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.

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.

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.

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.

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 recognition of Plato by the Arab philosophers, and consequently by the Seljouks of Roum, has long been the accepted explanation of the fact that his name is popularly associated with a remarkable spring (Eflatoun Bounari = Plato's spring) with ‘Hittite’ ruins some fifty miles west of Konia, the Seljouk capital, and with a spring at Konia itself: the connection has not hitherto been made clear. Stray references to Plato in the description of this part of Asia Minor by the Turkish geographer Hadji Khalfa (1648) seem to throw some fresh light on the subject.

These references are three in number. The first records the existence of a ‘tomb of Plato the divine’ in the citadel at Konia. This is also mentioned earlier by the thirteenth-century geographer Yakut, one of Hadji Khalfa's acknowledged sources: Yakut adds that the tomb was ‘in the church by the mosque.’

In recent articles the present writer has used the evidence of brickstamps in proposing new dates for the walls of Thessaloniki, for the mosaics of the second phase of the Rotunda (now dedicated to St. George), and for the Byzantine palace. In each case, reference was made to only two or three examples, and it is with a view to reinforcing and developing the arguments already expressed that all the published fifth-century brickstamps recognizable as such are assembled here (with the addition of some unpublished examples).

In 1981 an unplundered Mycenaean chamber tomb was excavated at Krini NW of Patras. Two separate layers of burials were found in the chamber, and its use is dated from LH III A to the middle of LH III C. The LH III C warrior's burial is of particular interest. It was furnished with a bronze Naue II sword, which has preserved in good condition its scabbard, made of wood and leather and decorated with bronze strips and studs. The warrior's burial and its furnishings are studied here in relation to the other LH III C warrior burials known from the Patras region, and their significance is discussed. The analysis of the pottery found in the tomb gives evidence for the existence and dating of local pottery workshops active in the region.

The four seasons of excavation conducted by D. M. Robinson at Olynthos between 1928 and 1938 produced a large quantity of red-figure pottery from settlement and cemetery. This material was published in volumes 5 and 13 of the final report. Robinson recognized that many of the red-figure fragments were of local Chalcidic fabric, and he tried to distinguish a few hands, but he made no detailed study. In ARV 1507–9 J. D. Beazley attributed a number of vases to a Painter of Olynthos 5.156 and a Group of Olynthos 5.141, and noted that they ‘might be local Olynthian’ but he ‘did not see that they differed from Attic in clay or technique’. More recently a few local red-figure vases, from private collections and rescue excavations, have been published, and others, still unpublished, are on display in the museums of Salonica and Polygiros. The excavations at Torone, still in progress, have also produced some fragments of non-Attic red-figure. On the basis of this material I have tried to distinguish more clearly some of the red-figure painters active in the Chalcidice in the fourth century; but I ought to emphasize that there are many vases and fragments not included here.

The archaeological evidence for the sack of Smyrna is considered, together with later material. It is argued that this confirms a date for the sack around 600 BC, early in Alyattes' reign.

The Acropolis Basilica, Sparta, was first excavated by G. Guttle, under the auspices of the British School at Athens, in the 1920s. Two further campaigns were carried out by members of the Athens Archaeological Society, who were not privy to the unpublished excavation daybooks of the British campaign. As a result, 80 years on, the church is still poorly understood; its date and chronological development have been the subject of much scholarly debate, as has its attribution to Osios Nikon. The first phase of a new study of the basilica is now well underway. This consists of non-intrusive study and recording to reach a better understanding of the monument and the previous investigations before new excavations are carried out. The aims of the first phase of the project are to undertake archaeological cleaning of the basilica and its associated buildings to facilitate the production of an accurate ground plan of monuments, the creation of stone by stone elevations of the exterior walls of all the buildings, and the detailed photography of every aspect of the entire basilica complex. Detailed recording of the features exposed in the basilica has been carried out in order to assess chronological phasing (both through context and architecture), use of space within the basilica and potential reconstructions of the edifices. Following the first season of the project, we have a number of preliminary ideas regarding the phasing of the basilica and use of architectural space. In this article we present these ideas, our methodology, a new plan of the monument and its associated buildings and, for the first time, a resume of Cuttle's excavations.

Following the destruction of Minoan palaces in LM I B, a new social reality emerged in Crete. Important economic and administrative changes occurred over a period of 250 years (LM II–III). Originally, a strictly centralized system was imposed by Knossos with the aim of securing authority over part of the island in LM II–III A 1. Later, in LMIII A 2 the economic and administrative system appears to have changed. This new system was decentralized and based on regional centres. Knossos was at the summit, a few powerful regional centres were subjects to the palace. In the LM III B period, after the final destruction of the palace of Knossos, the scene changes again. The economic system rested on independent regional centres of greater or smaller economic impact, which were scattered all over the island. The most important of these centres was undoubtedly Chania.

Several rock-cut features, exposed on the surface of a trackway in the Tholos area of Kastri, Kythera, were excavated in July–August 2000 as a synergasia between Kythera Island Project and 2nd Ephoria of Prehistoric and Classical Antiquities. Although the surviving deposits were extremely shallow, they produced large quantities of conical cups and other pottery of Late Minoan I date. Further comparative analysis of the features themselves and their finds suggests that these are the remains of tomb chambers similar to those excavated in the area in the 1960s. These tombs and their assemblages show extremely strong cultural connections with Crete, but also idiosyncrasies that probably reflect the particular mortuary customs of the island.

This paper examines the nature and extent of changes in landscapes, societies, and economies in the numerous city-states of the Peloponnese under Macedonian domination (338–196 BC). Emigration and warfare may have had limited and short-term impacts. While Macedonian rule may have been oppressive before and after the Chremonidean war, it did not necessarily disrupt local economies and politics. The Antigonids did not run the Peloponnese as a province, and were concerned mainly with security. Though the building of towns and forts declined, and some cities were abandoned or lost freedom at times, others enjoyed new amenities and religious architecture. Epigraphic output was maintained, and a sharp increase in the centralization of inscriptions in central places post-dates 200. The traditionally oligarchic culture of most city-states was probably unchanged; and while the élite domination of land and politics may have intensified, archaeological survey reveals no trends that can conclusively be attributed to Macedonian rule.

Some recent statements in the scholarly literature exaggerate the length of ancient catapults, so a critique is offered, and an explanation for the source of the error is suggested. A brief account is given of how to calculate the dimensions of the ‘classic’ types of ancient catapult according to the formulae for their construction in Philon and Vitruvius. The implications for fitting artillery to fortifications are highlighted. It is emphasised that the type of device for which first generation artillery towers were designed were tension-powered catapults, not torsion-powered models. They were bow catapults (tension), not spring catapults (torsion), and therefore, since the formulae apply only to spring catapults, none of the ancient formulae apply to the machines for which first generation artillery towers were built.

The necropolis of the city of Tharros in Sardinia has been extremely prolific in tomb furniture, and many lamps have been found there. Over forty lamps from this site are in the collections of the British Museum. All were acquired at the same time, and most of them were said to be from tomb groups. The groups containing lamps are Tombs 1–10, 12, 16, 18–19, 22, 26, 30–31, 33, 60–63, 65–71 (the tomb numbers for the whole collection run from 1–33, 50–57, 60–63, and 65–71; there are thus several gaps in the sequence).

The great majority of the British Museum lamps from Tharros are of Athenian manufacture and with the recent publication of Howland's book on lamps from the Agora these can be dated very accurately. But unfortunately such is the indeterminate nature of the tomb groups themselves that these lamps cannot be used to date the objects said to have been found with them. As will be seen in the brief descriptions given below in the Catalogue, many of the objects found in a given tomb are in almost impossibe chronological juxtaposition to one another, and few tomb groups, if any, can be regarded as homogeneous (except perhaps the Roman tombs 50–57 with glass cinerary urns and brittleware pottery, which, being lampless, do not concern us here). But looking at the objects from the tomb groups with lamps as a whole, one might put forward the following remarks.

This article presents the methodology and results of archaeological fieldwork conducted at the small fifth to sixth century ad port settlement at Leukos on the island of Karpathos in the Dodecanese. Fieldwork, undertaken from 2008 to 2011, comprised topographic, architecture and artefact surveys of the visible remains.

In 1961 Miss Sandars published her important paper on the ancestry of the Aegean long-sword. She argued that the long-sword was an Aegean invention under Syrian influence, and traced some of the features of the long-sword back to the Early Bronze Age weapons of Crete. The present writer has recently published a comprehensive survey of these Early Bronze Age weapons and demonstrated that in E.M. III and M.M. IA several Syrian features were adopted for the Minoan long daggers. It has also proved possible to illustrate an influx of actual Syrian daggers, probably in M.M. IB–M.M. II, and to suggest the place they should occupy in the development of Minoan metallurgy. Despite these various inquiries, however, the vital transitional period of Minoan metalworking—M.M. IB–M.M. II—remains obscure. Apart from one or two exceptional pieces like the Mallia swords and the decorated dagger from Lasithi the products of this period have gone unstudied and their importance to the emergence of the long-sword and broad dagger has gone unrecognized. It is this situation which the writer seeks to remedy. This paper attempts to trace the development of the four main weapons of M.M. III–L.M. II (the long-sword, short-sword, broad dagger, and ‘winged’ dagger) from the end of the Early Bronze Age. A catalogue gives details of thirty-two weapons which the writer considers to belong to this transitional phase. Many of these were found in association with material of M.M. IB–M.M. II date, but some are not closely datable and others are probably to be dated to M.M. IA or possibly even E.M. III. This is because the qualification for entry into the catalogue has been that a weapon is of a transitional character, rather than of a certain date. In fact the transitional phase would seem to overlap to some extent with the end of the distinct and quite individual Early Bronze Age phase of metallurgy.

The Ashmolean Museum, with the help of the Sir Arthur Evans Fund, has recently acquired three sets of material, vases and bronzes, said to have been found in Crete. Such a provenance is confirmed by the nature of the objects themselves. The three sets were acquired at different times on the London market, but the first (sixteen painted vases) and the second (eleven bronze weapons and tools) were said to have come from one and the same site, reputed to be somewhere in the region of Siteia. The remaining set of objects (eleven painted vases) has no more precise provenance than ‘Crete’.

The material appears all to be of Late Minoan III date; the twenty-seven painted vases include examples of Late Minoan IIIA, IIIB, and IIIC date, and there is probably a similar chronological spread among the bronzes. As comparatively little material of the same categories has been published in detail, the opportunity is taken to illustrate and describe these Oxford acquisitions as a contribution to Late Minoan III studies.