After a brief account of the life and personality of R.M. Dawkins (Director of the British School at Athens, 1906–1914), based partly on unpublished material, the author summarizes Dawkins's career as an archaeologist, philologist, and folklorist. There follows a critical account of his work on the Greek dialects of Cappadocia and of other regions in central Asia Minor; Dawkins's magnum opus, Modern Greek in Asia Minor (1916) was the most thorough study ever made of this topic. Mention is made of Dawkins's contribution to the study of Pontic, which he was prevented by events from exploring thoroughly in situ. Apart from his work on individual dialects, his reputation as a dialectologist rests on his accumulation of evidence in support of his hypothesis that there is a fundamental east-west division in the Modern Greek dialects. The limitations of Dawkins's accumulative method are alluded to; he described a corpus rather than formulating rules for the generation of utterances. His contribution to the collection and classification of Greek folk tales – his second most important achievement – is also assessed. Finally mention is made of developments in Modern Greek studies since Dawkins's time.

The form of these vases is precise. The uniform alternation of dark and light in the decoration (which is enhanced by the use of the chequer-pattern on at least one of each pair of bowls) is punctuated at intervals by panels; in them isolated motives appear, their dark silhouettes compelling attention in fields comparatively free of filling ornament (cf. Fig. 2, lid).

As a result of their alliances with Rome in the first two wars with Macedon, the Attalids made a number of small territorial gains in the western Aegean. Among these was the island of Aigina, which was captured by the Romans in 210 B.C., during the First Macedonian War, passed into the possession of the Aitolians in accordance with the terms of their treaty with Rome, and was finally purchased from them by Attalos I of Pergamon for the sum of thirty talents (Polyb. xxii. 8. 10): Αἰτωλοί, κύριοι γενόμενοι τῆς πόλεως κατὰ τὰς πρὸς Ῥωμαίους συνθήκας, Ἀττάλῳ παραδοῖεν, τριάκοντα τάλαντα παρ᾿ αὐτοῦ λαβόντες. This action requires some explanation, especially as the issue has been obscured by the widely held view that Attalos' fleet took part in the capture of the island; some clarification can be found in the literary accounts referring to Attalos' activity during the first years of his involvement in the war. Rome, as is well known, avoided total commitment in Greece even after Laevinus' treaty of 212/11.

The two white lekythoi illustrated in Plate 40 a–b and Figs. 1–2 were found together in a basement of the National Museum in Athens. The provenience is unknown. They are restored, and have necks, mouths, and handles belonging to other lekythoi. The height of the ancient parts is 0·33 m. The outlines of the drawing are a mixture of matt red and brown; the added colours are mauve, green, and light brown. No vent-hole is visible in either of them.

The subject of the composition on no. 19272 (Plate 40 a and Fig. 1) is a visit to the grave. There is a grave stele in the middle, projecting on to the shoulder of the vase; it rests on a step and has three shafts, one rising from the other. The lowest shaft is the broadest, the middle one the highest. The two lower shafts are crowned by a plinth. From each plinth two tiers of acanthus leaves rise, in outline, or painted mauve, green, or light brown. These enrich the stele, diminish the excessive elevation, and add balance. From the lowest leaves of the upper acanthus group two woollen sashes hang, the left-hand one green, the other mauve. A third sash, green, hangs from the upper border band to left of the stele. Behind the stele, a trapeza, resting on a couple of steps, gives more stability to the general aspect of the monument.

Several fragments of 4th-century BC Athenian decree-inscriptions are discussed. Joins are made between IG ii2. 13a and 68 and Hesperia, 40, no. 3; IG ii2. 257 and 300; 242 and 373; 407 and SEG 32. 94; IG ii2. 309 and 552; 530 and 590. Attributed to the same stele, but not joining, are IG ii2. 139 and 289; 277 and 428; 540a and SEG 24. 117; IG ii2. 540b and Hesperia, 21, no. 17; IG ii2. 286 and 625; 414a and 403; 398a (+ 438) and 612; 484 and 558; 489 and 532; 495 and 709; 405 and Hesperia, 4, no. 32. Other decrees discussed, mainly in light of the work of A.S. Henry on the formulae of Athenian decrees, are IG ii2. 44; 81; 121; 129; 147; 154; 155; 156; 285+ 414d; 321; 335; 364; 406; 416; 1001; and SEG 21. 362 and 25. 85.

Excavations carried out by The Helike Project in the Helike plain on the south-western coast of the Gulf of Corinth, north-west Peloponnese, since 2000, have brought to light the well-preserved remains of a coastal Early Helladic (EH) II–III settlement. The site developed as a densely organised settlement during the EH II period and underwent a major architectural transformation at the beginning of the following EH III. In addition to a reorganisation of the settlement on a rectangular town grid, the outstanding feature among the buildings discovered is that of a monumental Corridor House. The newly organised building plan of the settlement was most probably associated with the rise of a new socio-economic structure at the time, including advanced technological specialisation, and possibly the establishment of administrative control within the town supporting communal interests, together with a new emphasis on the status of the private individual.

Considering EH Helike in its broader geographical context, the site's prosperity marks an exception to the widespread decline attested in the mainland settlements of the time, and links it rather with centres across the Aegean Sea and further east. In addition to similarities at the level of settlement organisation, such overseas links and contacts are conspicuously evidenced at Helike through the presence of an array of exotic, prestigious items and commodities including an outstanding depas cup of Trojan/Anatolian type, ornaments of precious metal from the east or the north and Melian obsidian tools, and by the adoption of ‘international’ fashions of life such as the ‘serve and drink’ culture and ‘potter's marks’. In this paper, we present the range of material evidence from the EH III town of Helike illustrating its various spheres of foreign contact, and discuss possible insights into the social and economic conditions that generated the town's floruit and cosmopolitanism in EH III.

The coarse-ware stirrup-jars presented here come from two buildings at Mycenae excavated by Alan Wace from 1950 to 1952: the House of the Wine Merchant (HWM), and the House of the Oil Merchant (HOM). Over fifty examples were found in the HWM, and twenty-seven (plus three semi-fine ones) in the HOM, and as such they comprise the largest surviving deposits of the type apart from that of the Kadmeion at Thebes (where Keramopoullos found at least 120).

Although coarse stirrup-jars have received an increasing amount of attention in the last quarter-century, nearly all of the work has focused on those bearing painted Linear B inscriptions; results of philological studies, and of scientific analyses of the clay fabric, have provided fresh evidence for the debate concerning the political and economic relations between Post-Palatial Crete and the Greek mainland. With one possible exception, none of the jars from the two Mycenae deposits is inscribed, but the evidence indicates that, as is the case with inscribed jars, many were manufactured on Crete. Many of the jars fall into distinct typological groups, with parallels from other findspots at Mycenae, and other Aegean sites. The deposits are fairly well dated, and illustrate the diversity of coarse-ware stirrup-jars in use at Mycenae in the late fourteenth to the middle of the thirteenth century B.C.

Dr. Kunze's splendid presentation alone makes possible the study of Cretan shields, many of which he put together with his own hands. Even where I differ from his conclusions I have to start from the premises he laid down from his careful and scholarly analysis, and his magnificent illustrations.

Dr. Kunze dated the beginning of the Cretan shields by the date of certain gold bands (op. cit. pp. 247, 266) found with Attic vases, from the end of the ninth to the beginning of the seventh century B.C. He has subsequently lowered the date of at least some other Attic vases by some fifty years, and he has told me that he is now disposed to date the shields also later than he did.

Dr. Kunze was naturally looking for an early date, since Johansen had affirmed the dependence of Protocorinthian vase-painting on Crete, particularly on Cretan metal-work, in which he was firmly supported by Payne.

Towards the end of Schliemann's excavations at Mycenae in 1877 a small group of gold objects was found, in the region just south of the Grave Circle, by his engineer Drosinos and the Greek archaeologist Stamatakis. Owing to the circumstances of its discovery, this find received less mention than its importance deserved, and, while individual objects from it have been frequently referred to and illustrated, its existence as a closed group has been obscured, and is not even recognised in the inventory or arrangement of the Athens National Museum. Consequently its exact nature and chronological place at Mycenae have never been defined; Schliemann himself, Tsountas and Wace thought it the remains of a Shaft Grave that was partially plundered and destroyed when a drain was built across it in LH III (see BSA XXV p. 119 and plan, Pl. I). Schuchhardt, followed by Stais in the Museum Catalogue, thought it a hoard, and Karo considers it a parallel to the Tiryns Treasure. It has been suggested to me by Professor Wace that a further study and more adequate illustration of these objects might decide this point and also discover some grounds for assigning them to a definite place in the chronological order of Mycenae finds.

In BSA 74 (1979) 1–80, an account was given of MM III and LM I buildings and their contents uncovered in 1975 at Knossos during a rescue excavation undertaken by the British School, in the northern half of the Staphylakis field, on the south-east flank of the acropolis (Site Plan, Fig. 1). In that account reference was made (p. 4) to the discovery of other ancient features within the heavily ploughed area. The more important of these finds are briefly described in what follows, to complete the summary publication of the results of the 1975 operation.

Full details of the circumstances in which this investigation was undertaken are given in BSA 74, together with acknowledgements to all those who assisted the authors on the site and in the preparation of the material for publication. A brief account of the whole excavation appeared in AR 1976–77.

The course of the Scamander is divided into three well marked sections—valley basins divided by defiles. Beginning from the mouth we have first the Plain of Troy, of which nothing need be said here; enough has been written about it already. It is bounded on the south by the Bally Dagh and south of this again by the Kara Dagh. Into the bay between these two runs on the east a spur of the Kayaly Dagh. These hills descend in steep slopes to the river banks, and form a gorge of limestone cliffs some four miles long, nearly as far as Sarimsak Köprü (Garlic Bridge). The path from the north mounts the slopes of the Bally Dagh to a height of over 500 feet, then descends to the river where in the middle of the gorge there lies a small secluded plain—a spot of idyllic charm—and again rises to a height of over 600 feet in order to cross the southern barrier of the Kara Dagh and reach the high road from the Dardanelles to Ezine close to Sarimsak Köprü.

This article investigates the final episodes of a long-lasting potting tradition that developed on Aegina during the Bronze Age. From c. 1400 bc, cooking pottery constituted the only class of that tradition that was still manufactured and exported in quantity. Detailed study of several settlement contexts from sites scattered along the Euboean and up to the Pagasetic Gulf dating to c. 1200 bc shows that pottery imported from Aegina became increasingly less available, whereas similar cooking pots produced in various non-Aeginetan fabrics appear at the same time. Macroscopic analysis of traces related to manufacture of such pots reveals that it followed the typical chaîne opératoire of the Aeginetan tradition, strongly suggesting that their appearance reflects technological transfer and, thus, could not be explained without taking mobility of potters into account. Following a comprehensive presentation of available evidence, we argue that potters trained in the context of the Aeginetan potting tradition produced cooking pottery in several locations along the Euboean Gulf and up to the modern city of Volos. By considering the socio-economic and political context of their activity, as well as the development of Aegina and its pottery production during the later stages of the Late Bronze Age, we are able to shed more light on potters’ motivations to move, as well as on the population and the time scale of this mobility phenomenon. It appears that it had two stages, characterised by itinerant activity followed by permanent relocation, and that it was relatively short-lived, as by c. 1150 bc Aeginetan-tradition potters become invisible in the archaeological record.

Questions were raised in the past regarding the use of Mycenaean tiles as ‘roof tiles’ on the basis of the small numbers of them recovered in excavations and their overall scarcity in Mycenaean domestic contexts. The investigation of the Theodorou plot in 2008 in the southern part of the Kadmeia hill at Thebes yielded the single and, so far, largest known assemblage per square metre of Mycenaean tiles from a well-documented excavation. This material allows, for the first time convincingly, to identify the existence of a Mycenaean tiled roof. This paper presents the results of our work on the Theodorou tiles, placing emphasis on their construction, form and modes of production, offering the most systematic study of Mycenaean tiles to date. It also revisits contexts of discovery of similar material from excavations across Thebes. Popular as tiles might have been in Boeotia, and despite their spatially widespread attestation, their use in Aegean Late Bronze Age architecture appears, on the whole, irregular with central Greece and the north-east Peloponnese being the regions with the most sites known to have yielded such objects. Mycenaean roof tiles date mostly from the mid- and late fourteenth century bc to the twelfth century bc. A study of their construction, form, production and contexts suggests that their role, apart from adding extra insulation, might have been one of signposting certain buildings in the landscape. We also present the idea that Mycenaean tile-making was guided by a particular conventional knowledge which was largely influenced by ceramic-related technologies (pottery- and drain-making). While production of roof tiles might have been palace-instigated to begin with, it does not appear to have been strictly controlled. This approach to Mycenaean tile-making may also help explain their uneven (in terms of intensity of use) yet widespread distribution.

Recently there has been a revival of interest in both the historical and archaeological dimensions of the destruction of cities. The destruction of the principal settlement of a polis is one thing, the effective eradication of the political community quite another. What did it take to destroy a political community? The historical record is full of references to destructions of one polis by another in late Classical to Hellenistic times in Crete. And though not all of these destructions led to the end of the political community in question, some did, and between the Classical period (where we know of 49 poleis) and the Roman conquest of Metellus (where we know of only 24) the numbers of Cretan poleis were drastically reduced. The destruction of Praisos by Hierapytna between 145 and 140 BC (Strabo 10.4.12) was one such case. This seems to form part of a horizon of destructions (of Dreros, Apollonia and Phaistos) that took place between 200 and 140 BC. Florence Gaignerot-Driessen has demonstrated that there is a clear ritual dimension to this in the case of Dreros, a dimension indicated elsewhere by the use of the verb κατέσκαψαν. Excavations at Praisos have shed light on this question. This paper argues that, while there is no evidence for a widespread destruction by fire, there is clear evidence for the ending of Praisian sanctuaries and the forced abandonment of houses and (most intriguingly) the abandonment of large storage vessels. A particular archaeological ‘signature’ of these abandonments, evident at Dreros, Phaistos and Praisos, is the abandonment of the ‘household pithos’, which in many cases seem to be older than the houses in which they have been found. The paper also argues that these archaeological signatures of what had to be destroyed in order to eradicate a political community in turn shed light on what made this particular form of ‘citizen state’ so resilient.

Despite the old image of degradation and fall, modern research has shown that Roman Greece underwent a series of changes which are best reflected in the central public space of the ancient city, the agora. A variety of different factors, such as the dynamic presence of the local elite, the exploitation of the past, the imperial presence and most importantly the will to maximise functionality and monumentality, contributed to the formation of the spatial and architectural framework of the agora. In many cities the development of the agora is best described as the juxtaposition of old and new, which was achieved by the preservation and enhancement of the traditional landscape as well as by its enrichment with new buildings, many of which, like the Roman-style baths, improved the provision of services. In this context the term Romanisation describes the effort of each city to adapt to the requirements of the urban framework of the Imperial period, a framework characterised by monumentality and functionality. Roman colonies were the newest additions in the city pattern of Greece. In contrast to the Roman colonies in the west, many of the Roman foundations in Greece were founded over pre-existing cities with long histories. Therefore, they raise a series of questions concerning not only their architectural development but also the process of restructuring the existing landscape in order to create an urban framework that reflects their romanitas.

It may well be that in the idea of Herodotus and his contemporaries, that the gods of Greece came originally from Egypt, there lies a consciousness of a fact, and that there was latent in the Greek mind a vague idea that their civilization had, far back in the mists of time, come into contact with that of Egypt, and even that some of its characteristics were of Egyptian origin. Leaving out of account the question of the possible African origin of ‘Mycenaean’ culture, and so ultimately of much of the civilization which we know as ‘Greek,’ we can now say with certainty that we know that Greek culture had, a thousand years before Herodotus, been brought into contact with the already three thousand year old civilization of Egypt, and that this contact was a comparatively close one, and one which cannot fail to have resulted in a perceptible modification of the less-developed and younger culture. We now know that this contact was closest in the sixteenth and fifteenth centuries B.C., when the kings of the XVIIIth Dynasty reigned over Egypt.

The date of the final destruction of Late Bronze Age Miletos is examined in the light of new evidence from Ugarit, which has allowed the date of the destruction at that site to be more accurately assessed. A comparison of the pottery in the destruction layer at Miletos with that in the destruction layer at Ugarit suggests that Miletos might have been destroyed at an earlier date than usually thought.

It seems appropriate to contribute to this volume an unpublished fragment from Sparta of a list of victorious σφαιρεῖς of which Professor Wace kindly gave me a squeeze many years ago, and to append to it some miscellaneous notes on the lists of this class published in IG V. 1, 674–688. Some of these notes have already appeared in print, in earlier volumes of the Annual, but it may be helpful to collect and slightly amplify them here, using the prosopographical evidence now available for establishing a more exact date for some of the lists. It seems also a suitable occasion to examine briefly a new interpretation of these lists suggested in a recent work on Sparta.

Hoards of metalwork are a common feature of the Bronze Age cultures of Europe and some of them have received a detailed treatment in recent years. Such hoards are relatively rare in the Aegean Early Bronze Age however, and in publishing the Kythnos hoard Dr. Renfrew could only point to three other hoards of third millennium date from the Aegean. Two of these indeed are still unpublished, so that the publication of the complete hoard from Kythnos is an invaluable addition to our previous knowledge. The purpose of this paper is to draw attention to four groups of metal objects which the writer believes to represent metal hoards of this period, and to discuss the composition and nature of these and the four hoards which Renfrew described.