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.

By adopting the chaîne opératoire approach as a dynamic theoretical and methodological framework for studying ancient technologies, this paper investigates the modalities behind the appearance of the potter's wheel in the Aegean during the Early Bronze Age II (c. 2550–2200 bc). Based on the comparative examination of ceramic assemblages from different Aegean sites, an extended technological study has been carried out in order to track the earliest wheel-made pottery and reconstruct the craft behaviours perpetrated by the use of the potter's wheel across the Aegean. The paper presents the results of this multi-site study and aims to (a) trace out the wheel-based technological traditions, (b) explore the contexts of the learning and transmission of the new tool, (c) shed light on the connectivity among Aegean and western Anatolian communities that enabled the transfer of the new craft knowledge, and, finally, (d) bring into view the mechanisms behind its emergence and appropriation. By considering technologies as representing an entire social system of knowing, perceiving and acting on the material world, it will be argued that the spread of the potter's wheel in the Aegean does not reflect a moment of linear diffusion of a technological innovation, adopted thanks to certain techno-functional advantages. Instead, it discloses the resilience of social identities and values embedded through the practical engagement of individuals in the production of their material culture. The potter's wheel, in fact, emerges as a socially and culturally mediated practice, specific to small groups of potters trained within a technological tradition of Anatolian origin, performing their craft in the Aegean socio-cultural milieus. Furthermore, its transfer reveals a multidirectional and dynamic crossing of material cultures that designated a navigable world where traditions, objects and people travelled, mixed and merged in unpredictable ways.

The study of the history of the first excavations on prehistoric Therasia in the nineteenth century, which were carried out in the context of contemporary scientific interest in the volcanic eruptions of Santorini, has led to the systematic archaeological investigation of the island from 2007 onwards. The intensive archaeological surface survey, the geological survey of the geological structure and palaeotopography of Therasia, and geophysical investigations, undertaken in conjunction with the ongoing excavation of the prehistoric settlement at the site of Panaghia Koimisis at the southern end of modern Therasia, have created the conditions for a more comprehensive approach to the archaeological landscape of the island. Based on the results from the excavation trenches in the south and south-east terraces of the Koimisis hill, which have been excavated down to the virgin soil, we present findings on the organisation, architecture and habitation phases of the Koimisis settlement. The site emerges as an important settlement located on the imposing hilltop rising on the west side of the pre-eruption Santorini caldera in the Early Bronze Age, with a long period of habitation to the end of the Middle Cycladic period, when it was definitively abandoned. The excavation of the settlement provides new information on its architecture and spatial organisation during the Early and Middle Bronze Age, completing the picture from Akrotiri, whose early phases are preserved in a piecemeal fashion under the buildings of the Late Cycladic town.

This paper presents a more detailed account of the pottery of Phases IV–VI in the Middle Helladic (MH) sequence at Lefkandi: Xeropolis than is available in the preliminary report. It is based essentially on an unfinished draft compiled by Roger Howell (the Howell manuscript). After an introduction on the background, there is discussion of the Howell manuscript, and then an analysis of the stratigraphy of Trench CC, the basis for the phasing of the pre-Mycenaean phases of Lefkandi; brief comments are also provided on those trial trenches that produced relevant material. The pottery of the three phases is then set out in detail, with attention to the relative popularity of wares and the shapes within those wares, and to possible imports, and they are argued to be classifiable as later ‘MH I’ (Phase IV), advanced ‘MH II’ (Phase V), and the early Mycenaean period, quite possibly starting in ‘MH III’ but continuing well into Late Helladic II (Phase VI). A summary sets out some distinctive characteristics of the Lefkandi sequence, as deducible from this material, and some general conclusions.

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.

This paper offers a new interpretation of the motifs preserved on the fragmentary Late Minoan (LM) I seal impression from Knossos CMS II8, 321, proposing a reconstruction of the original scene as two couchant overlapping griffins without wings among papyrus plants. If correct, the combination of all these elements is quite exceptional, since this scene would provide a unique reflection in glyptic art of the famous Throne Room decoration of Knossos, with its imposing wingless griffins immersed in a lush landscape of papyrus-reeds. Although a well-known ivory plaque from Mycenae displays a similar composition with a single, ‘classical’, winged griffin, no seal image seems to show also the wingless beast and the overlapping pose of two couchant griffins. The present investigation explores several parallels not only for this rare, yet well-attested, compositional scheme in Aegean art, but also for the figure of the wingless griffin. Both will be found in the Pylian palace decorative programme, which offers further griffins without wings – even in glyptic art – a meaningful parallel, since the interconnections between the Palace of Nestor and the Palace of Minos provide some of the most intriguing material in the study of Aegean imagery.

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.

This article argues that a holistic approach to documenting and understanding the physical evidence for individual cities would enhance our ability to address major questions about urbanisation, urbanism, cultural identities and economic processes. At the same time we suggest that providing more comprehensive data-sets concerning Greek cities would represent an important contribution to cross-cultural studies of urban development and urbanism, which have often overlooked relevant evidence from Classical Greece. As an example of the approach we are advocating, we offer detailed discussion of data from the Archaic and Classical city of Olynthos, in the Halkidiki. Six seasons of fieldwork here by the Olynthos Project, together with legacy data from earlier projects by the American School of Classical Studies at Athens and by the Greek Archaeological Service, combine to make this one of the best-documented urban centres surviving from the Greek world. We suggest that the material from the site offers the potential to build up a detailed ‘urban profile’, consisting of an overview of the early development of the community as well as an in-depth picture of the organisation of the Classical settlement. Some aspects of the urban infrastructure can also be quantified, allowing a new assessment of (for example) its demography. This article offers a sample of the kinds of data available and the sorts of questions that can be addressed in constructing such a profile, based on a brief summary of the interim results of fieldwork and data analysis carried out by the Olynthos Project, with a focus on research undertaken during the 2017, 2018 and 2019 seasons.

This article publishes the terracotta thymiateria (incense burners) from Olbia Pontica which represent busts of Aphrodite with Erotes on her shoulders. They were used probably in activities related to Aphrodite's cult for diffusing incense and as votives. They derive from excavations at houses, a stoa and the bothroi (sacrificial pits) at the central and western temene; they date to the period between the late third and the first half of the second centuries bc. The publication of such items coincides with ongoing research into the southern sacral precinct in Olbia dedicated to Aphrodite. This article explores the significance of the iconography of these objects and their use in cult activity related to the cult of Aphrodite at Olbia.

In May 2019 the British School at Athens hosted an international conference on popular music of the Greek world. The conference aimed to explore and evaluate the diversity of Greek music apparent in the rich variety of local traditions and in the richness of urban popular music both established and emerging, and to examine its causes from broader musical, sociological and artistic perspectives. Rather than focus on particular forms, such as traditional folk music, rebetika, or the ‘new wave’ of the 1960s exemplified by the international success of composers such as Hadjidakis and Theodorakis, the conference set out to situate these traditions in a broader Greek context and also an explicitly international one, in this way building upon a growing trend (Bucuvalas 2019; Tragaki 2019).

It may transgress convention to compare Mikis Theodorakis, better known for his songs than for his operatic work, with the Italian opera composer Giuseppe Verdi. Both, however, in very different national contexts, were engaged in political activity through their music – which often faced severe censorship – and their parliamentary activity. Both drew on popular traditions and utilised strong rhythms in their earlier works, experimenting later with freer forms. The differences between them meanwhile serve to highlight important differences between two countries often viewed within the shared frame of assumed Mediterranean commonalities and of ancient cultural origins, and help us to understand the role music plays in linking lived time to recorded history.

Hugh Sackett (1928–2020) was a leading figure of the British School at Athens and British archaeology in Greece for over 60 years, while teaching throughout that time at Groton School in Massachusetts in the USA. He was best known for being a meticulous excavator, who almost always worked in collaboration with other scholars, a great teacher, and a generous and modest person, and also for his unusual breadth of vision. His interests – and field projects – ranged from Classical Attica to prehistoric and Early Iron Age Euboea (where he co-directed excavations at Lefkandi with Mervyn Popham) and Minoan Palaikastro and Roman Knossos in Crete: all of them have been major contributions to the history of Greece. He was Assistant Director of the British School at Athens in 1961–3 and, later, became a Vice-President; he was also the first President of the British School at Athens Foundation in the USA. His greatest honour was to receive the Gold Medal of the Archaeological Institute of America, the only schoolteacher to do so. It was a just reward for his research and for introducing Greece to many generations of schoolboys and girls.