This article presents a descriptive analysis, both stylistic and petrographic, of the wares which define EM II B at Knossos based on pottery from deposits beneath the EM III South Front House excavated by Evans and Mackenzie in 1907–08. A classificatory system based on ware and fabric is used here as a means of investigating questions of location, technology and traditions of ceramic production, all key aspects in reconstructing socio-economic organisation in Early Minoan Crete. Comment is made on stylistic development and change in the EM II ceramic sequence at Knossos and the broad questions of ceramic production, distribution/exchange and consumption in EM II B Central Crete. Finally, inferences are drawn about the social value and meaning of the EM II B pottery at Knossos and arguments made for the specialised use of this site for ceremonial drinking/feasting practices.

This article presents three new Early Helladic sites in Laconia, identified as such on the basis of sherd material collected between 1990–94. Two of the sites, Agios Georgios and Vouno Panagias, lie on the east side of the Eurotas river in the Sparta plain and offer a good opportunity to study the settlement hierarchy and density at that time. Moreover, the two probable EH III sherds from these sites are the first to be recognised in Laconia. The third new site of Boza lies on the east coast of the Laconian gulf near ancient Asopos. The richness and variety of sherd material collected there point to the sea as a possible route via which ceramic innovations reached Laconia. Finally, important known sites like Agios Vassileios in the Sparta plain, Vardies south of Gytheio and Daimonia on the east coast of the Laconian gulf, greatly contribute to the picture of EH Laconia as a densely populated area maintaining contacts with other regions of the EH culture throughout the third millennium.

170 copper-based objects from various sites in mainland Greece covering the Late Neolithic period and the whole of the Bronze Age have been analysed for their chemical content (twelve elements) by atomic absorption spectroscopy. The results indicate that at all sites during the Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age relatively pure copper and arsenical copper were used, while during the Middle and Late Bronze Ages bronze dominated. Bronze objects of the Early Bronze Age were probably imported. Lead was not usually used to help casting. Metallographic examination of eight Late Neolithic, Early and Late Bronze Age hammered objects revealed that they have been cold-worked and annealed, most probably through several cycles.

This paper examines ceramic evidence from Middle Minoan Knossos in an attempt to chart the introduction and development of wheel-throwing technology in Minoan pottery. The technique of wheel-throwing comes into its own in Middle Minoan I B, coeval with the construction of the first palaces and a number of other major changes. Although there are some indications that there could have been some degree of internal evolution towards this point, it also appears that outside contacts with the Near East may have contributed to the innovation process. The main aim is to elucidate the dynamics of choice that led to the adoption and subsequent development of the wheel-throwing innovation. Whilst the use of the wheel is generally considered as a technical development, it is argued here that, in the initial stages, its adoption by certain Minoan potters was as much influenced by socio-political as by technical factors.

This article explores expressions of cultural identity in the LM II mortuary data from the Knossos valley, in the context of the issue of a ‘Mycenaean’ presence there. It proposes that the burial record is less useful for trying to establish a mainland origin for the people interred in the tombs, than for exploring how people chose to represent themselves and each other in death. In this light, the cultural influences in the tomb architecture and assemblages of the Isopata and Kephala tombs in particular are examined. The experimentation apparent in such tombs suggests that the mortuary sphere was employed as a forum for status display in the context of a social transition at Knossos, with mainland traits being one element in a range of options that were selectively taken up and adapted.

According to Linear B texts from Knossos, the sheep which the palace kept for wool were far too numerous to have been reared from recorded flocks of breeding ewes. The wool flocks are dominated by castrated males (wethers) but also include ewes, yearlings, old sheep and ‘deficits’. Following Killen, deficits often occur as round numbers and so represent sheep not returned to the palace rather than losses through natural deaths. Moreover, most flocks have no deficits, implying that inevitable losses were made up by the herders to whom the flocks were entrusted. This paper examines the association of different categories of sheep among the wool flocks and the nature of legible amendments to texts. It is argued that ewes, yearlings and old sheep were all substituted for wethers, which herders removed in large numbers, perhaps for feasting or sacrifice. Herders were thus responsible for both culling and replacing palatial wool sheep, while the palace was primarily concerned with the collection of wool.

A question of broad economic and social significance is the extent to which farming in prehistoric times, and perhaps even in historical times, was characterised by cultivation on a small scale and with intensive methods. Archaeobotanically, a distinction may be possible between intensive and extensive cultivation on the basis of the weed seeds associated with ancient grain samples. To this end, an ecological study was carried out in central Ewia of the weeds of winter-sown pulses grown both intensively in gardens and extensively in fields. The recorded weed flora was demonstrably influenced by relevant husbandry variables, such as method of tillage (with hoe or plough), weeding, manuring and soil organic content. The closest correspondence, however, was with the size, type and location of cultivated plots, suggesting that the weed flora was determined by a combination of these husbandry variables. In conclusion, the potential is briefly discussed of disentangling these variables for application in an archacobotanical context.

This article is a preliminary report on the first (1998) season of the Kythera Survey, an intensive fiels survey concentrating on the central-eastern part of the island. This survey forms part of a wider projecr, whose aim is to explore the long-term insular dynamics of Kythera as a stepping stone, filter, and island with its own identy. Another central aim of this project, expanding on excavations at Kastri and the peak sancturary of Agios Georgios, is to shed new light on minoanisation as a spatial phenomenon in the island's landscape. In 1998 c. 13 sq. km were investigated, revealing 26 archaelogical sites. The peak periods of settlement in the surveyed area are the Early Bronze Age. Second Palace Period, Classical-Roman periods, and the last few centuries before the present. Poorly represented, or absent, are sites of later Neolithic, First Palace Period, Third Palace Period, Post-Palatial to Archaic, and Late Roman to Medieval date. Early Bronze Age sites are of Early Helladic character, whilst the Second Palace Period sites follow the minoanised culture of Kastri; together with a few finds of early minoanising material on Early Helladic sites, and the absence of evidence for the First Palace Period, these results provide new perspectives on the process of minoanisation on Kythera.

Two seasons of fieldwalking were undertaken in the environs of the city of Praisos in Eastern Crete in 1993 and 1994. This is a preliminary report on the results. The topography of the area is described, as are the survey methods used. Finds include sites of FN/EM I date; MM ‘megalithic’ structures and one possible sanctuary; few remains of Neopalatial date. Attention is concentrated on the LM III, PG, G and Orientalising periods which saw a movement of settlement from the refuge settlement of Kypia above Kalamafki to Praisos itself. The urban survey of 1994 indicates that Praisos was a considerable settlement well before the Classical period, and there seems to be some overlap in the periods in which Kypia and Praisos were occupied. Further work was also undertaken on the Classical and Hellenistic periods in the Praisos area. Later periods have proven more difficult to pin down through analysis of their surface remains.

The first two fieldwork seasons of the Kato Phana Archaeological Project took place in 1997 and 1998 as a collaborative venture between the British School at Athens and the Mytilene Ephorate of the Greek Archaeological Service. The work comprised archaelogical surface survey and mapping of the lower Kato Phana Valley, cleaning and planning of the sanctuary of Apollo Phanaios and geophysical testing of selected areas around the sanctuary site. This article first sets out the aims of the Project and describes earlier work at the cult centre (Geometric to Early Christian periods) by K. Kourouniotes and W. Lamb. This is followed by an account of the survey methodology and of the results gained: these include the location of Bronze Age findspots NE and SW of the cult centre and a dense concentration of sherds, tile and ancient masonry, ranging in date from the Archaic to Early Christion periods, radiating out from the sanctuary, particularly to the S and SE. To the NW, the survey also succeeded in identifying the ancient quarry site from which grey limestone blocks were cut for the sanctuary constructing. The paper concludes with an account of the geophysical testing carried out at Kato Phana, and looks forward to the next projected phase of the Project's fieldwork.

This article explores in detail the mysterious lacuna in the record of Knossos during the sixth century BC, between the abandonment of the collective tombs of the Early Iron Age and the revival of the city's fortunes in Classial times. The archaeological evidence, indicating a deep recession, is marshalled in three chronological sections: (i) the full stop in the seventh century, (ii) the Archaic gap, and (iii) recovery in the fifth century. Parallel developments at Amnisos are also discussed. In the light of any relevant clues from the written record, we evaluate the likelihood of various possible causes of the sixth-century recession at Knossos, whether natural or human.

Working from an inscription discovered in Athens nearly 20 years ago, suggestions have been recently made by Robertson, Shear, and Dontas for the proper placement of the Archaic agora and for the Aglaurion, Prytaneion, Theseion, and Anakeion. Based upon these recent suggestions, we may now propose a location for the Archaic Altars of the Dread Goddesses (Semnai Theai) and for the route that Kylon's followers took down from the Akropolis before they were murdered in the aftermath of their conspiracy c. 632 BC.

The excavation of M. S. F. Hood in the area of the Minoan Royal Road at Knossos produced stratified deposits of Greek pottery ranging in date from Protogeometric to Hellenistic. This article, the last in a series of three, concentrates on the local and imported pottery of the Classical and Hellenistic periods. For the Classical sequence, a late-fourth century house deposit is supplemented by three earlier well fills from the area of the Vcnizeleion Hospital. There follows five stratified groups of Hellenistic pottery, the last two being from second-century floor deposits. Also included here are many pieces from less well stratified contexts, but of intrinsic interest.

This article reconsiders from a methodological point of view some of the ways in which the ancient Macedonians and their culture have been assessed by recent historians. It is inspired by Professor E. N. Borza's book on this issue, where archaeological material is widely used in ways which do not always accord with the data or their interpretation. It has to be noted that the article is focused only on the evidence deriving from Vergina, a site of which the author has a direct knowledge, due to participation in its archaeological research over a long period.

In 1996 Dr M. B. Hatzopoulos published a large amount of new evidence in his two volumes of The Macedonian Institutions under the Kings, and further evidence appears in the Astronomical Diaries of Babylon. In this evidence the epistates holds an important place. With the opening of a new chapter in Macedonian studies, it seems desirable to provide an overall view of the roles of the epistates in all Macedonian contexts, including the Alexander-cities in Asia.

The industrial minerals (IM) of antiquity, the ‘earths’ of the Classical sources, have for long eluded the archaeological record because of the limited material evidence they leave behind in the course of their extraction and processing. The extensive references in Classical and medieval literature and travellers' accounts have never previously been followed up by detailed surveys and by scientific analysis. In the course of April–May 1998 archaeological, topographic and geological surveys were carried out at the Roman site of Aghia Kyriaki, on the island of Melos, with the long term aim of putting the elusive ‘earths’ on the archaeological map of ancient industries. The present article outlines the work so far and highlights the complex factors that may contribute to the identification and characterisation of industrial minerals working in the absence of pyrotechnological waste. Furthermore, since IM processing requires a sustainable low temperature energy source, the hypothesis is put forward that Aghia Kyriaki may have been built on agriculturally inhospitable terrain mainly in order to take advantage of the area's still active geothermal field. If proven, this may constitute evidence for the first use of a ‘soft’ and environmentally friendly energy source during the Roman period in the Aegean.

The Roman Odeion at Kos was a covered rectangular building with four perimeter walls supporting the roof. The design of the koilon in the shape of a hoof follows Vitruvius' rules on Hellenistic theatres. The koilon was built with opus caementicium and it was supported by two vaulted stoas in a circular arrangement. The seats and the staircases were clad with marble. The stage has a peculiar pentagonal shape and its proscenium was rectilinear. The current form of the Odeion corresponds, in its entirety, to the ancient structure. A geometric tracing and a new restored plan of the koilon are presented. Finally, a date for the Odeion's construction in the first half of the second century AD is suggested.

Exacavations and study at the ancient theatre of Sparta in the area of the stage building and the west parodos have revealed new evidence for the original stage arrangements of the theatre as built under G. Julius Eurykles, c. 30-20 BC. A new trench laid across the west parodos, and the reopening of trials made by H. Bulle in 1935, have confirmed beyond doubt the existence of a scenery store building (skanotheke), from which three trackways, at least two of which were certainly fitted with continuous grooved blocks, allowed a moveable stage structure to be rolled out roughly into the position later occupied by the existing second phase stage building. Within the west parodos three contiguous channelled blocks have been revealed for the north line, the middle line and two poros bedding blocks for the south line. These indicate a gauge between the outer lines of c. 6 m, within a skanotheke 9 m in width and 36 m long, the walls of which have been confirmed on the north, south and west. Bulle's 1937 hypothesis concerning a rolling stage for Sparta, which was challenged by Buckler in 1986, is therefore largely confirmed. Numerous fragments of a marble Doric columned order reused within the walls and foundations of the Flavian stage building suggest that a colonnaded façade may have fronted the moving stage area, and possibly also enclosed it at the rear.

The study of ancient Greek and Latin in Australia and New Zealand, especially at Sydney Church of England Grammar School in New South Wales, produced this century a number of leading scholars who made a major contribution to the study of Old World archaeology in Europe and Australia this century. Among them were V. G. Childe, T. J. Dunbabin, J. R. Stewart and A. D. Trendall. In developing their respective fields of expertise, all spent some time in Greece, as students, excavators, research workers and soldiers, and had formative links with the British School at Athens. Australia's debt to the Classics is reflected not only in the life-long attachment to their legacy, and to Greece, by the former Prime Minister, the Hon. E. G. Whitlam, but in the perpetuation of their influence in such Colonial and modern structures as the monument of Lysicrates in Sydney's Botanic Gardens and the National Library and new Parliament House in Canberra, and in an official poster illustrating multiculturalism in Australia. Despite their role in shaping Australia's European history, the teaching of Classics is under threat as never before, and the late Enoch Powell, at one time Professor of Ancient Greek at the University of Sydney, has stigmatised the obscurantism which threatens to impoverish if not undermine Western civilisation by closing access to knowledge of our Classical past.