The term Fikellura has been retained in this article, as being more neutral than Samian, which has a definite territorial significance. Further, Samian is wanted for the earlier Orientalising wares, presumably of local manufacture, of which much is now coming to light in the excavation of the Heraion in Samos. On the other hand, in speaking of the earlier white-ground pottery, I have used the term ‘Rhodian,’ since it is the least cumbersome of the various unsatisfactory names so far given to that class, and since I do not understand Professor Rumpf's division of it into Camiros and Euphorbos groups.

The material for a study of Lakonian pottery may be roughly divided into two classes; first, the vases scattered through the museums of Europe, mostly found outside Greece, in tolerably good preservation, but covering a comparatively short period of time; secondly, the mass of pottery unearthed during the excavations of the British School at Athens in Lakonia itself. The latter consists mainly of fragments, but represents the continuous product of about four centuries, and in the sanctuary of Orthia we have the inestimable advantages offered by a well-stratified site.