In the store-rooms of the British Museum is kept a fragment belonging to a lead plaque which bears the traces of an inscription written boustrophedon in the Corinthian alphabet. This lead plaque was part of the collection of J. Woodhouse, which was made in Corfu, and following the death of the collector in 1866 was bequeathed to the British Museum.

In 1868 the plaque was catalogued and described in the Museum's Register. According to a sketch, also included, it is clear that at that time more of it was preserved and that besides the upper and lower edge possibly the right end was also retained. It was described as containing seven lines of a boustrophedon inscription, of which only the first, second, and seventh lines were transcribed. The inscription was incomprehensible, and that may have been the reason for its not being published hitherto.

Images of bears are found as dedications in only five sanctuaries. The article considers the circumstances of this; particularly the belief that this animal was an emblem and pattern of motherhood.

More than 100,000 lead figurines are reported to have been found in the sanctuary of Artemis Orthia at Sparta. It has been suggested that these mass-produced votives were obtained from locally mined lead. Lead votives in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, were selected as representative of each ‘layer’ from the British excavations of the early twentieth century. Lead isotope analysis of the votives was conducted in the Oxford Laboratory for Archaeology and the History of Art and demonstrated that the lead was apparently derived from Lavrion as a by-product of silver extraction. There is a possibility that Attic silver, as well as lead, could have been used in Archaic Laconia.

Since 1950 widespread and important excavation has taken place in the Argolid. For Mycenae and Tiryns much of the post-excavation study has now been completed but has not yet reached final publication. The use of material from the preliminary reports has, however, led to conclusions which are not justified. The study teams at both sites, working in close collaboration, present here the detailed stratigraphie background to their work and the definitive assignments produced. The diagnostic pottery for the second half of the thirteenth century bc (LH III B2 Early and Late), which culminated in a major destruction at each site, is illustrated with its contextual background. The relationship between the two sites can thus be accurately assessed and the evidence will enable well-founded historical hypotheses.

Από το 1950 εκτεταμένες και σημαντικές ανασκαφικές έρευνες έχουν λάβει χώρα στην Αργολίδα. Για τις Μυκήνες και την Τίρυνθα ένα μεγάλο μέρος της μετα-ανασκαφικής μελέτης έχει πλέον ολοκληρωθεί δίχως ωστόσο να έχει φτάσει στο τελικό στάδιο της δημοσίευσης. Η χρήση υλικού από τις προκαταρκτικές εκθέσεις έχει ωστόσο οδηγήσει σε συμπεράσματα, τα οποία δεν μπορούν να τεκμηριωθούν. Οι ερευνητικές ομάδες των δύο θέσεων, στενά συνεργαζόμενες, παρουσιάζουν στο άρθρο αυτό το λεπτομερές στρωματογραφικό πλαίσιο της εργασίας τους και τις τελικές εκθέσεις. Η διαγνωστική κεραμική για το δεύτερο ήμισυ του δέκατου τρίτου αιώνα π.Χ. (YE III B2 Πρώιμη και Ύστερη), περίοδος που σημαδεύτηκε αηό μία μεγάλη καταστροφή και στις δύο θέσεις, επεξηγείται στο πλαίσιο των συνευρημάτων της. Η σχέση των δύο θέσεων μπορεί με αυτόν τον τρόπο να αξιολογηθεί με μεγαλύτερη ακρίβεια. Τα στονχεία αυτά θα επιτρέψουν τη διατύπωση καλά θεμελιωμένων ιστορικών υποθέσεων.

110 copper-based objects from various sites on Crete, covering the whole of the Bronze Age, were analysed for their chemical content (12 elements) by Atomic Absorption Spectrometry. The results indicate that during the Early Bronze Age arsenical copper was mainly used while in the Middle Bronze Age copper, arsenical copper, and arsenical bronze were in use with about equal frequency. During the Late Bronze Age normal bronze was used when required. The copper technology in each era was the same at all of the sites examined. Metallographic examination of four triangular daggers of the Early Bronze Age showed that they had been cast. In the case of three Late Bronze Age hydriae, the component sheets had been hammered and annealed.

It has been suggested that the inscribed bronze sword found at Hattušas in 1991 is a Mycenaean type B sword which may be used as evidence for Hittites fighting in the Trojan war against the Mycenaeans and for a historical background to the Trojan war. The present independent investigation of the sword indicates that it may well be a variant of an Aegean type B sword, but might reflect Mycenaean influence rather than outright manufacture. Moreover, a variety of evidence suggests that the sword must be interpreted in the light of events occurring not during the Trojan war, but some two hundred years prior to that war. It is possible that Mycenaean involvement in the Aššuwa rebellion c.1430 BC was recorded in contemporary Hittite documents and remembered in later Greek tradition as the legendary pre-Trojan war exploits of Achilles and other Achaean heroes in NW Anatolia.

The two categories of tomb are defined. Burial practice in Greece from MH onwards is discussed, chamber tombs being established as canonical in LH I, though these are not universal, and cist and pit burials continue. Chamber and tholos tombs occur over a wide area of the mainland in LH II; after LH II, except for children's burials, pits and cists are relatively rare, though they are found in chamber tombs. It is argued that chamber tombs were the general form of burial, and that cists and pits were not used, separately, for poor burials. Chamber tombs continue to be general in LH IIIC: simpler requirements and cremation lead to a revival of cists and pits, though chamber tombs do not totally die out, and in Crete continue to be the preferred form in Archaic times.

According to literary sources, the various products of vulcanicity were in great demand for both manufacturing and medicinal purposes in the ancient world, as they are today. These include pumice, fuller's earth (a form of calcium montmorillonite), sulphur, and the alumen of the Romans, which was probably aluminium sulphate, or a related substance. The island of Melos, in the Cyclades, was particularly noted in Antiquity for its mineral products, and in this brief article an attempt is made to summarize the references to these products by the various Greek and Roman authors, and to identify them and the people concerned with their mining and extraction in Antiquity, on the basis of recent geological and archaeological observations made by the author on the island.

Thirty-nine copper-based objects from the Aegean region of Greece, covering the Late Neolithic, Early and Late Bronze Ages, but excluding the Middle Bronze Age, were analysed for their chemical content (twelve elements) by atomic absorption spectrometry. The results show that there was a gradual shift in copper metallurgy from pure copper (Late Neolithic), to arsenical copper (Early Bronze Age), to bronze (Late Bronze Age). The results tend to indicate that the same type of copper metallurgy existed throughout the Aegean in each period.

In May and June 1980 Dr K. Demakopoulou undertook exploratory excavations on behalf of the Greek Archaeological Service in the central square of the city of Thebes. Deposits of the Byzantine and later periods continued down for more than 5 metres. The finds, primarily from domestic habitation, are presented here.

Fragments of a vase, now in the Stratigraphical Museum at Knossos, from the excavations of Sir Arthur Evans (south-east Kamares Area, Dove Pit) are identified as Early Cypriot. Cypriot parallels are described from Bellapais, Vounous, and Lapithos. The vase is classed as EC IIIB/MC I, its Minoan context EM III/MM IA. A brief review is given of evidence for Minoan-Cypriot contact at the turn of the third and second millennia B.C.

This article explores some recent developments in the investigations of isolated rural settlements, and the methodologies to elicit differences and similarities among the Vari and the Dema houses and the class of sites identified as farmsteads by intensive surveys by the Laconia Rural Sites Project. In particular, the article discusses the ceramic use-typology pioneered by T.M. Whitelaw as an analytical tool for the study of artefactual variability of the surface assemblage related to activity differentiation, and a more detailed use-typology developed for the Troodos Archaeological and Environmental Survey Project (TAESP) in Cyprus, which is based not only on the morphology and surface treatment of a vessel, but on all the physical properties of the pottery including fabric, manufacturing techniques, and style. The consideration of a wider range of physical properties is especially important when working with pottery from surveys, because specific shapes can only be ascribed to a small proportion of potsherds, while the TAESP methodology allows the inclusion of a much larger proportion of material.

Το άρθρο αυτό εξετάςει ορισμένες πρόσφατες εξελίξεις στην έρευνα απομονωμένων αγροτνκών οικισμών και τις μεθόδους που έχουν χρησιμοποιηθεί για την επισήμανση διαφορών και ομοιοτήτων μεταξύ των οικιών στη Βάρη και το Δέμα και των θέσεων εκείνων που έχουν αναγνωριστεί ως αγροκτήματα από εντατικές επιφανειακές έρευνες για λογαριασμό του ‘Προγράμματος Αγροτικών Θέσεων Λακωνίας’. Πιο συγκεκριμένα, το άρθρο συςητά την χρήση-τυπολογία της κεραμεικής που αναπτύχθηκε από τον T.M. Whitelaw ως εργαλείο έρευνας για τη μελέτη της ποικιλομορφίας του υλικού αρχαιολογικών συνόλων που προέρχονται από επιφανειακές έρευνες και σχετίζονται με τη διαφοροποίηση δραστηριοτήτων. Επίσης συζητά την πιο λεπτομερή χρήση-τυπολογία που αναπτύχθηκε από το ‘Αρχαιολογικό και Περιβαλλοντικό Πρόγραμμα Επιρανειακής Ερευνας Τροόδους’ (TAESP) στην Κύπρο. Η μεθοδολογία ιου TAESP δεν βασίζεται μόνο στην μορφολογία και την επεξεργασία της επιφάνειας ενός αγγείου, αλλά και σε όλες τις άλλες φυσικές ιδιότητες της κεραμεικής όπως την κεραμεική ύλη, τις τεχνικές παραγωγής και την τεχνοτροπία. Η εξέταση μιας ευρύτερης σειράς φυσικών ιδιοτήτων είνοα ιδιαίτερα σημαντική για τη μελέτη της κεραμεικής από επιφανειακές έρευνες, καθώς συγκεκριμένα σχήματα μπορούν να αποδοθούν μόνο σε έναν αναλογικά μικρό αριθμό οστράκων, ενώ με τη μεθοδολογία του TAESP ένα αναλογικά μεγαλύτερο ποσοστό κεραμεικής μπορεί να συμπεριληφθεί σε αντίστοιχες μελέτες.

Considerable quantities of Mycenaean pottery were recovered by the late Sir Leonard Woolley from the site of Tell Atchana (Alalakh) in the Hatay province of Turkey, close to the Syrian border. This paper brings together the largely unpublished, Mycenaean pictorial pottery from the site. The Atchana material contributes examples both of standard chariot scenes and other less familiar themes to the corpus of pictorial pottery. The question of the dating of early pictorial pottery is briefly reconsidered. In addition to its artistic and chronological interest, the material from Tell Atchana also highlights the existence of not inconsiderable quantities of Mycenaean pictorial pottery in the Near East as well as in Cyprus.

The Hellenistic and Roman city of Knossos occupied a broad plateau extending northward of the Minoan Palace towards the sea. For nearly a mile from the Palace the fields are studded with the debris of occupation. One of the great Roman town houses was partly excavated before the War by Mr. R. W. Hutchinson and the work has been continued by Mr. and Mrs. Michael Gough, now of the British Institute in Ankara. A splendid series of second- to third-century mosaics has been discovered depicting the Dionysiac cult. The city, however, had a Christian community at least as early as about A.D. 170, for in that period Eusebius records the name of a Bishop Pinytus, who earned a reputation for being a zealous moral reformer, and was regarded as an influential figure among correspondents of Bishop Dionysius of Corinth. In the Patristic period Knossos continued to be an important Christian centre, its bishop being present at the Councils of Ephesus, 431, Chalcedon, 451, and Nicaea, 787. The see of Knossos is also mentioned in lists of sees drawn up in the reign of Justinian, and in the eighth century. Between 731 and 787 it seems to have ranked as Protothronos, or second senior bishop. On the Bulgarian episcopal list of 980 Knossos is still recorded among the Cretan bishoprics.

To judge from examples known from North Africa, such as Timgad, Djemila, and Tipasa, the main early Christian centre was likely to be outside the city walls where the cemeteries were located. There would be found the Christian area, and there, too, the earliest centre of worship. At Knossos it seems that a small stream which used to run in an east-westerly direction from the area of Fortetsa, until its course was altered to one slightly farther south when the new hospital was built, marked the boundary between the city and cemetery area.

This paper contains a brief summary of the results of researches into the prehistory of Laconia which were conducted mainly during the years 1936–9. It is greatly regretted that a series of varied but compelling impediments has hitherto delayed a proper publication; this, however, will follow as soon as possible.

The map, Fig. 1, is taken from sheet G 13, Kalamai, of the 1/250,000 series dated June 1944. The chronological table lists the sites alphabetically under six regions. The nature of the evidence for each entry is briefly noted, entries without source reference being based on autopsy. Literary sources for the history of pre-Dorian Laconia will not be discussed here.

Position. This tomb (Knossos Survey 5) lay about 130 metres east along the most southerly of the roads leading from the main Knossos-Herakleion road to Ayios Ioannis, and some 160 metres due south of the Late Minoan shaft-grave discovered in this area in 1950.

The tomb, although of modest size and mutilated before excavation, has more than ordinary interest from the presence in it of a gold cup, the first recorded from an excavation in Crete. The arms accompanying the single warrior buried in the part of the tomb preserved to us were by no means exceptional in point of decoration and adornment; but they represent the most complete and formidable armoury of Bronze Age weapons that has yet been found in Crete, standing comparison with such ‘royal’ collections of weapons as those from the Mycenae shaft-graves or the Dendra tholos tomb.

The study of Medieval and Post-Medieval pottery in Greece has been much neglected until quite recently. Only in the last decade or so has interest in the historical and cultural information presented by the remains and artefacts of these periods grown. In the Cambridge-Durham Boeotia Project, based on intensive field survey, much attention has been paid to deserted village sites of the Post-Roman era. In this article a selection of the Medieval and Post-Medieval surface pottery samples at one Boeotian site will be described and discussed. The ceramic data from the field survey are combined with and interpreted in the light of information obtained from Ottoman tax registers and other written sources. Also an attempt is made to explore the possibilities of formulating conjectures about the change in pottery function during the period from the thirteenth to the seventeenth century.

The site of Knossos was occupied more or less continuously from c. 6000 B.C. (earliest neolithic) until the Arab conquest in A.D. 828, a time-span which represents almost 70 per cent of the Holocene or post-glacial period. It therefore offers a rare opportunity for studying the longterm interaction between man and his environment at a single settlement site. At present there is insufficient data to allow comprehensive analysis of the evolution of settlement, economy, and environment at Knossos, and this paper is intended only as a preliminary step towards such a study. In part I aspects of the physical geography of the Knossos area are described, and in part II they are considered in terms of the site's resource base and location. The geomorphological history of the Kairatos valley is used to illustrate the changing relationships between man and environment during the last two millennia.

The aim of this paper is to describe and assess the intramural burials from the Lefkandi Settlement (Xeropolis). In all 20 individuals were inhumed within the walls, comprising 3 adult males, 2 adult females, one possible adolescent female and 14 children. The last ranged in age from birth to 9 years. Routine matters such as child mortality, adult stature, pathology and oral hygiene are discussed, with special reference to both the Settlement burials and to the inhumed material scattered throughout the Cemeteries.

Recent intensive survey over the entire extent of the small island of Antikythera has recovered an episodic sequence of human activity spanning some 7,000 years, including a Roman pottery assemblage that documents a range of important patterns with respect to land use, demography and on-island consumption. This paper addresses the typological and functional aspects of this assemblage in detail, and also discusses Roman period Antikythera's range of off-island contacts and affiliations.