The trajectory of the Annual of the British School at Athens reflects the readiness of the scholarly community to submit high-quality, cutting-edge papers for publication in its volumes. Since its first edition of 1894–5, the Annual has contained reports on BSA-sponsored excavations and surveys of materials related to such projects. But it has always maintained a wide remit, and the current volume is no exception: we are delighted with its breadth of coverage in terms of not only chronological span, but also intellectual and scientific scope. The Annual is a prominent place to publish archaeological reports, interpretative analyses of significant new material, and reinterpretations of assemblages, sites, regions, phenomena and practices. There is room also for reflection on the significance of issues of reception of Hellenism and the legacy (scholarly and non-scholarly) of its material culture.

Recently, there have been major changes in the media of the publication. Final, peer-reviewed versions of articles published in ABSA are now available in advance of hard-copy publication, through the Cambridge University Press online ‘First View’ system. Online publication allows the inclusion of supplementary material – such as additional images or extensive data sets – for which there is no room in the hard-copy publication. Volume 109 reached almost 3,000 subscribing institutions (in 90 countries, in many of which the journal has not traditionally been available), of which over 90% were electronic-only subscribers.

Finally, the Co-Editors wish to acknowledge the contribution of Dr Sue Sherratt, not only for her work as Co-Editor of ABSA 106, 107, 108 and 109, but also for preparing for publication several of the articles in this volume; we wish also to thank Dr Maria G. Xanthou (University of Bristol) and Dr Christy Constantakopoulou (Birkbeck College, University of London) for their translations of abstracts into Greek.