It has been argued that a foot of c. 0.30 m was used in the design of the Early Iron Age building at Lefkandi. However, deriving the foot-unit length from the preserved measurements is not statistically valid; in this case, proportional analysis is more likely to advance understanding of the building design rather than foot-standard studies. Attempts to determine the building function using direct analogical reasoning are problematic because of the exceptional character of the Toumba building. Based on the archaeological evidence of ritualised collective gatherings, however, a transformation in the communal meaning of the monument is proposed.

Alan Wace and I spent three memorable years together, wellnigh half a century ago, in the British School at Athens, of which he was later to be for nine years the Director. The first book which either of us published was the Catalogue of the Sparta Museum, in the writing of which we collaborated, and I have followed with keen interest his subsequent career as scholar, administrator and teacher. I therefore regard it as a privilege to make a contribution however slight to the volume of the British School Annual which will serve as a tangible expression of his friends' admiration of his past achievements and their heartfelt wishes for his future happiness.

It may safely be said that of no prehistoric city on Hellenic soil are such extensive remains extant above ground as of the Cretan Goulàs. The walls, indeed, are not so massive as those of Tiryns, there is no single monument to fix the attention like the Lions' Gate at Mycenæ, nor has excavation as yet done anything to add to what meets the eye on the surface of the earth. But for the mass of primeval ruins, the still-standing remains of individual dwelling-houses, the number of distinct quarters within the walls and the area they occupy, Goulàs is without a rival. Its site, moreover, with its twin citadel peaks—the northern one looking down over a thousand feet sheer to the valley below—is more commanding than that of any sister city.

The human remains discovered by Mr. Hogarth in the caves of the Zakro Gorge, and sent to me for identification, consist of three skulls of adults and a fragment of an upper maxillary of a child. The skulls present the following characters. All are well developed, with highly complicated sutures, and wormean bones in the parieto-occipital suture, with thin cranial walls, and without the strong muscular impressions and ridges, usually met with in prehistoric skulls, and present in all living uncivilised peoples.

The following paper deals with the historical geography and antiquities of the south-eastern promontory of Laconia from Acriae on the Laconic Gulf to Epidaurus Limera. Most of the country included being within easy reach of the sea, the ‘periplus’ arrangement has been followed, and a concordance of ancient geographers is prefixed to each of the sections.

Excavations a decade ago in the centre of the city of Durrës (ancient Dyrrachium) in Albania revealed an extensive complex of concentric structures of the Late Roman and Early Byzantine eras. Initially identified as a market complex (macellum) of a type known in numerous Roman cities, it also became apparent that the circular paved area 40 m diameter within a colonnade at the centre represented a space intended for more formal activities and was most likely a Forum comparable with the Curved Forum at Constantinople. A central focus of the area was a rotunda c.5.75 m diameter that may have supported monumental statuary or possible a column. In 2001 a record was made of the architectural remains and in 2004 and 2005 two unfinished trenches adjacent to the Rotunda were enlarged and completed. The dating evidence recovered from beneath the level of the Forum paving indicated a construction date around the end of the sixth century, making it likely that it was one of the embellishments conferred on his native city by the emperor Anastasius (491-518).

Οι προ δεκαετίας ανασκαφές στο κέντρο της πόλης του Δυρραχίου στην Αλβανία αποκάλυψε ένα εκτεταμένο συγκρότημα κυκλικών κατασκευών των Ύστερων πωμαϊκών και των ∏ρώιμων Βυζαντινών χρόνων. Μολονότι εξ' αρχής το συγκρότημα χαρακτηρίστηκε ως αγορά (macellimi), ο τύπος της οποίας συναντάται σε πολλές Ρωμαϊκές πόλεις, έγινε επίσης φανερό, ότι ο πλαισιωμένος με περιστύλιο κυκλικός πλακόστρωτος χώρος διαμέτρου 40 μ αντιπροσώπευε στο κέντρο του ένα χώρο, ο οποίος προοριζόταν περισσότερο για επίσημες δραστηριότητες, ταυτιζόμενος κατά πάσα πιθανότητα με αγορά (Forum), εάν συγκριθεί με την Κυρτή Αγορά της Κωνσταντινούπολης. Το επίκεντρο του χώρου ήταν μία ροτόντα με διάμειρο 5·75 μ κατά προσέγγιση, η οποία ίσως να στήριζε ένα μνημειακό σύμπλεγμα αγαλμάτων ή πιθανώς έναν κίονα. Το έτος 2001 δημιουργήθηκε ένα αρχείο για τα αρχιτεκτονικά κατάλοιπα και κατά τα έτη 2004 και 2005 δύο μη ολοκληρωμένες ανασκαφικές τομές, παρακείμενες της ροτόντας, επεκτάθηκαν και ανεσκάφησαν πλήρως. Τα δεδομένα χρονολόγησης, που συλλέχθηκαν κάτω από το επίπεδο του πλακόστρωτου της αγοράς τοποθετούν την οικοδόμησή της περί τα τέλη του 60υ αι. μ.Χ., συνηγορώντας προς την άποψη, ότι πιθανώς πρόκειται για ένα από τα αφιερώματα, που πρόσφερε στη γενέτειρά του, ο Αυτοκράτωρ Αναστάσιος (491–518 μ.Χ.).

This article re-examines the Isopata cemetery, a Final Palatial burial site north of the Knossos palace excavated in 1909–10. After presenting unpublished material from the excavations, including a previously unknown tomb, the article compares the cemetery with other contemporary burial sites in the Knossos valley and at Poros. While all tomb use in this period appears to have been a statement of high status, Isopata (and several of its tombs in particular) nevertheless stands out in terms of architectural extravagance and in its appeals to prestige symbolism - including the continuation of actual ritual practices - from the Neopalatial past.

Under the central courtyard of the Villa Dionysos laid out in the second century AD as a Roman garden (Viridarium), a sounding in summer 2000 revealed two layers of PG domestic occupation, with no architectural remains from the intervening periods. This article publishes the two stratified PG deposits and the later fill above them. A forthcoming article will discuss the bioarchaeological evidence and also the LM deposit below, down to the bedrock.

The discovery of a PG house, so far to the north of the previously known PG settlement, invites some discussion. A Supplement will set forth other evidence for Early Greek presence in the area of the Roman villa.

A miscalculation in the analysis of population statistics for the island of Melos made by Wagstaff, Augustson, and Gamble in their work An Island Polity is discussed. A new calculation is made of the areas under agriculture required to support the given population of Melos at a sequence of dates ranging from A.D. 1470 to A.D. 1848. It is argued that the ancient population of Melos could have been supported by a smaller area of arable land than that previously suggested, and that in arriving at this figure the relative fertility of the island should also be taken into account.

The ancient approach to the Lion Gate (Fig. 1) probably began at the north-west angle of the circuit wall, and thence gradually ascended to the gate itself. Thus all possible assailants would have to pass through the fire from the west side of the north-west angle, even before they reached the court-like area directly before the gate. Here they would be faced with a triple fire, from the gate, from the great rectangular bastion (1) which flanks the gate on the west, and from the wall immediately to the east of the gate. Exactly the same defensive plan is provided for the so-called Postern Gate in the northern circuit wall not far from the original north-eastern angle. Some have suggested that the terrace wall (2), which is called a kyklopische Stützmauer by Steffen, and juts below the north-west corner of the rectangular bastion, is part of the ancient roadway, which mounted here in zigzags, and then turned abruptly to the right to enter the gate.

This study is a description and discussion of all known examples of mortar-and-rubble towers in Attica, extending P. Lock's survey of central Greece in BSA 81 (1986). Attic towers of this type are generally free-standing and located in places of agricultural rather than strategic importance. In this, as well as in the lack of pretension in their architectural form, they conform to the mortared towers of Boiotia studied by Lock, and reinforce his conclusion that they functioned primarily as fortified residences of Frankish lords. Ceramic evidence from various sites, and the evidence of the ‘tower house’ of medieval western Europe, strengthen the arguments for date and function. Included in the discussion are possible Turkish towers and other pre-modern structures such as windmills and monastery towers.

Elemental analysis of coarse-ware stirrup-jars from Thebes provided the first objective evidence for the movement of coarse wares in the Late Bronze Age Aegean. While the evidence of the optical emission spectrometry analysis indicates that stirrup-jars occur in several fabrics, the assignation of these fabrics to specific sources has been the subject of some debate, summarized and discussed in the light of fresh evidence by Catling and Jones but continued by McArthur.

It was to cast more light on the general questions that a large sample of stirrup-jars from Mycenae was analysed by petrological analysis. This method of analysis involves the identification of the rocks and minerals within the clay and relates them to geological sources most compatible with the archaeological evidence. Recent discussions of the method include Courtois, Peacock, and de Paepe.

With considerable help and collaboration from Dr. E. French and Lord William Taylour, and permission from the Greek Department of Antiquities, 37 samples were taken from stirrup jars from the House of the Wine Merchants (= HWM; dated LH IIIA/B), 25 from the House of the Oil Merchants (= HOM; dated to the end of LH IIIB1), and ten samples from stoppers found in the stirrup jars in the House of the Oil Merchants. The aim was to define the fabrics petrologically in order to relate these to the typology proposed by Haskell (this volume), and to suggest possible origins for them based on geological evidence.

Antissa, now Ovriokastro, 16 km. south-west of Methymna, is, of all ancient sites in the island of Lesbos, the loveliest and the most isolated. On the land side it is cut off by the lower slopes of the massif which culminates in Mt. Ordymnos; on the sea side it is unsheltered and provided with the shallowest anchorage. Nowadays, a small caïque can only call during the hours when the wind drops: long ago, before the change of coast level, deeper water may have provided easier approach.

Koldewey has proved the identification of Ovriokastro with Antissa beyond dispute, and must be referred to for general discussion and for comments on the Genoese and Turkish fortifications. For our own purposes, the site, which is extensive, may be divided into four parts : (1) The Castro. This is a round, hilly promontory, almost separated from the mainland by the mediaeval moat, and built over with Genoese and Turkish walls.

The following pages give an account of the first half of the excavations conducted on behalf of the British School in June 1937. The party consisted of Mr. J. D. S. Pendlebury, Miss M. Money-Coutts, and Miss M. Pascoe. Emmanoueles Akoumianos was again kindly lent by the School to act as foreman. Thanks to the courtesy of the authorities we had the pleasure of the assistance of Mr. Kh. N. Petrou, Assistant-Director of Candia Museum. His arrival did not take place until after the excavations here described had been finished. He was, however, present during the trial excavations on Karphi and the Papoura, at Donadhes, Kolonna, and Kerasa, the results of which will be the subject of a later report. We also wish to acknowledge the help and interest shown by the local authorities of Tzermiadho, particularly by Mr. Sphakianakes, the Schoolmaster. Figs. 2–6 have been redrawn from our surveys by Mr. C. Hart of Cambridge.

The following paper was for the most part written early in 1939 and embodies the results of studies in Greece during the preceding year. Professor A. J. B. Wace, who suggested the subject to me, and to whom I am continuously indebted for encouragement and criticism, has elsewhere pointed out (notably, in collaboration with Professor Carl Biegen, in an article in Klio, 1939, 131 ff.) the need for a systematic and regional study of L.H. III pottery. The term covers wares produced over a period of at least three centuries (as long as from the reign of Charles I to the present day), and distributed over the Eastern Mediterranean from Sicily to Palestine. Within this wide range the existence of considerable variety has long been recognised, but not to any extent the nature of the variations, produced in part by the passage of time, in part by locally differing materials and traditions. This paper is an examination of what L.H. III pottery has come to light in one geographically well-defined region, Attica, and an attempt to discern the influences at work in its production, and its relation to similar pottery elsewhere.

The photographs of Athens in the collection of Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, now in the Library of the University of Birmingham, are catalogued. They are shown to comprise, in the main, two series, one purchased, of which the majority are original prints of William Stillman's photographs of 1869, the second consisting of photographs apparently taken for Sir Lawrence when he visited Athens in the later 1870s. Since the later series often deliberately duplicated views in the earlier series, comparisons can be made. These demonstrate that part of the façade to the west wing of the Propylaia was preserved intact from Antiquity inside the Frankish tower.

The excavations at Torone, Mende, and some other sites have produced evidence of continuous contact between Chalcidice and southern Greece from early in the Iron Age. We can now understand more clearly the relationship between the earliest Greek settlers and those of the colonizing period, and we can tackle some problems of topography in the Chalcidian peninsula from a new angle.

A second season of new excavations was undertaken at Palaikastro in 1987 in the area of Building 1, partially revealed last year, and in the adjacent fields to the south. Two new structures were denned, Buildings 3 and 4, and most of the plan of Building 1 traced. Features suggesting that Building 1 was public and played a role in the religious life of the town in LM I are the high quality of its construction, a possible grandstand with stone horns of consecration, a large well-built drain at the entrance, its unique orientation, and the discovery of the torso and arms of a male chryselephantine statuette fallen from an upper storey into an open area near the building. The other buildings are not yet well-defined. Building 3 was constructed in LM I and re-occupied in LM III, but no inner partition walls have been found. An area with pier-and-door partitions and mudbrick walls was built against the southwest wall of the building and destroyed in LM IB. Building 4 seems to belong to the LM III period, although we have not yet investigated below the floors of the re-occupation period. Destruction deposits of the LM IIIA2/B period suggest an earthquake.

These travels occupied us during four weeks of July and August 1962. Our initial intention was not to look for new sites, but to visit those already known, in order to revise the lists in Pendlebury's The Archaeology of Crete (1939).

Crete has perhaps been more thoroughly explored than any other part of Greece. Pashley (Travels in Crete (1837)) and Spratt (Travels and Researches in Crete (1865)) identified many ancient Greek and Roman cities. At the end of the nineteenth century came Evans, and the Italians Halbherr, Mariani, Savignoni, and Taramelli, who began the search for Bronze Age sites continued by Pendlebury, Kirsten, and others between the wars. Much has also been contributed by a series of distinguished Antiquities Officers, I. Hatzidakes, St. Xanthoudides, and Sp. Marinatos; and since the war by N. Platon, whose very full annual reports in Kritika Khronika have provided a valuable record of current excavations and discoveries. In recent years P. Faure has located many new sites in the course of exploring the caves of Crete.

Apart from the rather summary excavation on the summit of Aetós by Gell at the beginning of the nineteenth century, and the opening of some tombs above Pisaetó by Guitara in 1811–14, excavations have been made in Ithaca on three occasions previously to Lord Rennell's expedition.

In the course of two visits, one in 1868 and the other in 1878, Schliemann dug trial trenches in the plain at Pólis, at the ‘School of Homer’, at Aetós (both on the saddle and on the summit), at the cave of Dexiá, and at Marathiá. The work was carried out at great speed, and it is not always easy to make out from his description the precise nature of the objects found; nor is it known what has become of them. It is clear, however, that nothing Mycenaean was found.