Research on transport amphorae in the Aegean and the Black Sea regions during the past decade has progressed significantly, both accumulating, synthesizing and interpreting new and old data, and increasing attention given to previously neglected areas and periods. Much work has been done on identifying places of production, defining typological development and refining chronologies. Greece and Turkey are achieving greater prominence in the field, as is attention to the Early Iron Age. Old debates – such as on the purposes and the meanings of amphora stamps – have been reignited with new ideas and the roles of transport amphorae in socio-economic systems continue to draw attention. Another emerging trend is the effort to consider amphorae in the longue durée. As material grows and the field becomes more cosmopolitan, amphora studies increasingly face the challenge of aggregating and synthesizing data in a way that can encourage participation in the broader dialogues of economic historians.

In keeping with the new format of Archaeological Reports, this contribution takes a thematic approach. It seeks to draw wider attention to some of the diverse new primary research that has taken place since 2000 on Minoan (here glossed as Proto- and Neopalatial) extra-urban sanctuaries. For many years, discussion of these sites has largely involved synthesis. No example of a Minoan extra-urban sanctuary has ever progressed all the way from systematic excavation to full publication. Some of the best reported examples, such as the Psychro Cave (Watrous 1996) or the peak sanctuary of Petsophas (Rutkowski 1991), were excavated at the beginning of the 20th century. Until the period covered by this review, there were only one or two cases where sites excavated more recently had benefited from extended preliminary publications. This has meant that synthetic treatments have been highly dependent, in the majority of cases, on extremely brief notices of excavations or on scholars' impressions from simply visiting sites. The last 15 years have witnessed a marked change of pace. New sites have been discovered and excavated, extensive studies of old material have been produced and, most importantly, the first comprehensive studies of some of the assemblages of objects from these sites have come into the public domain. As a result, this is an opportune time to highlight a dynamically evolving field of research.

This review covers recent archaeological work on Early Iron Age to Classical Crete, focusing on research conducted and published in the 2010s. Proceeding from the west to the east part of the island, and encompassing material ranging from the 12th to the mid-fourth century BC, this study finds that, overall, the field is flourishing, despite the challenges created by the international financial crisis and the constraints posed by the global pandemic. In the last decade, the major archaeological projects which focus on Crete for the period under examination continued with their fieldwork and finds research, while new projects were also established. Additionally, as many as eight archaeological museums were opened, reopened, or are about to open. Nevertheless, final publication of large bodies of Cretan material from the period in question remain scarce, a condition which is more severe on the western half of the island. Notwithstanding its floruit, research on Early Iron Age to Classical Crete is often treated as relatively marginal, and – arguably – rather inconsequential to the grand narratives of Greek history, and art and archaeology. This paper traces the roots of this problem and shows that current work on the archaeology of Early Iron Age to Classical Crete has full potential for revolutionizing the largely Athenocentric paradigm which still pervades the study of ancient Greece.

This contribution offers a brief survey of funerary archaeology undertaken in the central and southern Aegean over the course of the last 25 years. Major construction projects and salvage and systematic excavations have brought to light some 1,700 new Late Bronze Age tombs (i.e. 27% of the extant corpus). Despite these discoveries, however, very few tombs have received a final publication and few of these projects are context driven. New data are and will continue to be desirable – but it is the quality of the recording of these data, our research questions and the careful application of new methodologies, during and after excavation, that will open up new interpretative avenues and debates. With the number of secure archaeological contexts dwindling fast, not least because of the constant threat of looting, developing new approaches (for example understanding site formation and episodes of use) is crucial if we are to recover as much as possible and advance our knowledge of the multivalent roles played by burials within ancient societies.

The deme of Acharnai belonged to the Oineis tribe and was the largest deme in Attica, represented in the boule by 22 bouleutai (Trail 1975: 65; Osborne 1985: 44; Platonos 2013: 137). Acharnai not only had a larger population than the other Attic demes, but it also appears to have extended over a particularly large area: over Neapoli, Agios Athanasios, the centre of modern Menidi, Lathea, Auliza, Pyrgouthi, Agia Anna, Charaugi, Kokkinos Mylos, Agia Soteira, Loutro, part of Gerovouno and possibly northern Lykotrypa (Fig. 125).

Both Maria Platonos (2013: 139; 2004: 31–32) and Danielle Kellogg (2013: 10–26), who have studied this deme in depth, agree that there would have been more than one settlement within its limits. Kellogg (2013: 32–33) also notes that the settlement pattern in most areas would have been scattered: that is, there would have been numerous farmsteads dotted across the landscape. This is a very attractive suggestion, since Acharnai was known for its fertile fields, and it is supported by the archaeological evidence, since numerous Classical walls delimiting properties have been excavated in the broader area of the SKA Rail Centre (ID4852; Platonos 2004: 430).

This paper explores important new evidence from recent and ongoing landscape and excavation projects carried out in Thessaly that revolutionizes our understanding of the Neolithic in the region. Moving from wider landscapes to individual archaeological sites, the paper focuses on complexity and diversity in the spatio-temporal manifestation and internal structure of Neolithic settlements, and highlights the potential of the current direction of research to illuminate the lifeways of the Neolithic people of Thessaly.

This article reviews a decade of publications and rescue excavations on the islands of Aegina, Poros and Salamis, and on the island-like Methana peninsula. Considerable amounts of new data have come to light that demonstrate how, from prehistory through to more recent times, the islands of the Saronic Gulf have been plugged in to networks with one another, with their neighbouring mainlands and with the wider Aegean. Moreover, a not insignificant number of publications has recently become available that synthesize many years of archaeological discoveries into cultural histories, telling the stories of each island and of the whole archipelago.