This paper examines a set of the most characteristic decorated vases from the Temple Repositories at Knossos. The aim is to re-assess the date of the destruction of the shrine to which the Temple Repositories material belonged.

Nobody flashed a shield at the Battle of Marathon, for it is scientifically impossible: hoplite shields were curved, and you cannot reflect a flash from a curved surface. The shield can only have been waved (as Herodotus says), making it a short range signal, not from far-off traitors in Athens but traitors at Marathon, signalling the movements of their own army to the enemy. The Persians' voyage round Sounion was long and tedious, and the quickest way to Athens would be to land as soon as possible after Marathon, at Loutsa, and for the cavalry to dash for the city. The signal warned that this route was blocked, hence Plan B—Sounion.

In the sepulchral inscription IG ii2. 10453 we are offered Άγλώκρ[ιτος] Τορωνα[ος]. The name Aglokritos, however, cannot stand, for there is room only for a name with a maximum of nine letters. The two extant transcriptions by George Finlay appear to offer two additional letters (AT/IA) at the end of each line, letters which were read by no-one else, Koumanoudes included. It is suggested in this article that Finlay failed to maintain his customary accuracy in making his sketches, and that we should place no faith in the supposed letters AT/IA at the right-hand edge of the stone. We believe that the only nine-lettered male candidate—the female name Aglokrate being less likely than the expected, but ten-lettered Aglokrateia—is Aglokreon.

Vincenzo Coronelli (1650–1718), cosmographer to the Venetian republic, produced two books illustrating the towns and fortresses taken from the Ottoman Turks by the Venetians during their second conquest of the Peloponnese (1685–90). These were issued in numerous editions and translations in 1686–7, and formed the basis for other cartographic works. There were many variants of each plate, and the engravings have increasingly become separated from the books in which they were published. The problem is compounded by the many variants of the illustrations, and because different illustrations may exist for a town. By examining the known variants of one town and relating each to the edition in which it appeared, and by a bibliographical examination of the editions, we can determine which illustrations belong to which edition and can distinguish the political and historical bases on which Coronelli changed his illustrations from edition to edition.

The completion of work on this block consisted almost entirely or examining lower strata in the northern and eastern quarters. Whilst in one part of the block (26 on Plates XII. and XIII.) the rocky subsoil rises so high as to have led to the total destruction of all remains, in the immediately adjacent regions to the north and east it sinks so low as to leave some three or four metres of deposit with four clearly separate strata of walls. Plate XII. gives a plan shewing the two earlier sets, Middle Minoan and, above this, but on different lines, Late Minoan I., and Plate XIII.

Excavations at the Sparta theatre were resumed in 1992: the objective was to survey it and clarify its history. Nine trenches were opened and a catalogue of architectural blocks compiled. A trench in the sw orchestra revealed two staircases; while the seats of honour, the walkway behind, and two or three rows of benches above are preserved, the remainder of the theatre was severely damaged in the 9th–13th centuries. The diazoma's foundations were revealed; below it were ten radial staircases, above seventeen. The lower cavea had thirty-one rows, the upper nineteen. At the top, rows 17–19 rested on concrete over an inner radial wall of concrete-bonded stones; there are traces of a Doric colonnade around the walkway here. The upper cavea yielded pottery suggesting an initial construction under Eurykles (c.30–20 BC); no certain evidence of an earlier theatre has been found. The stage building's architecture suggests Flavian and Severan reconstructions and later repairs. The site's use as a theatre ended c. AD 400, but finds indicate early Byzantine continuity and three later occupation phases (9th–13th centuries). Sculptures found include a statuette of Apollo or Dionysos, an Antonine female portrait (priestess?), and an important late Roman male portrait head.

The subjoined photograph, Fig. 1, very kindly taken for me by Mr. E. R. Ayrton, is, as far as I am aware, the first published of the important fresco of Keftiu (Minoan Cretans?) in the tomb of the architect Senmut at Egyptian Thebes. The three left-hand vases from this fresco were reproduced in colour (not altogether correctly) by Prisse D'Avennes in his monumental work on the History of Ancient Egyptian Art (Art Industriel: Vases des Tributaires de Kafa, 9, 2), and tracings of his drawings were published by Prof. Steindorff, Arch. Anz. 1892, by Mr. W. M. Müller in his Asien und Europa, p. 349, and by me in my Oldest Civilization of Greece, pp. 53, 54. Other tracings of Prisse d'Avennes' reproductions have also appeared. In my article on Keftiu and the Peoples of the Sea in the eighth volume of the Annual of the British School at Athens, pp. 172, 173, Figs. 4–8, I published drawings of four of the vases shewn in this photograph and a fragment of a fifth (which does not appear in it), from sketches made by me at Thebes three years ago.

Whereas the 1954 tombs belonged to the House of Shields, of the two uncovered in 1955 one was within the House of Sphinxes and the other lay immediately to the west of it.

This burial does not need any lengthy description. It was found at the east end of an otherwise unfruitful trial trench dug immediately to the west of the modern road which runs along the western side of the House of Sphinxes. It consisted of the skeleton (in very poor condition) of a small child, placed on the rock. Two bronze pins lay together over the chest, and a cup was found on the rock beside the body. There was no longer any indication as to how the skeleton and the associated objects were originally protected.

Early in 1921 the Neuchâtel Asphalte Company, in beginning the construction of the new coast road from Old Phaleron to Vouliagmene(see map, Fig. 1), found not far inland from the small promontory of Hagios Kosmas some ancient foundations, and by them the inscription, which is here published. The discovery was communicated by Mr. Bottomley, Manager of the Company, to the British School, and to him I am indebted for permission to publish it, and also for the sketch plan of the ancient foundations here shown (Fig. 2). On the top of a low hill the line of a wall (about 1·50 m. thick) of the late fifth or fourth century B.C., built of rectangular blocks of poros, appeared, and on the top of this the inscription was found as indicated in the plan (Fig. 2). Slightly north of the inscription was a large block running out westwards at right angles to the main wall. If the main wall is the boundary of the Shrine of Dionysos mentioned in the inscription, it is possible that this big block formed part of the shrine itself. In any case it seems likely that we should recognise in these remains, scanty though they are, the ruins of the Dionysion in which the inscription was to be erected. On the south side of the road a double tomb came to light (Fig. 2). In the upper tomb, which was covered by a large tile so curved that it was in section half an ellipse, a small aryballos with a simple anthemion ornament in a very late red-figure style was found with a few much-decayed bones, perhaps those of a child; but in the lower tomb, which was made of two shallow rectangular troughs of terra-cotta, there were only a few bones. The tomb, which cannot be earlier than the late fifth century B.C., would not be likely to have any connection with the Dionysion, and was in any case outside it.

Stone vessels represent one of the rarest artifactual categories of Neolithic Greece. Only several dozen specimens (mostly fragmentary) have been recovered from 65 sites. These objects are also some of the least studied; with few exceptions, they are known only through superficial reports. Thus, their potential to shed light on social and economic aspects of Neolithic life remains unexploited. In this article, I address this problem in two ways. First, I focus on a specific stone vase assemblage: that from the well-known site of Franchthi in the north-eastern Peloponnese. This is one of the largest assemblages and is presented here in detail. Secondly, I use the Franchthi assemblage as a point of departure to attempt a synthesis of the available information on Greek Neolithic stone vases.

In the course of the excavations carried on by the School from 1906 to 1910 at Sparta, a considerable quantity was found of the mediæval glazed pottery that is usually called Byzantine. As specimens of this fabric are not common in museums, and its date and general relations are still matters of some doubt, it seems desirable to publish all the pieces of any interest as material for further study, although the writers of this paper have no claim to speak as experts on the subject. The fragments were found in the numerous trial pits that were made on and around the Acropolis, and were especially abundant outside the east end of the Late Roman fortifications. The exactly similar ware from Pergamon and Constantinople now in the Kaiser Friedrich Museum at Berlin is there officially ascribed to the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, and other pieces from old Cairo in the same museum of very similar make, to the eleventh and twelfth. Two almost complete bowls from Pergamon, on the other hand, plainly of our classes I and III, are assigned by W. Altmann to ‘the first centuries of Byzantine art’ The position in which the sherds were found at Sparta gives some slight indication as to date in the form of a probable terminus ante quem, for the building of the fortress of Misithra, or Mistrá, by Guillaume de Villehardouin, in the middle of the thirteenth century, was quickly followed by the decay of the Byzantine city situated round the Acropolis of Sparta.

The inscriptions discussed are: (i) that on the prytany monument Agora xv. 44, (ii) EM 13056, officials for the cult of Athene Pallenis, and (iii) some rock-cut horos inscriptions from the vicinity of Thiti and on Kaminia and Alepovouni. In (i) it is argued that the two additional lines calculated for the completion of column x (referring to Antiochis) were not for ‘missing’ demes but to mark off the trittyes from each other; (ii) presents a discussion of the parasitoi, identified as individuals of high status, and of the sets of archontes; (iii) are taken to refer to a new concern in Hellenistic times with the boundaries between areas of value for agriculture or grazing. The implication of these for the study of the Kleisthenic system of trittyes and demes is argued.

Professor Doerpfeld in the Athenische Mittheilungen, xxx. pp. 257–97, has put forward a theory regarding the relation of the later to the earlier palaces at Knossos and at Phaestos, which requires serious consideration, not only in view of Doerpfeld's high authority in such matters, but also in the light of the results of excavation, as these have been accumulating from season to season at different sites in Crete.

It will clear the ground considerably if, as a common starting-point of argument, it is agreed at the very beginning that the question at issue is primarily one of stratification, and that all understanding of sequence in development is ultimately conditioned by our apprehension of the character of the sequence in the stratification, in so far as that has been brought to light by actual excavation.

The study of mediaeval, Turkish and modern Greek history now attracts considerable attention in Athens. Important works upon these periods have been recently published by Greek scholars; lectures upon Byzantine history in particular are crowded not merely by students, but also by the general public, and several newspapers make a special feature of articles by specialists on social life in the reign of Otho. In these circumstances it is fortunate that the British School has possessed since 1899 the Finlay library, to which the adjacent library of M. Gennadios, opened in April, now provides a worthy counterpart.

The Finlay library, of which I speak from some two years' work among its shelves, consists, apart from general literature and travels, mainly of four divisions: (1) books used by Finlay for the Byzantine, Trapezuntine, Frankish and Turkish periods of his history; (2) books about the War of Independence and the reign of Otho; (3) a collection of Greek newspapers; and (4) Finlay's review articles, Times' correspondence, diaries and other documents. Of these the first section is nowadays the least important. Since Finlay's death much has been published about the Byzantine, Frankish and Turkish times, and the Empire of Trebizond, which renders some of his sources inadequate or obsolete.

About four miles south of the modern railway station of Diakophto in Achaia, on a high saddle between the valleys of the rivers known to Colonel Leake as the Bokhusia and River of Kalavryta, just north of the modern village of Mamousia, are the remains of a small walled ancient city. Leake supposed these ruins to be those of the ancient Achaean city of Keryneia: later the French Scientific Commission in the Morea identified them with the town of Bura: Leake accepted this view, which prevailed generally until it was refuted by Professor Ernst Meyer of Zürich in 1938. I was not at first inclined to accept all Professor Meyer's arguments; he has, however, courteously answered my objections, and a re-examination of the evidence has convinced me that he is right and that the ruins are indeed those of Keryneia.

I visited the ruins at the end of 1950 and in the foundations of a small building above the theatre discovered an antique bronze in the form of the head and neck of a goose. This I took to the National Museum in Athens, where it was cleaned and found to be of such interest that a small joint excavation by Mr. Zapheiropoulos, Ephor of Antiquities, and myself, was agreed upon.

This excavation was carried out in May 1951. Unfortunately Mr. Zapheiropoulos was unable to be present himself, but I had the benefit of the guidance of his experienced foreman, Mr. Andreas Mitropoulos.

The temptation to probe the origins of a people who brought war and destruction with them, but whose absorption was followed by the great renaissance of Greece is infectious. Philologists have not regarded the warning of Beloch who twenty years ago wrote ‘Gewiss werden Wanderungen auf der griechischen Halbinsel in vorhistorishcher Zeit stattgefunden haben; aber wir wissen dariiber nichts, absolut gar nichts, und wer es anders sagt, der tauscht sich selbst und sein Publikum’ and now the anthropologist is emboldened to try. Much water has flowed under the bridge since 1890, and I make the plunge. I take leave to change the question from the usual formula, ‘Who were the Dorians?’ to ‘Who are the Dorians?’ The attempt is made from the point of view of physical anthropology, in the hope that it may prove a contribution; for the aid of archaeology and philology is obviously needed in the solution of such an involved question.

This article contains epigraphically based studies which aim to bring increased order to the chronology and prosopography of Roman Sparta. It is concluded that only one occurrence of the nomen Aurelius can be assigned with any confidence to the period before the Constitutio Antoniniana. A dedication for Septimius Severus and his family is discussed. Epigraphic evidence for M. Aurelius Aristocles of Taenarum and his family is presented. An epigraphic reference to the ‘Pitanate Lochos’ recruited by Caracalla is discussed. The dating of the occasions when the god Lycurgus is attested as eponymous patronomos is discussed, when it is argued that Woodward's dating for the fourth to eleventh patronomates (c. 180–90) is some fifty to sixty years too early. The career of the champion runner P. Aelius Alcandridas is elucidated. Texts referring to the sculptor Demetrius are discussed. An account is given of priests of the imperial cult at Sparta under the Severi, fifteen priests being identified. A list of Spartan patronomoi of the third century is compiled. In an appendix a revised text of IG v. 1. 168 + 603 is proposed.

The triglyph problem which arose at the corners of a Doric building, and was held by Vitruvius to be responsible for the disuse of the Doric order in Roman times, has for many years been discussed by archaeologists. The best short explanation of the difficulties involved is probably that by Robertson. The much more complex problems which are met at a re-entrant angle in the Doric order, have, on the other hand, received little attention, for such angles do not occur in temples, the type of building which has been studied most thoroughly. They do, however, appear fairly frequently in more utilitarian buildings such as stoas and palaistras, and various treatments of them were evolved.

Perhaps the most popular vase shape in Euboea in the fourth century was the lidded lekanis. A number of specimens, decorated with floral motives on the lid and simple leaves or linear patterns on the receptacles, may be seen in BSA lv, pls. 54–57 passim. They show considerable variety in the shape of the knobs and in the treatment of the handles, but the receptacles remain fundamentally the same. Akin to these are little bowls of similar shape, lidded, but without handles. Such are the vases of a kernos of unknown provenience in Athens with a vaguely anthropomorphic central handle consisting of a long loop surmounted by a moulded head and with small arm-like projections recalling those of a herm (Plate 1, 1). The lids of three of the four little vases are preserved, the two nearest the handle having horizontal rims, while the two outer vases both had lids with rims turning vertically down, as is shown by the one extant lid and by the flanges on both the receptacles. The knobs of the two lids with horizontal rims are of a shape similar to the stemmed foot of a cup or dish; the surviving lid with down-turned rim has a ring like the footring of a stemless cup to serve as a knob. Each kind of knob, stemmed or stemless, functioned as a foot when the lid was set upside down on the table and became a dish. The low footring knobs were not unknown in Athens, but they were commoner in Euboea. One was noticed in BSA lv. 212, no. 8 on a lid, not figured, belonging to the Bonn group of floral black-figure, which is undoubtedly of Euboean, and very probably of Chalcidian manufacture. We shall see more of them later on.