A medium-size Amenhotep III scarab recently discovered in the excavations at Tel Beth-Shemesh, Israel, together with two decorated Late Minoan IIIA1 cups enables a fresh look at the synchronism between Late Minoan IIIA1 and Amenhotep III. The scarab is identified as commemorative, produced on the occasion of Amenhotep III's first Jubilee or Sed festival. In light of this interpretation a new examination of the renowned and debated Amenhotep III scarab from Sellopoulo Tomb 4 is presented. It is proposed here to identify this scarab also as commemorative as it includes, in addition to the pharaoh's prenomen, an epithet which relates it too to Amenhotep III's first Sed festival.

Both scarabs, from Beth-Shemesh and Sellopoulo, are shown to have been produced between Amenhotep III's Regnal Years 28/25 and 34 respectively – most probably around Regnal Year 28 – and presumably reached their destination about that time. Further analysis led to the conclusion that the envisioned Egyptian embassy to the Aegean, which may have been the source for the ‘Aegean List’ of Kom el-Hetan, took place also during Amenhotep III's Regnal Year 28.

The two culturally different and geographically remote contexts in which the Beth-Shemesh and Sellopoulo scarabs were found – a destruction layer in Canaan and a tomb in Crete – tell the same story: Late Minoan IIIA1 was in vogue at least until the last decade of Amenhotep III's reign in the mid-fourteenth century bc. This conclusion has important implications for the political and cultural history of Knossos and may anchor the sequence of events of the Final Palatial period in a more solid chronological framework.

Thirty Roman mosaics are now known from the Knossos Valley. The Villa Dionysos, with eight mosaics thus far uncovered, forms the largest coherent group. Recent work undertaken at the nearby bath house has revealed a small group of three mosaics. For the most part the remainder are isolated examples, commonly found during rescue excavation and often not well preserved. The mosaics range in date from the late first to the late third century AD and they display a variety of styles from black and white to polychrome and themes from simple geometric to complex figured designs. This paper presents a catalogue of the mosaics followed by a synthetic analysis, providing cultural evidence for the hitherto not well-understood Roman period of Knossos and adding to the corpus of mosaics in Greece.

Despite the limitations of such a study, imposed by the nature of the recovery of the material culture, it is possible, through an understanding of mosaic distribution, context and type, to make suggestions regarding the function of different areas within the city. An analysis of chronology and evidence for workshop production provides data for economic and cultural fluctuations and, importantly, a study of the mosaics helps to place Knossos within the broader context of the Roman Empire.

One of the specialist contributions often appended to an archaeological report is the analysis of human skeletal material. Such an analysis is rarely of sufficient interest to be included in the main report, largely because the excavator has not set pertinent and soluble problems for the analyst. The time of specialists has been wasted measuring morphological minutiae in a vain attempt to track down quasi-tribal entities in which archaeologists no longer believe. The assessment of the age and sex of a skeleton, however, follows a firm methodology, is far less time-consuming, and yields relevant information.

The following notes are an attempt to classify on the basis of shape some of the Attic red-figured choes of the later part of the fifth century B.C. and a few sundries of the early part of the fourth. The connection of these vases with the festival of the Anthesteria has given them a prominent place in the study of religion and of children's pastimes. Their scenes have been considered by several scholars, the foremost of whom are Frickenhaus, Deubner, van Hoorn, S. karouzou, and Metzger. Metzger, though taking a less extreme position than Rumpf who challenged the validity of much of the earlier work, has given a refreshingly sane view of several aspects of the iconography. Mrs. karouzou has confined herself in her published work to particular pieces and particular aspects of the festival.

In a rescue excavation at Knossos in 1977, a building dating to the last years of the hellenistic period was discovered. In it were an area with a stone tub and lid, the use of which was unknown, a well, and a wine press. The wine press had a treading-floor with remains of flooring composed of flagstones and plaster, which sloped towards a hole in a low barrier wall. The hole gave onto a stone spout, set above a tank coated in waterproof plaster. Adjacent was part of a store building, which was probably used as a cellar: it contained one pithos and there were indications that there had been others. Two tests below the building uncovered the violent destruction of a house of earlier hellenistic date, a stratum with sherds of the end of the 8th cent.–beginning of the 7th cent. BC, and scanty remains of the Minoan period.

The publication of further ceramic material from the terrace fills surrounding the temple of Aphaia on Aegina brings into question the present date assigned to the reconstruction by the excavation team. The cumulative effect of black-figured, red-figured, and black-glossed pottery, as well as lamps and amphorae from the terrace fills, seems to indicate that the temple may be later than the Persian wars. Much of the late material finds parallels from contexts in the Athenian Agora which are usually thought, on the conventional chronology, to date from the time of the Persian wars. If the revised views of these contexts are taken into account, then the temple of Aphaia may have to be dated lower still.

One of the goals of the Vrokastro Survey Project, based in west-central Mirabello, eastern Crete, was to identify a site within the boundaries of the survey study area worthy of further investigation, including excavation. The settlement selected, based on its complexity and long lifespan, was Priniatikos Pyrgos, a harbour community and ‘gateway’ of the Vrokastro region. As a preliminary to excavation, the Istron Geoarchaeological Project was initiated in order to document the nature, condition, and resources of this site and its coastal environment. This multidisciplinary program was implemented through fieldwork, laboratory analyses, and geophysical prospection. Results include new data concerning the industrial aspects of Priniatikos Pyrgos, the changing topographical situation of the site and coastal zone, the overall size of this diachronic harbor settlement, and the regional resources involved in ceramic and metallurgical production.

These notes are intended both as a supplement to, and as a partial correction of, my former article in this Annual, in the light of recent fieldwork in south-western Peloponnese, and of current views on the geography and place names of the Pylos Tablets. We now know that Mycenaean settlement was widespread throughout the Pamisos Valley of eastern Messenia and the western shores of the Messenian Gulf. And from the Pylos documents it has been deduced that the ‘Further Province’ of Pylos probably lay in eastern Messenia. These factors necessitate a reassessment of the Homeric tradition, particularly as regards the locations of the Seven Cities offered by Agamemnon to Achilles. I shall begin by summarizing the new archaeological information, in so far as it is relevant to the locations of the Seven Cities, before attempting an historical correlation.

Whilst visiting Ios during his Cycladic tour of 1837, George Finlay purchased a number of Early Cycladic objects, which include four marble figurines (three of folded arm type), three marble vessels and a lead figurine now thought to be fake. This article traces the current whereabouts of these objects, describes and illustrates them, examines the detail of their original purchase and places them within the current framework of Early Cycladic chronology.

For many years, interpretation of the history of the Middle and Late Bronze Age in the Cyclades has depended almost entirely on the late nineteenth-century excavations of the British School at Phylakopi on Melos. This site has been especially significant as the only one with a comprehensive stratigraphie sequence.

Recent major excavations on Kea (Ayia Irini) and Thera (Akrotiri) have vastly increased our knowledge of the second-millennium Cyclades, but Phylakopi remains of outstanding importance. From the publication and from the Daybooks kept by Duncan Mackenzie it is clear that the technical standards of the excavation were extremely high for their time. It is unfortunate, however, that precise details about the contexts of individual finds are lacking from Phylakopi. Such details are vital if we are to make any useful reassessment of the history and external relations of the site in terms of subsequent excavations and studies.

The excavations in the Citadel House area have produced a large number of Mycenaean terracotta figurines mostly in very fragmentary condition belonging to well-recognized classes already admirably examined by Mrs. E. French. Since the pottery found during this excavation is still under study, and the exact contexts of these figurines have not therefore definitely been determined, full publication of this material at this stage would do no more than multiply the number without adding significant information or leading to new conclusions. It will in due course be useful for statistical purposes to publish an account of the frequency of certain types in certain periods, when the associated pottery has been completely studied.

The evidence of John Myres's papers and letters in the Ashmolean Museum, and his unpublished memoirs entitled ‘Praeterita’, shows that he planned to conduct excavations at Knossos in 1893. They suggest the reasons which prompted these plans, and the circumstances which led to their abandonment.

Stamatakes's excavations in the Grave Circle area revealed, although it was not recognized until much later, that Mycenae had been inhabited in the Early Bronze Age, the Early Helladic Period. This was confirmed by subsequent researches which produced Early Helladic material from the foot of the Ramp, outside the Grave Circle, beneath the South House and below the Palace. Now the recent work of Dr. Papademetriou and ourselves has yielded fresh evidence. He has found more E.H. material in Schliemann's Grave Circle and some possible Neolithic sherds as well. In the area of the Prehistoric Cemetery outside the Cyclopean walls to the north-west of the Lion Gate we have found in a mixed unstratified layer at the eastern foot of the mound or tumulus which covered the dome of the ‘Tomb of Aegisthus’ many fragments of E.H. pottery, both decorated and plain. Since the plain E.H. ware found is of a simple, thickish fabric hand-polished and usually of a dull red or of a mud colour, we had at times wondered whether some of these fragments might not almost be classed as Neolithic. This was especially so in the case of some of the fragments from the lowest strata at the foot of the Ramp. Unfortunately these fragments were lost during the war in the Nauplia Museum and cannot now be checked.

The discovery of Neolithic B pottery at the Argive Heraeum, and still more recently Dr. Caskey's most successful excavations at Lerna, encouraged us in the idea that a site like Mycenae was probably inhabited in Neolithic times also. Since the Early Helladic material is not stratified, except in areas like the foot of the Ramp or below the South House, it was hardly to be expected that Neolithic remains, if found, would be stratified. It is always possible, however, that some part of the site, not yet explored, may have escaped later disturbance or overbuilding. We have therefore now paid particular attention to the unstratified debris found above the Prehistoric Cemetery at the eastern foot of the Aegisthus mound. Among this we have found two sherds which are in our opinion almost certainly Neolithic.

The geographical configuration of Western Macedonia, resolved into its simplest elements, may be described as consisting of two parallel depressions, running roughly north-west and south-east, and separated from one another by a mountain range, the whole area being itself entirely enclosed by mountains. The eastern of the two depressions has a northern and a southern half. The northern half is the valley of the upper Černa, the southern is composed of the low land round the western end of Lake Ostrovo, which is connected by a narrow corridor with the valley of the middle Haliákmon. Similarly, the western depression has two well-defined areas. The northern is the basin of Lake Ochrid and the plain of Korytzá; the southern, the basin of the upper Haliákmon and its tributaries.

The economic and political development of the Greek states from the eighth century onwards left few, if any, of their tribal organizations unaffected; as these became unworkable or unpopular, the traditional divisions into tribes, phratries, and gene, based in practice, if not in origin, on kinship, were sooner or later replaced or modified. But the factors which led to reform were many; it might be the problem of a subject population, a mixed population, a shifting population, or of synoecism; it might be the need for military reform; or simply a question of political feeling, an attempt to satisfy anti-aristocratic prejudice by destroying the essentially aristocratic kinship system. More than one factor could be involved in any change; each might have a different effect on the result. Consequently the process was not simple or uniform; the new order might be wholly artificial or merely a modification of the old; the old might be discarded or retained alongside the new for some special purpose; old names, proper or generic, might still be used in the new system at the same or even at a different level. In such confusion it is essential to analyse in detail the evidence for each organization on its own before looking for any general pattern or arguing by analogy from one state's system to another.

In the case of Chios the relevant documents have often been interpreted in the light of what was known of the gentilicial system of Attica. Tribes, of number unknown, were thought to have been divided into phratries, each composed of several smaller units of two kinds, gene and thiasoi. The comparison is misleading. The constitution of the Attic phratries is far from clear, but, whatever it may have been, these documents from Chios, of which the text is given below, must belong to a very different order.

This paper presents the results of the chemical analyses by inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry (ICP-AES) of a selection of vases from the recent excavations of Mycenaean tombs at Pylona, Rhodes. The data are used to support and confirm the stylistic attributions of the vases as either local Rhodian products or mainland imports. It is suggested that the majority of the imports are from the Argolid, but that at least one other origin is likely as well. Two distinct compositional groups of ‘local’ pottery are also identified. Comparison is made with the data from the analyses of pottery from Ialysos and the veracity of the conclusions drawn from the earlier optical emission data is confirmed.

This article publishes or republishes the 23 Greek inscriptions on stone in the collection of the British School at Athens. The majority are Attic, but also included are five stones from Melos and one each from Anthedon in Boeotia, Aegina(?), Epirus and Thera. Two of the inscriptions, an Attic funerary monument and an Aeginetan(?) fragment, receive their first editions here. In addition, of the eight which have associated reliefs, six are fully published for the first time. Most of the already published items have also yielded something new of interest. An appendix presents the first edition (from the papers of George Finlay) of a short inscription once in his collection.

This article examines the inception of writing on Crete in the second millennium bc from a fresh methodological perspective. It aims to develop a synoptic understanding of the origin, purpose, experience, and significance of the earliest attestations of writing on the island, to investigate the context of its creation, and to explore the cultural triggers that underlie the application of writing in the context of Middle Minoan Crete. Three key points are considered: the problematic definition of early writing on Crete, the possible identification of the subject matter of the Cretan hieroglyphic inscriptions on sealstones, and the script's level of indebtedness to pre-existing models. These paths of investigation are also crucial points of departure for understanding the phenomenon of early writing in more general terms, from a multidisciplinary perspective that seeks to advocate a synergic collaboration between anthropology, archaeology, epigraphy and sociolinguistics.

The article examines the importance of the Aegisthus tholos tomb in the formation of the tripartite chronological scheme of the Mycenae tholos tombs by A. J. B. Wace. The scheme is assessed in the light of the epistemological debate between Wace and Evans concerning the nature and extent of Minoan influence on mainland Greece in the early Late Bronze Age. It is here suggested that the two-phase construction identified by Wace in the Aegisthus tholos contributed significantly to the establishment of the structural development of the Mycenae tholoi, an important point against Evans's views on the subject. The two-phase construction is re-visited with a view to highlight its importance in Wace's scheme but more significantly to shed light on the planning and execution of the Aegisthus tomb. While the two-phase construction cannot altogether be dismissed, it is suggested that the ashlar façade of the Aegisthus tomb was not an afterthought, as is largely maintained, but a preplanned action and part of the tomb's original design.