianni-Georgakarakos, M. (ed.) (2021) Known and Unknown Nikai: In History, Art and Life (Athens)

Lembessi, A. (2021) Tο Ιερό του Eρμή και της Aφροδίτης στη Σύμη Bιάννου VI. Tα Πήλινα Aνθρωπόμορφα Aναθήματα (Library of the Athens Archaeological Society 337) (Athens)

Lyritzis, I. and Zacharias, N. (2022) AρχαιοΥλικά. Aρχαιολογικές, Aρχαιομετρικές και Πολιτισμικές Προσεγγίσεις (2nd edition, revised and enlarged) (Athens)

Mandalaki, S. (ed.) (2021) Δαίδαλος. Στα Ίχνη Eνός Μυθικού Tεχνίτη (Heraklion)

Matthaiou, A.P. and Chatzidimitriou, A. (eds) (2021) Πρακτικά Συμποσίου εις Μνήμην Παναγιώτου Eυστρατιάδη (1815–1888) (Athens)

Matthaiou, A.P. and Pallis, G.N. (eds) (2021) Eπί Πέτρας Λευκής: Πρακτικά Συμποσίου εις Μνήμην Κυριάκου Σ. Πιττάκη (1798–1863) (Athens)

Melena Jiménez, J.L. and Firth, R.J. (2021) The Pylos Tablets (Bilbao)

Moretti, J.-C., Fraisse, P. and Llinas, C. (2021) L’Artémision. Tome I : L’histoire des Fouilles et le Temple Hellénistique (Athens)

Moudopoulos-Athanasiou, F. (2022) The Early Modern Zagori of Northwest Greece: An Interdisciplinary Archaeological Inquiry into a Montane Cultural Landscape (Leiden)

Moutafi, I. (2021) Towards a Social Bioarchaeology of the Mycenaean Period: A Biocultural Analysis of Human Remains from the Voudeni Cemetery, Achaea, Greece (Oxford)

Moutzouridis, P. (2021) The Transition From Late Bronze Age to Early Iron Age in Elis: The Case of Agios Georgios of Persaina (Athens University Review of Archaeology Suppl. 8) (Athens)

Murphy, J.M.A. and Morrison, J.E. (eds) (2022) Klerononia: Legacy and Inheritance. Studies on the Aegean Bronze Age in Honor of Jeffrey S. Soles (INSTAP Prehistory Monographs 61) (Philadelphia)

Murray, S.C. (2022) Male Nudity in the Greek Iron Age. Representation and Ritual Context in Aegean Societies (Cambridge)

Neils, J. and Palagia, O. (eds) (2021) From Kallias to Kritias: Art in Athens in the Second Half of the Fifth Century BC (Berlin)

Oddo, E. with Fotou, V. (2022) Knossos: The House of the Frescoes (BSA Suppl. vol. 51) (Athens)

Parker, R. and Steele, P.M. (eds) (2021) The Early Greek Alphabets: Origin, Diffusion, Uses (Oxford)

Petrakos, V. (2021a) H εν Aθήναις Aρχαιολογική Eταιρεία Παιδί του ’21 (2 vols) (Library of the Athens Archaeological Society 338–339) (Athens)

Petrakos, V. (2021b) Σύμμικτα (Library of the Athens Archaeological Society 340) (Athens)

Pierattini, A. (2022) The Origins of Greek Temple Architecture (Cambridge)

Poulsen, B., Pedersen, P. and Lund, J. (eds) (2021) Karia and the Dodekanese: Cultural Interrelations in the Southeast Aegean (Oxford)

Poursat J.-C. and Knappett, C. (2022) The Art and Archaeology of the Aegean Bronze Age: A History (Cambridge)

Rebenich, S. (2021) Die Deutschen und ihre Antike: Eine wechselvolle Beziehung (Stuttgart)

Sakellarakis, Y. and Konstantinidi-Syvridi, E. (2022) The Mycenaean Collection of Ivory Combs at the National Archaeological Museum, Athens (Aegaeum 46) (Leuven)

Sampson, A. (2021) Palaeolithic and Mesolithic Sailors in the Aegean and the Near East (Newcastle upon Tyne)

Sbonias, K. and Tzachili, I. (2021) Θηρασία ΙΙΙ: Aρχαιολογική Έρευνα και Ιστορία του Tοπίου μιας Νησιωτικής Κοινωνίας/Therasia III: Archaeological Research and Landscape History of an Island Community (Athens)

Scotton, P.D., de Grazia Vanderpool, C. and Roncaglia C. (2021) The Julian Basilica: Architecture, Sculpture, Epigraphy (Corinth XXII) (Athens)

Shapland, A. (2022) Human–Animal Relations in Bronze Age Crete (Cambridge)

Shelton, K. (2022) Tsountas House Area (Well Built Mycenae: The Helleno-British Excavations within the Citadel at Mycenae, 1959–1969, Fascicule 14) (Oxford)

Soles, J.S. (2022) Mochlos IVA. Period III: The House of the Metal Merchant and Other Buildings in the Neopalatial Town (INSTAP Prehistory Monographs 68) (Philadelphia)

Solomon, E. (2021) Contested Antiquity: Archaeological Heritage and Social Conflict in Modern Greece and Cyprus (Bloomington)

Souyoudzoglou-Haywood, C. and Papoulia, C. (2022) Archaeology of the Ionian Sea: Landscapes, Seascapes and the Circulation of People, Goods and Ideas from the Palaeolithic to the End of the Bronze Age (Oxford)

Stampolidis, N.C. and Fappas, I. (eds) (2021) Kallos: The Ultimate Beauty (Athens)

Streicher, M. (2022) Panathenaische Preisamphoren hellenistischer Zeit: Kontinuität und Wandel einer athenischen Vasengattung (Möhnesee)

Sulosky Weaver, C.L. (2022) Marginalised Populations in the Ancient Greek World: The Bioarchaeology of the Other (Edinburgh)

Tiverios, M. (2021) The Athenian Symposium and its Rituals: Texts and Images (Thessaloniki)

Tsipopoulou, M. (2022) Petras, Siteia II. A Minoan Palatial Settlement in Eastern Crete: Late Bronze Age Pottery from Houses I.1 and I.2 (INSTAP Prehistory Monographs 67) (Philadelphia)

Ugolini, F. (2022) Visualising Harbours in the Classical World: Iconography and Representation Around the Mediterranean (London)

van Wijngaarden, G.J. and Driessen, J. (eds) (2022) Political Geographies of the Bronze Age Aegean: Proceedings of the Joint Workshop by the Belgian School at Athens (EBSA) and the Netherlands Institute at Athens (NIA), Athens, 28–31 May 2019 (Leuven)

Vikatou, O. (2021) Ξενοκράτειον. Tο Aρχαιολογικό Μουσείο Ιεράς Πόλεως Μεσολλογίου (Athens) https://www.flipsnack.com/thenewtons2019/messolonghi-eng-spread-web-h5qb959zhm.html

Vlizos, S. (2022) Aρχαιολογία και Μουσεία: Η Eνότητα της Eλληνικής Μνημειακής Παράδοσης. Πρακτικά Συνεδρίου στη Μνήμη του Άγγελου Δεληβορριά (Library of the Athens Archaeological Society 341) (Athens)

Wemhoff, M. (2022) Schliemanns Welten: Sein Leben. Seine Entdeckungen. Sein Mythos (Berlin)

Whiting, C.M. (2021) Dogs in the Athenian Agora (Athens)

Wiersma, C. and Tsouli, M.P. (eds) (2022) Middle and Late Helladic Laconia: Competing Principalities? (Publications of the Netherlands Institute at Athens vol. 7) (Leiden)

Acknowledgements

We would like to express our warmest thanks to all the contributors to this year’s volume, to John Bennet (BSA director) for his guidance, to Nathan Meyer (BSA IT officer) for the production of the excellent maps, to Tania Gerousi (BSA administrator) for much practical help, and to Mary Hobbins for her superb assistance in the publication of this issue. We also express our thanks to Thomas Wilkes and Jamie McIntyre (CUP) and Lumina Datamatics for their valuable help with the copyediting/typesetting transition of AR during this difficult past year, and to Fiona Haarer, the journal’s executive editor and secretary of the Hellenic Society, for advice and important logistical support. We also take this opportunity to thank Andrew Shapland, previous co-editor of AR, and offer our congratulations on his excellent work over the past three years.

Numerous individuals and institutions, credited in the appropriate captions, granted us permission to use images; without them, this issue would not have been possible. It is thanks to the hard work of the members of the Greek Archaeological Service and museums, and the fruitful collaborations between colleagues and institutions based in various countries and rooted in different scholarly traditions, that we are able to report on new discoveries, academic discourses, and the vibrant scene of archaeology in Greece.

Competing interests

Tulsi Parikh co-authored this introduction whilst A.G. Leventis Fellow in Hellenic Studies at the British School at Athens.

Figure 0

1.1. Gina Coulthard on a trip to Morocco. © Michael Forrest.