Attempts were made to detect ancient DNA (aDNA) in samples of 89 human skeletons from Neolithic and Bronze Age sites in Greece and Crete. Ancient DNA was absent in specimens from Nea Nicomedia, Lerna, Kato Zakro: Karaviádena, and Mycenae Grave Circle A. For each of three skeletons sampled from Antron Grave Circle B, polymerase chain reactions (PCRs) gave products for nuclear but not mitochondrial DNA, but the yield of DNA was low and inconsistent, with replicate PCRs failing to give reproducible results. At Kouphovouno evidence for mitochondrial and/or nuclear aDNA was obtained from eight of the 20 skeletons that were examined, while at Mycenae Grave Circle B evidence for mitochondrial aDNA was obtained for four of the 22 skeletons that were studied, and in two cases confirmed the evidence of close kinship that had already been suggested by facial reconstruction: this in turn raises interesting questions of social relationships and the role of high-status women in MBA/LBA society. We conclude that, although aDNA might be present in some Eastern Mediterranean skeletons from later centuries of the Bronze Age, it is not commonly found in material from this period and is likely to be absent from older material.

Στη μελέτη αυτή έγιναν προσπάθειες να αναγνωριστεί αρχαίο DNA (aDNA) σε δείγματα ογδόντα εννέα ανθρώπινων σκελετών προερχομένων από θέσεις της Νεολιθικής περιόδου και της Εποχής του Χαλκού στην Ελλάδα και την Κρήτη. Αρχαίο DNA δεν εντοπίστηκε σε δείγματα από τη Νέα Νικομήδεια, τη Λέρνα, την Κάτω Ζάκρο (Καραβιάδενα) και τον Ταφικό Κύκλο Α των Μυκηνών. Για κάθε έναν από τους τρεις σκελετούς, οι οποίοι εξετάστηκαν από τον Ταφικό Κύκλο Β της Αντρώνας, οι αλυσιδωτές αντιδράσεις πολυμεράσης (PCRs) απέφεραν αποτελέσματα για πυρηνικό αλλά όχι μιτοχονδριακό DNA. Η παραγωγή DNA ήταν χαμηλή και αντιφατική, με τα αντίγραφα πολυμεράσης να αποτυγχάνουν να αποφέρουν αναπαραγώγιμα αποτελέσματα. Στο Κουφόβουνο οκτώ από τους είκοσι σκελετούς, που εξετάστηκαν, έδωσαν στοιχεία για μιτοχονδρνακό ή/και πυρηνικό DNA, ενώ στον Ταφικό Κύκλο Β των Μυκηνών ενδείξεις για μιτοχονδριακό DNA έδωσαν τέσσερεις από τους είκοσι δύο σκελετούς, που μελετήθηκαν. Σε δύο περιπτώσεις επιβεβαιώθηκε η ένδειξη στενής συγγένειας, κάτι το οποίο είχε ήδη προταθεί με την αποκατάσταση των προσώπων: το γεγονός αυτό εγείρει ενδιαφέροντα ερωτήματα σχετικά με τις κοινωνικές σχέσεις και το ρόλο γυναικών υψηλής κοινωνικής στάθμης στην κοινωνία της Μέσης και της Ύστερης Εποχής του Χαλκού. Συμπεραίνουμε ότι, αν και μπορεί να αναγνωριστεί DNA σε ορισμένους σκελετούς της Ανατολικής Μεσογείου των τελευταίων αιώνων της Εποχής του Χαλκού, δεν εντοπίζεται συχνά σε υλικό αυτής της εποχής και ενδεχομένως απουσιάζει από παλαιότερο υλνκό.

The principal discoveries in 1986 at this prehistoric settlement in Macedonia were two Iron Age apsidal buildings and a late Bronze Age storeroom with masses of cereals and other crops preserved by charring.

In Part I, a survey of the Minoan town at Palaikastro recording architectural features and sherd densities is presented. The survey allows for the town limits to be drawn and the probable location of the town centre to be identified. Possible approach routes are noted and an extension of the town to the Promontory and East Beach areas is examined. Part II is a report on building materials at Palaikastro and the Minoan quarries at Ta Skaria, where large quantities of calcareous sandstone were extracted. A magnetic survey of the central, unexcavated part of the site is presented in Part III. A short report on ancient remains at Kouremonos is given in Part IV. Part V is a summary of the previous parts, pointing out important results such as the evidence for ribbon development along approach routes in MM III/LM I and the likelihood that almost 1,000 cubic metres of calcareous sandstone used in ashlar masonry were extracted from the Minoan quarries but remain unaccounted for at Palaikastro. An appendix describes in full two deposits disturbed by ploughing.

The restoration of the inscription is discussed, and the number of missing lines calculated. On the basis of the surviving text, the minimum number of amphorae awarded is calculated at 1423.

Since Dr. Hamper's identification of epic scenes in eighth-century art twenty years ago opinion has been divided as to how far these can be accepted. To quote two recent opinions, Mr. G. S. Kirk ends his discussion of Hampe's identifications: ‘thus there is no Geometric representation which we can confidently describe as representing a definite scene from the heroic saga, let alone from epic as we know it’. Professor Kraiker, however, accepts the Aktorione–Molione and the Herakles fighting the Stymphalian birds. Mr. J. M. Cook has argued that the spread of the Homeric epic from Ionia to the mainland was responsible both for the institution of hero cults in Greece and for the appearance in post-Geometric painting (seventh century) of scenes derived from the epic.

The existence of epic representations in Attic, Corinthian, and Argive painting of the early seventh century is undoubted, and the list has recently been increased by a very fine Argive Odysseus and Polyphemos and a superb Attic vase with Odysseus blinding Polyphemos and Perseus pursued by Gorgons. The question is whether this is really a new beginning or a development of something already existing which is difficult for us to recognise. I do not wish to argue against the supposition that seventh-century painting was influenced by the spread of the Homeric epic to the mainland, although Boeotian epic would also have to be considered, since its influence on Boeotian fibulae in the seventh century can hardly be doubted; but Boeotian epic was no doubt itself affected by Ionian epic, as certain passages in Hesiod show. On the other hand, Athens was neither without poetry nor without contact with Ionia during the eighth century.

In this paper I wish to question the views of the early relations between Corinth and Megara which were expressed in Perachora I (1940) and reinforced in JHS 1948, 59 ff. It was there maintained that the Heraeum was founded by Corinth on Corinthian soil c. 850 B.C., and this was put in the following general setting (JHS LXVIII 64). ‘The foundation of the Heraion at Perachora will have been part of the same movement of Argive expansion which dorised Megara and lopped off her southern territories.’ On this hypothesis the Dorian occupation of the Megarid occurred not before the Ionian migration, as all the literary tradition states, but after the Ionian migration; for on archaeological grounds alone the Ionian migration must have commenced during the tenth century at the latest. When Dunbabin wrote in JHS, the results of excavation at Smyrna were not known; these results, inter alia, prompt this paper.

The mutilated inscription generally called the ‘Constitution of Chios’ was first discovered in the village of Tholopotami and published in 1909 by Dr. Jacobsthal and Professor U. von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff. The examination of the stone and the photographs and squeezes were all made under very difficult conditions, and shortly afterwards the stone disappeared from sight and record. It found its way finally into the hands of the local authorities, and, Chios being then under Turkish rule, was sent to the Archaeological Museum at Istanbul, where it remained without attracting the notice of later travellers. The inscription has been included in several collections of Greek epigraphical texts, accompanied by the short commentaries of editors who were relying on the original description and readings. I examined the stone at Istanbul in 1949, and cannot suggest a full restoration of the text, any more than did the first editors in their short but admirably comprehensive account.

In November 1978 the British School was requested by the Herakleion Ephorate to investigate a suspected chamber tomb in the Knossos Roman cemetery on the south-eastern slopes of Monasteriaki Kephala. The writer, then Knossos Fellow, undertook the excavation on behalf of the School. The tomb proved to be unpillaged; its contents were of unusual interest, not least among them being a large, closely datable group of glass vessels.

Stephani, in Compte-rendu for 1876, pp. 55–6 and pl. 1, 4–7, published two small black-figure vases which he saw to be imitations of Panathenaic amphorae, but serving a different purpose: they were doubtless lekythia, intended to contain small quantities of scented oil, perhaps, he conjectured, the perfume panathenaikon which long held its own in the market (Pliny 13, 6: Panathenaicum suum Athenae pertinaciter obtinuere). A good many such vases have appeared since Stephani wrote, and the class has been studied by other writers, among them Jacobsthal (Gött. V. 15–16), Pfuhl (333), Miss Shoe (Hesp. I, 86), F. P. Johnson (AJA 1943, 393). I shall try to examine them more closely, date them more precisely, and set them in a context: the article will be a sort of appendix to Panathenaica, my study of the prize vases in AJA 1943, 441–65.

Antonio Di Millo is the author of an Isolario of which several copies have come down to us. Of these, two dated respectively (A) 1587 and (B) 1591 are preserved in the British Museum and a third (C) of 1590 in the Marciana at Venice. Two other copies, cited by Uzielli as existing at the Paris Bibliothèque Nationale, and the Biblioteca Municipale at Venice, seem to be no longer known at the libraries in question.

The greater part of the text of the work consists of practical directions for navigators and traders, including generally a note on the population, and occasionally on the staple products of the island under discussion. The rare notes on local history are, as will be seen, of some value. The text of the three copies shews considerable variations, many notes being peculiar to each. The B.M. (A) and Marciana copies seem to be autograph: in the B.M. (B) this is true only of the maps.

The author is mentioned as Antonius Meliensis by Leunclavius, who met him acting as pilot on a ship returning from Constantinople in 1585: this shows that he was actively engaged in his profession shortly before the first compilation of his Isolario and the note in (C) on Patmos shews that he was quite up to date in 1590. Millo is said by Leunclavius to have been a native of Melos and Greek by parentage.

The discovery of the circular platforms at Knossos is reported. The buildings are described, and their chronology adduced. It is argued that the function of the large circular platform was as a dancing-place, and that a sign engraved on the outer visible faces of the wall blocks symbolizes the lines and zigzag crossing movements for groups in the dance, while the smaller circles were places for priestesses or musicians. Finally, the ritual significance of the dance in ancient Crete is discussed.

This brief study of objects of Minoan origin found in Cyprus seeks to draw attention to a branch of Cypriot studies which for many years has remained neglected. Since the time of Forsdyke's often criticized pioneer study, no attempt has been made to collect the material under a single heading, or to comment upon its significance. Instead, in not a few cases the Minoan origin of these objects has been overlooked, and they are classified as Mycenaean or Levanto-Helladic.

Fashions in archaeology are well known to be arbitrary. General interest in Minoan studies has been on the wane in recent years, to the considerable advantage of the prehistory of Mainland Greece. This merely reversed a state of affairs which obtained in the years that saw the publication of The Palace of Minos. Now, however, there seems good reason to hope that a more balanced outlook on both Crete and Greece is coming into being. The moment is opportune, so the writers believe, for a contribution towards a fuller understanding of Minoan overseas relations.

After this brief introduction, there follows a catalogue of the objects found in Cyprus which are considered by the writers to be of Minoan fabric and origin. The catalogue is divided very broadly into (1) Middle Minoan and (2) Late Minoan objects. Amongst the former will be found one vase and several bronzes, while the latter lists only vases and fragments. The writers are very grateful to the Rev. V. E. G. Kenna for contributing a note on the seal impressions on 35.

This article presents an unpublished stirrup jar from the Outer Kerameikos in Athens. The recently discovered archival material in the University of Oxford associated with the purchase of the stirrup jar helps to contextualise this object, and assess its significance in the light of the 1871–2 private excavations in the Outer Kerameikos. It also provides important information regarding the organisation of the antiquities trade in late nineteenth-century Athens.

The issue of the persistence of paganism is now quite well considered; however, it is only in recent times that the same concern approached from another perspective, the multifaceted nature of the Christianisation of the Peloponnese, has become the topic of detailed discussion. It is likely that Christianisation in Achaea took place incrementally and with a variety of effects according to the location. The processes of how this took place and under what circumstances remain to be discussed in detail. As a considered and active process, understanding methods of conversion should provide insights into the nature of society at the time, particularly in terms of communications. Church location reflects a range of choices made in terms of the conversion process and therefore is fundamental to analysing religious transformation. Such insights are important, particularly given the dearth of historical sources for, and difficulties of refining, church chronologies in the Peloponnese. In the case of the Late Antique Peloponnese, a great deal is known about many individual churches as a result of quite extensive excavation of a majority of them, particularly through the work of Pallas and Orlandos. This evidence, together with the results of a survey of all the known Late Antique churches in the Peloponnese undertaken in 2012, makes possible a synthetic interpretation of all the material within the surrounding landscape. While the precise chronologies may remain elusive, this present study shows how sociological theories of conversion processes can be applied to the topographic analysis of the Late Antique churches of the Peloponnese to help determine the nature of Christianisation across the diachronic range. In this work I will present some new theories regarding processes and phases of conversion, and the implications of these in terms of understanding networks and society in the Late Antique Peloponnese.

The possibility of relations between Greece, especially Crete, and Libya, in the Bronze Age has been explored by many scholars. The Minoans and Mycenaeans seem to have been no less intrepid seafarers than their successors in the period of Greek colonization, to whom the shores of Cyrenaica soon became familiar. Professor Stucchi has reviewed these matters in (Quaderni di archeologia della Libia v (1967) 19 ff., but he goes further since he believes that he can add the evidence of actual Late Minoan imports to Cyrene, and it is this evidence which I wish to discuss in this article. Through his kindness I was able personally to examine the relevant material.

In Roman fill at Cyrene was found a cup fragment which Stucchi has restored as part of a kylix with argonaut decoration and dated to L.M. IIIA 2, by Furumark's classification. My Fig. 1 copies his photograph of the sherd (loc. cit., fig. 1) and Fig. 2 his reconstruction (Ibid., fig. 2). There seem to me some difficulties in this explanation of the fragment. The way the interior is painted over is not normally met in L.H./L.M. IIIA and it is very rare later. The addition of horizontal white stripes (Stucchi notes two on the interior) is, so far as I know, completely irregular. For the exterior, the spiral might be restored as some part of a marine device, but the three dashes above do not really suggest the filling pattern which is restored, nor are they truly comparable with the Minoan foliate pattern.

Jewellery found during recent excavations in the necropolis of Thasos fills a gap in our knowledge of minor arts in an important metal producing area of the Greek world. The pieces examined in this article form, in terms of technique, style and iconography, a group, the affinities of which can be traced to the Ionic traditions of the northern Aegean. Their artistic identity fits well with what we know about the character and development of other aspects of Thasian art, characterized by a close adherence to dominant artistic trends coming from both Attica and the East during the late Classical period. The anthropological study of the skeletal remains from the tombs gives further contextual information on the general condition of the people interred, while the objects deposited offer clues to the interpretation of issues concerning the iconography and symbolic use of precious grave goods.

Some re-uses of Bronze Age remains in Early Iron Age Crete and mainland Greece have been identified as attempts at legitimation and/or identity construction which operated at various social levels and were instrumental in the rise of the polis. This paper enlarges the scope of analysis in assessing the meaning of references to material remains of early EIA (Late Minoan III C/SM), as well as Bronze Age, date during the Protogeometric to Archaic periods in Crete. This was a time at which major spatial and social readjustments were taking place, themselves ultimately rooted in transformations occurring c. 1200 BC. The wealth of settlement data now available for EIA Crete adds an important new dimension to the discussion, which recognizes nucleation through PG–A at a significant number of sites established in the 1200 BC defensible settlement movement. The paper's conclusions are that this, and other elements of continuity and reuse in settlement, cult and mortuary practices, both reflected and helped to create a sense of history and of local regionally-based community early in the EIA.

The bronze vase (Heraklion 2460) shown in Plate 2 and Fig. 1 was found in 1936 by workmen digging to lay pipes beside the main road between A. Ioannis and Teke (Knossos Survey no. 10). With it were the black-figure fragments shown in Plate 3 a. The find was briefly noticed in JHS lvi (1936) 150. The late T. J. Dunbabin had intended to publish the pieces but had written a detailed description of the bronze vase only, which I have drawn upon below.

The bowl is 0·216 in diameter and 0·043 high, but the exact curve of the lower part is not certain. The bowl is made in one piece, with a slight inset at the edge. Over this fits the upper part. This is 0·218 in diameter (0·118 the inner diameter); its height from the inner edge is 0·04, from the outer edge 0·02. It carries two cast swing handles. The attachments for them are 0·046 long, smooth inside, and on the outside decorated with three heavy ribs of beading. The ‘scotiae’ between are marked by pairs of lines. The handles themselves are 0·086 wide, circular in section but flattened on the inside and outside, and with two beaded knobs. Between the handles are two gorgoneia: present widths 0·106 and 0·103. The faces are very broad. The eyelids are strongly marked and thicken at the edge, giving the impression that they are rolled back slightly from the staring eyeballs. There is an almost circular depression round the eyes which is only slightly shallower at the corners. The ridge of the eyebrows is very firm and a ridge runs vertically up the forehead like a tall bud. The nose is not, in its upper part, unduly broad; the fleshy part broadens very much at the base, leaving a considerable depression above it, slanting obliquely downwards. The cheek-bones are high, the angles of the jaw-bone very strongly marked and the chin consists of two bony prominences with a depression between.

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.

Work began on March 29th, and continued, with the usual break for Easter, until June 17th, with an average of about sixty to seventy workmen. Mr. W. A. Kirkwood of the University of Toronto was present for the first few weeks, rendering valuable assistance, and later Mr. C. H. Hawes of Trinity College, Cambridge, in the course of a journey in Crete undertaken for anthropological work, came and superintended the excavation of a Middle Minoan ossuary and some larnax-burials at Sarandári, of which his report is given below (§ 7). At the end of the season Mr. Guy Dickins of New College, Oxford, came, and, besides other work, undertook the laborious task of packing the finds for transport to the Candia Museum and there unpacking them.