This paper presents a new edition of a boundary stone between Capua (on Crete) and Knossos. I identify the post of Publius Messius Campanus as procurator Campaniae rather than procurator Caesaris. The appearance of the procurator Campaniae on Crete is linked to a dispute between the colony of Capua and a private citizen called Plotius Plebeius. This new reading has several important historical consequences: first, it is the earliest attestation of a procurator Campaniae (and the first outside Italy); second, it offers a new interpretation of the juridical category of Knossian lands as part of the ager vectigalis of the Italian colony of Capua in the form of a praefectura Campana or Capuensis; third, it proposes a reinterpretation of the process of arbitration between a public entity (Capua) and a private owner.

Though tortoises are not objects of value, and unlikely to have been used as sacrificial victims, Pausanias describes representations of them in conjunction with a deity in a few sanctuaries. The reasons for this, and the part played by tortoise shells in cults is discussed.

In his admirable paper ‘Ravennatum Palatium Sacrum’ (Det Kgl. Danske Videnskabernes Selskab. Archaeologisk-kunsthistoriske Meddelelser 3, 2. Copenhagen, 1941) Dr. Einar Dyggve has revealed to us the type of the emperors' reception halls—la basilica ipetrale per ceremonie—in the late Roman empire. Analysing in a masterly way the famous mosaic of S. Apollinare Nuovo showing the Palatium of Theoderic, the missorium of Theodosius, the literary evidence for the Magnaura of Constantine, and architectural material, such as the palace of Diocletian in Spalato, from the fourth, fifth, and sixth centuries A.D., he defines a highly monumental tripartite architectural complex consisting of a tribunalium, also to be styled atrium or basilica discoperta, with a triumphal arch at its upper end, then a triclinium behind the atrium, and finally a most holy innermost absidal room, a choir.

The inscriptions here published, which were found in the Anglo-Turkish excavations at Old Smyrna between 1948 and 1953, are mostly fragments from the short, trivial writings of daily life. There are also one or two dedications, and a few inscriptions painted by potters on their wares. No inscriptions on stone were found, but this is not surprising, for the parts uncovered were chiefly private houses and stretches of the city's great wall. One important temple of a goddess, perhaps Artemis, was located and cleared, but it had unfortunately been much eroded. No other public building was reached, nor an agora: so the present epigraphic harvest should more properly be called gleanings, some of it merely owners' or merchants' marks—single letters or signs—on domestic pottery.

The South Stoa at the Argive Heraion is the best-preserved Peloponnesian stoa of the fifth century B.C., and one of the earliest anywhere with substantial remains of a stone entablature; it shows definite evidence of features which are rarely found elsewhere. The publication of it by Tilton at the beginning of this century certainly does not do justice either to the interest of its design or to the quality of its workmanship, and a complete republication of the existing remains would be well worth while. The present paper does not attempt to fulfil this need, however; it is directed instead to two interrelated features of the stoa which, it appears, were not fully understood by Tilton, the roof structure and the outer colonnade, and to a brief consideration of their significance.

Survey and excavation between 1988 and 1991 have revealed new evidence for the form, date, and history of the Roman stoa at Sparta. Nearly 200 m long, it was double-fronted and colonnaded, finished in marble, with two storeys on the S side and perhaps a single portico to the N, set either side of a central row of brick-faced concrete compartments that helped consolidate the acropolis plateau. Its order may have been archaizing Doric; it may have represented a reconstructed version of the Persian stoa. At the W end it buttressed the Round Building and its square podium. Evidence of the stratigraphy and architecture suggests it was built c. AD 130 and that the colonnades collapsed in the late 4th cent., after which it was partly incorporated into the late Roman wall circuit. The nearly central, cross-vaulted nymphaeum (bays XI–XII) was reused in the Middle Byzantine period for religious purposes, when a church was built nearby; possibly this was the church and monastery founded by St Nikon Metanoeites c.975. Occupation continued until c.1350. Interpretation of the topography of Sparta in the light of the new evidence from the stoa suggests that the still elusive agora may have been on the upper plateau N of the stoa, rather than beneath the stadium to the S.

A Permit was granted for the School to carry out a trial excavation at Haliartos in Boeotia with the object of establishing the plan of the ancient walls of the city and testing the future possibilities of the site.

Digging was begun on March 30th on the west wall of the Acropolis—Mr. Woodward being present to direct operations for the first two days. Five men were employed at first, but after the opening week the number was raised to six.

For about a fortnight the workmen were employed in determining the lines of the walls of the Acropolis. It was found impossible in the limited time available for the excavation to include the outer town walls in the investigation. For the second fortnight the men were chiefly engaged in excavating a sanctuary and adjacent buildings which were discovered within the Acropolis. Work was continued until April 28th.

The operations of the British School for the first two months of the excavation season of 1900 extended more or less over the whole site of Knosso the summit of the Kephala hillock excepted, which had been bought and reserved by Mr. Evans. In selecting this wide area I had for objective the cemeteries prior to the Geometric Period, the situation of which was, and I regret to say still is, unknown. In the event I found what I had not expected, namely a well-preserved early town.

Our operations in this island, which lasted in all from March 20th until the end of May, were mainly tentative in character; it contains evidently a large number of ancient sites, but unfortunately, in most of them, a great deal of unsystematic and unrecorded digging has been for a long time carried on. It seemed, therefore, desirable to ascertain, first, whether it would be necessary to continue for more than one season; and, secondly, what sites would best repay investigation.

The report of last Season's work must necessarily be of a somewhat summary character. The fuller description and elaborate plans and sections required for the due illustration of the results of the complete excavation of the Grand Staircase will find a more fitting place in the forthcoming general work on the Palace. On the other hand as it was only possible to lay bare a section of the large building on the hill to the West of the Palace, it has seemed undesirable at present to publish anything beyond a very brief account of the portion as yet explored, except so far as relates to the Shrine of the Fetish Idols. I have only to add that throughout the recent explorations I had, as before, the valued cooperation of my assistant Dr. Mackenzie.

The position and general form of the Stoa by the Harbour at Perachora have long been known. It was discovered and excavated in 1932, the third and fullest year of Payne's excavations at Perachora. Brief notices of its discovery are to be found in the preliminary reports for that year, in BSA xxxii (1931–2) 260–1, and JHS lii (1932) 242, and in AJA xxxvii (1933) 155, AA xlvii (1932) 563, RÉG xlix (1936) 151, and in ILN 8/7/33; of these the last is perhaps the fullest. In Perachora i a single paragraph is devoted to the stoa on pp. 14–15, but rather more information can be gathered from the plan of the Hera Akraia temple, the triglyph altar, and the stoa on plate 138. This shows the position, plan, and state of preservation of the building when it was excavated. Since the publication of Perachora i in 1940 no further work has been done on the stoa, but there is a brief treatment of it in R. Martin, Recherches sur l'agora grecque, 461, 465 n. 4, 486, and in tables iv and v, and a discussion and drawing of the Ionic semi-column capital in G. Roux, L' Architecture dans l'Argolide aux IVe et IIIe siècles avant J.-C., 346 and plate 91.1.

The L.H. IIIB deposits from Mycenae fall into two distinguishable groups. The earlier, called L.H. IIIB 1, is represented by the pottery from the destruction level in the houses east of the modern road and south of the tomb of Clytemnestra. The destruction to which we owe these deposits appears to have occurred late in the L.H. IIIB 1 phase, and probably also affected the houses on the Atreus ridge. The later group, classified as L.H. IIIB 2, has been found in buildings within the Citadel and also in isolated contexts outside the walls. The deposits from within the Citadel come from the debris of a second, more widespread, destruction which affected other centres as well as Mycenae. The differentiation of the two periods was confirmed in the Citadel House area by the finding of deposits of L.H. IIIB 2 stratified above others of L.H. IIIB 1 character. The pottery of both these phases from the Citadel House will be published in the general account of the excavations which have taken place in that area since 1959. The detailed publication of the whole vases from the L.H. IIIB 1 destruction level of the houses outside the walls is planned for the next article in this series.

In January 1974 traces of a built tomb were found in the angle between the Knossos and Fortetsa roads, close to the Venizeleion Hospital (Fig. 1). A bulldozer had been cutting out a driveway on the south side of the Tzatzadakis house, between it and the adjacent olive grove (plan, Fig. 1) when the discovery was made. At the request of Dr. St. Alexiou, Ephor of Antiquities for Crete, a rescue excavation was carried out from 11 to 15 February 1974 by H. W. Catling, for the British School. The trenches were refilled immediately after the excavation.

Professor Bosanquet's text was already in galley-proof more than fifteen years ago; but as it had to be re-set, I have made a few corrections and additions, and added the inventory numbers which the objects now bear in the Candia Museum (quoted under CM) and references to works published since 1926.

A full discussion of the seals from Palaikastro should take account of the numerous examples obtained in the province of Sitia by Sir Arthur Evans, who travelled there in the days of Turkish rule, and other collectors. Owing to the migratory character of the Christian population, many of whom passed the winter in the villages of the Palaikastro plain and the summer in villages in the hills, and to frequent intermarriages with more distant settlements, gems found here have been widely scattered. In the list which follows have been included some stones from Palaikastro and neighbouring sites which were bought for the Candia Museum during the excavation. It is probable that most of them come from interments disturbed in agricultural work.

The bronzes from the Orthia site are both individually and collectively of sufficient interest to bèar frequent discussion, and additional notes on some of the more important items cannot come amiss. Their appearance here facilitates direct comparison with the series from the Acropolis: this is particularly useful when applied to bronzes which, like Acropolis Nos. 4 and 6, and Orthia Nos. 13–16, are presumed to be of Spartan manufacture; it is also illuminating in the case of minor objects, some of which, like the votive fruits and the miniature vases, are common to both sites, while others, like the Geometric animals, are associated with one site only.

The village of Senirdje is situated some 15 km. to the N.N.W. of Isbarta (Baris), in northern Pisidia, in a gap in the hills dividing the plain of Isbarta from the plain of Ketchiborlu, through which the line of the railway-extension from Ketchiborlu to Egerdir now passes. Close to the village is a low, flat mound, in marshy ground, which, when I visited it in 1911, was entirely flooded owing to the severity of the previous winter. The mound, the northern part of which is traversed by the railway-cutting, rises to a height of 13 feet above the level of the plain, and 11 ft. 6 in. above the rail, at a point 150 feet to the right of the centre-line. The top of the northern bank of the cutting is about five feet above the rail, the southern bank about 9 feet. Some 18 inches down to the level of the plain remain unexcavated.

In June and July of 1954 a team often divers spent just over four weeks exploring the east coast of Chios. The team was based on Emporio in the south-east, where the British School was excavating under the direction of M. S. F. Hood and J. Boardman, and was thus able to rely on the archaeologists there for expert guidance. Most of the underwater work took place in this area, but the team was also able to spend some time exploring the north-east coasts of the island, thanks to Mr. Tom Dupree, who put his yacht Kerynia at their disposal.

The main diving equipment consisted of three twin-cylinder aqualungs with three spare twin-cylinder air-tanks, and a compressor to recharge them with air, belonging to the British School at Athens. The purchase of this expensive equipment had been made possible by the great generosity of Lord Kelmsley and the Sunday Times newspaper. Miss Dilys Powell, as representative of the Sunday Times, joined the expedition for two weeks and took an active part in the work.

In accordance with the plan to explore a representative mound in each area of Central Macedonia, the Toumba of Saratsé was selected as occupying a key position in the group of mounds that lies in the region of Lakes Lankadás and Beshik. Prehistoric finds in this district have so far been represented by the neolithic pottery from above the village of Aïváte (now Léte), which lies at the foot of the hills, by the entrance to the Dervéni Pass, and by surface finds from mounds at Drymínklava (now Drymós), and elsewhere. It was hoped that a deposit might possibly be found at Saratsé which would throw some light on certain obscure points of the Macedonian Neolithic Age. No such deposit was found, and only some half-dozen neolithic sherds (all except one, unstratified), but a sequence of pottery from the Early Bronze Age onwards was obtained, which makes it possible to place the site, and by inference the area, in relation to the rest of Central Macedonia and to Chalcidice.

‘It is a singular fact regarding the eparkhia of Agios Vasiles, that throughout its whole extent not any ancient city has been discovered; and yet there can be no doubt that in one or two of the most populous of these valleys there must have been a town of more or less importance. To all my inquiries, however, in my two journeys through the greater part of the province, I could learn of no ruins or traditional site of any Hellenic city. … Notwithstanding this denial, I am induced to call the attention of any future traveller to this absence of any recognized ancient site in so large a district …’ So Captain Spratt at the end of the second volume of his Travels and Researches in Crete, published in 1865.

The fragments of an early Mycenaean pictorial krater decorated with fish from Maroni in Cyprus are discussed and illustrated. The piece is considered within the broader context of contemporary representations, and it is suggested that Minoan representations of bird and fish motifs provided the inspiration for the use of these two themes in the early stages of Mycenaean vase-painting.