‘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.

Viewed from the promontory of Perachora—and especially by night—there is a great contrast between the southern shores of the Gulf of Corinth and the northern shore of the Halcyonic gulf. To the south an almost continuous line of habitation is clearly visible—to the north, only the darkness of a coast where the mountains appear to drop directly into the sea. These mountains constitute a considerable barrier, beginning with the greatest of them, Helicon, to the west, set a little inland: next, on the very edge of the sea, Korombili; and then, further over to the east, the outliers of Cithaeron, which leave only the notoriously difficult route round the coast to Aegosthena by which a Spartan army precariously escaped. It is not surprising that the cities of the Boeotian hinterland largely turned their backs on the sea: except for certain events, to be considered below, this coast played little part in Boeotian history.

There are three significant harbours, or usable beaches, along this Boeotian coast (Fig. 1a). To the east, at the end of the bay between Cithaeron and Korombili is the beach of Livadhostro, the ancient Creusis. It is not a good beach, being open and exposed to the wind. Communication with the hinterland is not easy, and there is no modern road. The Thebans, in the year of Leuctra, kept a small fleet there, perhaps through compulsion rather than choice. At the extreme western end of this section of coast is the harbour of Sarandi. Between these two harbours, and to the west of Korombili, is the great landlocked bay of Domvraina. Even within this bay much of the coast is mountainous and abrupt, but there are two small harbours at the western end, and a reasonably large, very well-sheltered beach and harbour at the eastern end.

The Agiasmati cave in SW Crete, investigated as part of the Sphakia Survey, served as a sanctuary in the Hellenistic-Early Roman period. It has four points of interest, (1) Two of its principal types of artefacts, ladles and multiple-nozzle lamps are rare or even unique to this site. (2) Fabric analysis has enabled significant progress to be made with the interpretation of the pottery. (3) Cave worship in this period is not well known on Crete. (4) Intensive exploration by the Sphakia Survey of the region in which the cave lies enables us to place the cave in the context of the contemporary settlement pattern and to reconfirm the value of archaeological survey.

It is symptomatic of the study of the archaeology of Crete that Pendlebury took 255 pages to cover the Minoan period of about 2,000 years but only 74 pages for the remaining 1,750 years, with a mere 22 pages devoted to the Hellenistic and Roman periods, from c. 300 B.C. to the Arab conquest in the early ninth century A.D., a period of 1,100 years. Needless to say, the importance of Crete in the Minoan age was infinitely greater than in these later periods, but they are still worthy of study, both for their intrinsic interest and to aid our understanding of Cretan history over all.

An ivory warrior head, discovered at the end of the last century in Enkomi Tomb 16, has often been mentioned and illustrated in the literature but it has never been the subject of a detailed study. Most interest has centred on whether the head represents a genuine Mycenaean carving or the survival of an Aegean motif in the Cypriote repertoire. Here form, function, material, carving technique and style are assessed, and comparisons are drawn with other warrior heads from Crete and mainland Greece. All evidence points conclusively to an Aegean origin for the Enkomi head.

The last comprehensive study of Laconian, by E. A. Lane, was published in 1936, and to this all subsequent work in the field, including the present article, is greatly indebted. What follows is intended to develop one particular aspect of Lane's study, the identification of individual painters and their work. The need for exploration along such lines will hardly be disputed nowadays. Nevertheless, it may be worth referring to the succinct appraisal of such investigation by Dunbabin and Robertson.

The attributions here published comprise almost all Laconian vases with figure decoration found outside Laconia, in so far as they have been made known, and a number of the pieces discovered at Sparta itself. They show that a total of three painters, two of them pupils of one, were with their workshop followers responsible for the output of practically all the more ambitious Laconian vases. It remains to be seen how far this conclusion is borne out by the finds from Samos, the one considerable body of Laconian material still unpublished.

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.

In 1913 an essay of mine appeared in the JHS (XXXIII 27 ff.) entitled ‘Three Greek Numeral Systems.’ Shortly afterwards I published in this Annual (XVIII 98 ff.) an article on ‘The Greek Numeral Notation,’ in which I collected and summarised the available evidence for all the numeral systems of the acrophonic type used among the Greeks and set forth the main conclusions to which that evidence pointed. In a later volume (XXVIII 141 ff.) I added some ‘Further Notes on the Greek Acrophonic Numerals,’ recording the examples which had accumulated since the publication of my previous article and giving a new and fuller edition of an important text from a site near Andania in Messenia (IG V 1. 1532). No further discussion of the subject has appeared and scholars have repeatedly cited my articles as giving the fullest and most recent treatment of it.

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.

Lead slingshots discovered on Cretan sites carry considerable weight regarding the nature of warfare on the island in the Late Classical and Hellenistic periods. On Crete, inscribed lead sling bullets have been reported from nine archaeological sites while a further inscribed slingshot, issued by the Phalasarnians, has been discovered on the neighbouring island of Antikythera.

Text on slingshots was conceived of, and cast as, an integral component of the weapon, thereby representing a fundamental aspect of the weapon's design. Slingshots bearing text are illuminating artefacts as not only can they reflect military action, leadership and civic affiliations, but they also raise questions regarding literacy levels within the forces and prompt debate concerning the psychological potential of such communications. It is the purpose of this paper to present the growing corpus of Cretan material against a wider backdrop of evidence, with a view to understanding the overarching role and purpose of such inscribed communications and to assess the degree of Cretan conformity with, or deviation from, broader military trends.

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.

Three islands of the Dodecanese (Rhodes, Kos, and Kalymnos) have produced a substantial amount of published evidence which sheds light on population fluctuations and external relations during the twelfth century BC. The burial evidence from the Ialysos cemeteries indicates that the population may have increased fivefold after LH IIIB. A corresponding decrease may have occurred in southern Rhodes indicating a synoecism of the island. If this is so, the reasons may be related to the increasing prosperity of the main town, Ialysos. This is a period of regional diversity. Distinctive island pottery styles developed under marked Minoan influence. However, mainland influence was stronger, broader, and more constant. None of these islands appears to have contributed to the development of IIIC styles elsewhere nor actively participated in maritime trade. Rhodes and Kos acquired objects from the east Mediterranean and Europe. At this time, there is evidence for a revival of sea travel within and beyond the Aegean. Rhodes, in particular, benefited from this but may primarily have been a passive recipient. The resulting prosperity could have been one factor which drew people to the area of Ialysos in a process of synoecism.

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.

Two ‘twin’ type B black-glaze skyphoi with an unusual profile to the base are described. Other examples of Type B skyphoi are listed, and the problem of origins discussed.

This article presents a new built chamber tomb from Argos. The tomb was found intact, allowing for detailed observations on its architecture and construction. It contained the remains of at least fifteen burials, together with abundant Mycenaean pottery, bronzes, ivory items, a sealstone and other small finds, dating from LH I to LH III B1 (although most are LH I–II B/III A1). Another two tombs of the same type have been found on the site, dating to LH I and LH II A. Comparison with other Early Mycenaean graves from Argos suggests that built chamber tombs were the largest and wealthiest, apparently belonging to local élite groups.

This paper offers an overview of a number of fragments of Hellenistic braziers collected during several seasons of excavations in the Agora of Nea Paphos, Cyprus. Its primary aim is to demonstrate their presumably local production and the production of examples manufactured outside of Cyprus during the Hellenistic and Early Roman periods by using a methodology that combines the macroscopic analysis of fabrics and typological study. Special attention is given to what this collection tells us about some of the human practices in the city between the third century BCE and the Early Roman period. This study seeks to obtain data that will help to address gaps in the material culture of Hellenistic Nea Paphos and deepen the understanding of the broader process of Hellenisation.

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.

The paper describes the continuation in 1993–4 of the investigation into the Canal of Xerxes in the Chalkidiki, N. Greece. Effort was concentrated in the central sector of the isthmus, where geophysical survey using seismic methods revealed a channel-like structure some 14–15 m below the present ground level. Encouraging support for the hypothesis that this structure is a canal came from the analysis of cores from two boreholes in the central sector: there was a marked discontinuity in the sediments at a depth of c.14.6 m. Radiocarbon dates of some sediments from these boreholes provided useful ancillary information.

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.

This addendum presents the tables of the chemical compositions of Late Bronze Age pottery that were omitted from the authors' paper with the same title, published in 1991 in the Proceedings of the Conference on Bronze Age Trade in the Mediterranean (Oxford 1989). In addition, a short description and bibliography is provided for those sites in Italy, Sardinia, and Sicily from which the pottery was analysed.