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1 Introduction and overview

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 December 2023

Michael Loy
Affiliation:
University of Cambridge mpal2@cam.ac.uk
Tulsi Parikh
Affiliation:
British School at Athens tulsi.parikh@bsa.ac.uk

Abstract

This introduction presents the structure and contents of the current issue of Archaeology in Greece. It also offers an overview (not meant to be exhaustive) of archaeological activity in Greece over the past 12 months, focusing on major exhibitions and other cultural events as well as on important recent publications.

Type
Archaeology in Greece 2022–2023
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BYCreative Common License - NCCreative Common License - SA
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the same Creative Commons licence is included and the original work is properly cited. The written permission of Cambridge University Press must be obtained for commercial re-use.
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies and the British School at Athens

2023 marks both an anniversary and a time of change for Archaeological Reports. It is now 10 years since AR shifted to printing synthetic and thematic reviews of archaeological news, leaving the simple reporting of new archaeological data to AR’s sister publication Archaeology in Greece Online (chronique.efa.gr). This year also sees a ‘changing of the guard’, both within the AR editorial and production teams, and in officers across the British School at Athens who play a role in the production of AR, notably with a new director, assistant director, systems administrator, and administrative assistant. While archaeological fieldwork conducted in Greece is as effervescent and rich as ever, and while the importance of reporting this work to our readers in a timely and scholarly way remains the top priority, now is nevertheless a good moment for pause. Now is a good moment to consider both how we report the archaeological news and how our readers digest this information.

With just these questions in mind, AR conducted a survey of its readers and stakeholders between 1 September and 9 October 2022, organized and delivered by outgoing co-editor Yannis Galanakis and incoming co-editor Michael Loy. The results have been communicated in full to the editorial board of AR, but we comment on a few patterns here that might be of general interest. Ninety-two respondents from across the BSA and SPHS community offered their thoughts on AR and AGOnline, principally tenured and retired faculty members. Of the (fewer) postdoc and postgraduate respondents to the survey, few were overly familiar with either AR or AGOnline. We are perhaps experiencing a ‘generational shift’ in how these venues are (or are not) used for teaching and research, and it is possible that there are widespread changes afoot in how scholars are searching for and reading archaeological news. Another notable shift is that fewer readers are taking the print copy of the journal or downloading a PDF of full issues; users generally access information article-by-article through JSTOR or similar portals.

There is much that our readers like about AR. The majority use the journal not only to learn about the latest research within their area but also to stay abreast of developments outside their specialism. Maps, images, and bibliographies of the AR are useful features, while the reports from the Foreign Schools and reviews of secondary literature are read with much interest. As a new editorial team, we are very happy to build on this feedback both through further developing ‘Newsround’ (now with additional oversight from co-editor Georgios Mouratidis, reflecting the work of the BSA’s assistant director in supporting this publication through the production of AGOnline reports throughout the year) and in an exciting line-up of thematic papers we have already commissioned for future editions. We also noted from the survey a list of ‘top requests’ for regional studies, and we are happy to deliver the first of these papers ‘by popular demand’ in this volume as Anna Moles re-visits Roman Crete for the first time since 2012.

We especially hope to build upon the connectivity between AR and AGOnline. We understand that few AR readers are using the ID numbers embedded within regional overview articles to access the online sister publication, but, through providing direct hyperlinks in the PDF version of this year’s AR straight to AGOnline, we hope to encourage more of our readers to make use of both resources in parallel. The development and cleaning of toponym, map, and keyword searches on AGOnline is a desideratum, and we are already discussing with the project partners at the EfA how this might be achieved. We are also thinking about workflow and strategy, to ensure that reports of the highest quality are delivered to AGOnline in the most efficient and effective way. A scoping workshop involving AR readers and digital humanities practitioners will be held in December to discuss these issues, and we look forward to reporting the results back to AR readers in due course.

In her first report as director of the BSA, Rebecca Sweetman notes activities undertaken by the institution in the year 2022–2023. She puts knowledge exchange, outreach, and mentoring at the heart of her report, noting how, since taking up her post in September 2022, the BSA has already embarked on exciting initiatives, partnering with various organizations to communicate archaeological learning and knowledge to groups of school children and forced migrants. The BSA’s Knossos Research Centre has been particularly prolific in outreach activities of recent years, under the leadership of its curator, Kostis Christakis, with projects in 2022 at Knossos focused on the practice of ancient weaving, and conducted in partnership with the Municipality Philharmonic Orchestra, the Heraklion Municipal Youth Symphony Orchestra, and the art group PhotoSapiens. Building on the successes of bolstering its programme of digital outreach during the pandemic years, the BSA has recently completed and launched interactive resources on the history of its fieldwork and on the archives of Alan Wace’s archaeological work in Thessaly. Looking ahead, Sweetman teases next year’s 50th anniversary of the Marc and Ismene Fitch Laboratory, indicating there will be outreach and mentoring activities organized to coincide with this celebration, many of them organized by Fitch 2024 Research and Outreach Officer Carlotta Gardner.

Although fieldwork in 2021 had been conducted under loosening lockdown conditions and was necessarily of a smaller scale, Sweetman reports four full work programmes conducted by BSA teams in 2022 at Toumba Serron, Samos, Kato Choria on Naxos, and Palaikastro on Crete. Both the Toumba Serron and Kato Choria teams conducted further reconnaissance and survey work as the lead-in to future or current excavation. Work in the coastal zones of both Samos and Palaikastro also proved productive, in the case of the former, mapping the extent of a large multi-period site carpeted with transport amphoras and, in the case of the latter, exploring both the promontory and East Beach. Notably, coastal erosion had significantly damaged a building first recorded 40 years ago (‘Building 2’) and, thanks to the work of the team on cleaning and documenting, the chronology of this structure could be clarified, before it completely erodes, as Neopalatial with remodelling in LM III. This is a particularly pertinent example of the importance of research on maritime landscapes and environmental impacts, which also happen to be key themes of this volume of AR.

In ‘Newsround’, Matthew Evans (Warwick) and Georgios Mouratidis (BSA) report on archaeological discoveries across Greece between September 2022 and August 2023. These range from Neolithic to modern times, covering settlement, religious, and funerary contexts. Some projects were completed, including at Thorikos and Megalopolis, while others were inaugurated at Samos and Kleidi Samikou, and we look forward to reporting their developments in AR over the next few years. Readers will note a large number of diachronic projects, which highlights both the interest in and increasing understanding of the multi-temporality of many Greek sites. At ancient Eleon, for example, architectural and geophysical survey have revealed occupation phases from the Late Neolithic to Late Byzantine or Early Ottoman period as part of the Eastern Boeotia Archaeological Project. Excavations in several areas on and below Velatouri Hill at Thorikos revealed prehistoric settlement finds, the earliest Iron Age house discovered in Attica so far, and a Classical mine. The ongoing project at Vryokastro on Kythnos explores the long history of the sanctuary from the seventh century BC to third century AD and has uncovered thousands of artefacts from these periods.

Exceptional discoveries reported in this year’s ‘Newsround’ include evidence for the first burial at Dikili Tash: a foetus skeleton was uncovered at a Late Neolithic house, a rare discovery for the Aegean-Balkan region during the prehistoric period. Another first is the discovery of a Mycenaean tholos tomb in Phthiotis, within which was found a seal depicting the famous Minoan bull-leaping sport, also an iconographical first for Phthiotis. Finally, a rare terracotta head of a goddess from the eighth–seventh century BC was excavated at Kastelli Hill in Chania, Crete.

In the first of our synthetic articles for this issue, Anna Moles (Groningen) takes us back to Roman and Byzantine Crete, a place in time not visited by AR since Rebecca Sweetman’s own review of Roman Crete in 2012 (vol. 58). Moles notes the plethora of new data that has become available in the past 15 years, noting in particular the active community of Cretan researchers who communicate their findings to the wider scholarly community in an impressively regular and diverse series of conferences, among them the triennial Aρχαιολογικό έργο ΚρήτηςAEK and the quintennial ICCS – Διεθνές Κρητολογικό Σννέδριο. Even though much of the newly discovered and important material is on display at recently opened or reopened museums across Crete (Heraklion in 2014, Mesara in 2015, Eleutherna in 2016, Chania in 2022), Moles notes that much still remains unpublished and calls for renewed energy in collaborative and synthetic works taking a thematic view of the material, focusing on themes such as past lifeways, society, and identity. This article reports extensively on the archaeological work conducted by the various Cretan branches of the Ministry of Culture and Sports, and we hope our readers will enjoy reading in parallel the reports linked to AGOnline, of which Moles provides a necessarily brief and synthetic overview. Drawing also on her own expertise in Cretan funerary archaeology, Moles reports on the exploration of Roman period cemeteries of major importance that have come to light, including at the excavations of the Venezelio Hospital at Knossos, at Loutres, and, in a multi-period cemetery, at Ancient Olous (Elounda).

The next geographic summary concerns the southwestern part of Anatolia, with new discoveries and publications reported by Elif Koparal and Kenan Eren (Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University). Focusing on the regions of Ionia and Caria, Koparal and Eren note that even though these places face into the Aegean basin, and their archaeology and history are of paramount relevance to wider debates on the Greek koiné, Aegean colonization, and migration, Anatolian archaeology is part of a completely different research tradition from wider ‘Greek’ archaeology. It is only within the past decade that methodologies and research agendas have shifted in Turkey to take more contextual views of the material landscape, in part thanks to a critical mass of new data recently available and generated through rescue excavations conducted in light of rapid urbanization and the development of mass tourism. The authors also note the proliferation of new urban and field survey projects initiated in the last decade, particularly in Ionia, including Koparal’s own Klazomenai Survey Project (KLASP; https://www.klasp.net). These important new perspectives are shifting some focus away from monumental structures and temples, inviting researchers to consider new questions about the extent of rural landscapes around ancient poleis and define the settlement systems within their khorai.

Lisa Briggs and Peter Campbell (Cranfield) cast the net slightly wider by situating the recent discoveries of shipwrecks from Aegean Greece in light of wider developments in the field of Mediterranean shipwreck archaeology. It is the rapid development of technological and digital techniques of the past decade that have revolutionized the field, Briggs and Campbell note, particularly allowing for more accurate and rapid detection and documentation of sites, thereby making the best use of the limited dive time that constrains the work of underwater archaeologists. Additionally, the authors reflect on the unique environmental conditions that allow not only for the preservation of a range of organic substances in submerged amphoras, but also provide a rare opportunity for robust scientific (particularly biomolecular) analysis. Briggs and Campbell round off their piece by noting that in the most recent years there has been good progress in building substantive new theoretical frameworks for shipwreck archaeology, drawing on interdisciplinary communications with anthropology and philosophy. In a nod to Daft Punk, the authors note that this decade of progress in the field is creating a Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger discipline.

While Briggs and Campbell end their review noting the growing importance of an intersection between archaeology and climate science, Anton Bonnier (Uppsala) gives us a full review of recent research on climate and environment in the ancient Greek world, and on how these vectors were both impacted and shaped by society. Bonnier provides a very clear and plain-text introduction for the non-specialist reader concerning both what palaeoclimatic proxy data survive in the archaeological record, and the sorts of climate phenomena that these data indicate. He notes in particular the use of lake, marine, and wetland sediments for reconstructing ancient environments that, from Greece, are available across different regions, including at Gialova Lagoon (Peloponnese), Lake Vouliagmeni (Attica), and on the Messara plain (Crete). In his concluding remarks, Bonnier indicates that proxy data are only part of the story, and indeed identifying climate variation is a challenge within itself: the next step is to integrate the scientific approach with the abundance of other archaeological data, and to consider carefully the impact of the environment on societies at different scales.

In the final review of this issue, Tyler Jo Smith (Virginia) tackles the monumental topic of ‘Greek art’. Although Smith’s focus is on publications that have appeared only in the past five years, the bibliography of this half-decade is truly encyclopaedic. This represents both the strong academic health of the field but also the impact that a proliferation of exhibitions, site reports, and digital catalogues are having on making material more widely available. Duly, Smith presents the latest developments both by medium (e.g. sculpture and terracottas, metals, coins) and also by common themes in recent scholarly discourse (e.g. body and adornment, senses and emotion, aesthetics and beauty) that have drawn on primarily art historical data. She closes her review by making the point that ‘art’ is no longer just for art historians; there is much that classicists, archaeologists, and ancient and modern historians can take from looking closely at the visual record. This is not merely a current trend, notes Smith, but perhaps also indicates a bright future for the discipline, with new studies doing away with ‘traditional’ divides between the empirical and the theoretical and taking a more intersectional outlook on material culture.

We would like to thank all contributors most sincerely for their thorough and thought-provoking articles. It has certainly been a difficult year for colleagues in the UK, Greece, and elsewhere with strikes and increasing workloads; authors this volume have also been occupied throughout the past 12 months in directing major archaeological projects, settling into new positions, undertaking full teaching loads, and living through the after-effects of a devastating earthquake. We know that our readers will enjoy these excellent scholarly contributions, and will look forward with great anticipation to others originally commissioned for this year but postponed due to contributors’ personal reasons.

Before presenting the new publications that have appeared since last year’s AR, we report briefly on new museums and exhibitions in Greece. In November 2022 a new museum in Sparta, The House of Mosaics, opened to the public. This museum showcases two extremely well-preserved Roman floor mosaics of the ‘Abduction of Europa’ and ‘Orpheus with the Animals’, both of which had fallen to obscurity since their discovery in the late 1900s. 2023 saw the inauguration of two new museums: the Archaeological Museum of Kythnos, which houses a rich collection of artefacts, including important discoveries from ancient Vryokastro and the Mesolithic site of Maroulas; and the Archaeological Museum of Messara in Crete, with a permanent exhibition ‘Between the mountains: the human presence in Messara from prehistoric to Christian times’. Elsewhere in Crete, the Archaeological Museum of Agios Nikolaos reopened to the public this year. The Archaeological Museum of Eleusis also reopened in conjunction with the modern city of Eleusis being declared 2023 Culture Capital of Europe, while in Nemea, the fourth-century BC stadium welcomed visitors again after a prolonged closure.

As part of European Days of Cultural Heritage in 2022, the Archaeological Museum of Piraeus hosted a temporary exhibition, ‘Falirothen (coming from Faliron): Between Two Worlds’, displaying for the first time 77 objects from the Faliron cemetery dating to eighth–fifth century BC. The Archaeological Museum of Thessaloniki celebrated its 60-year anniversary with a temporary exhibition on the 60 most prominent moments of its history: ‘60 years | 60 moments’. To mark the centennial anniversary of the Asia Minor Catastrophe, the Benaki Museum in Athens hosted ‘Asia Minor Hellenism: Heyday – Catastrophe – Displacement – Rebirth’, while in the context of the bicentennial of the Greek War of Independence, paintings by 19th-century European philhellenes were displayed at the Teloglion Fine Arts Foundation in Thessaloniki and the film The Philhellenes premiered at the War Museum in Athens (events and exhibitions related to the bicentennial celebrations are also reported in the 2021 and 2022 issues of AR). Another important exhibition came at a timely moment of international discussion on disability and inclusivity within the museum sector: the Canellopoulos Museum launched ‘An Archaeology of Disability’, which offers multisensory experiences, including haptic reconstructions and sign and audio narrations, to address human diversity in both antiquity and modern times.

Extensive coverage was received by the 2023 exhibition ‘Homecoming. Cycladic Treasures on their Return Journey’ at the Museum of Cycladic Art, which put on display internationally for the first time 15 objects from the Late Neolithic to Early Cycladic II period. This is part of an historic agreement between the Ministry of Culture and Sport, the Museum of Cycladic Art, and The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, which envisages the return to Greece of Cycladic artefacts from the collection of Leonard Stern in the US. Crucially, this exhibition is part of the government’s continued efforts towards repatriation of Greek antiquities, especially the Parthenon Marbles. In December 2022 Pope Francis returned three fragments of the Parthenon Marbles from the Vatican Museums, which Greece’s culture minister, Lisa Mendoni, praised as a step towards the restoration of the unity of the Parthenon (https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2023/mar/24/pope-francis-returns-three-fragments-of-parthenon-to-greece). In July 2023 a fifth-century BC marble architectural fragment from the Erechtheion on the Athenian Acropolis was returned to Greece from a private collection in France. The fragment with relief decoration dates to the fifth century BC (https://digitalculture.gov.gr/2023/07/epanapatrismos-marmarinou-thrafsmatos-apo-ton-architektoniko-diakosmo-tou-erechthiou/). This year 51 Greek coins were intercepted by US border control and, after a 17-year legal battle, 351 looted antiquities were recovered from antiquities dealer, Robin Symes (https://www.ekathimerini.com/culture/1211429/looted-antiquities-to-return-greece-after-17-year-legal-battle/). These include a Neolithic statuette from 4000 BC and a second-century bronze statue of Alexander the Great.

Our own, non-exhaustive list of publications that have appeared since the last volume of AR follows.

Arnott, R. (2022) Crossing Continents: Between India and the Aegean from Prehistory to Alexander the Great (Oxford and Philadelphia)

Atrash, W., Overman, A. and Gendelman, P. (eds) (2022) Cities, Monuments and Objects in the Roman and Byzantine Levant: Studies in Honour of Gabi Mazor (Oxford)

Avramidou, A. and Donati, J.C. (eds) (2023) Surveying Aegean Thrace in the Digital Era: Proceedings of the Workshop Held for the Research Project Archaeological and Geophysical Research at the Peraia of Samothrace (HFRI-FM17-750) (Komotini)

Baughan, E.P. and Pieraccini, L.C. (eds) (2023) Etruria and Anatolia: Material Connections and Artistic Exchange (Cambridge)

Beck, H. and Kindt, J. (eds) (2022) The Local Horizon of Ancient Greek Religion (Cambridge)

Benvenuti, A.G. (2023) Πολιόχνη: το χάραμα της δημοκρατικής ζωής στο προϊστορικό Aιγαίο (Athens)

Biehl, P.F. and Rosenstock, E. (eds) (2022) 6000 BC: Transformation and Change in the Near East and Europe (Cambridge)

Boecker, V. (2023) Kulte – Orte – Körperteile: Eine Neubewertung der Weihung anatomischer Votive in Latiums Heiligtümer (Wiesbaden)

Braemer, F. and Darcque, P. (2023) Bassit (Syrie) fouilles Paul Courbin (1971–1984). Volume 2. Le tell du XVIe siècle av. J.-C. au Vie siècle ap. J.-C. (Turnhout)

Brenner, J. (2022) Israel und Phönizien im 9. und 8. Jahrhundert v. Chr. Studien zu Beziehungen und Handel zwischen den phönizischen Städten und Israel unter den Nimsiden unter besonderer Berücksichtigung des Fundortes Kuntillet ’Ağrud (Münster)

Brysbaert, A., Vikatou, I. and Pakkanen, J. (eds) (2022) Shaping Cultural Landscapes: Connecting Agriculture, Crafts, Construction, Transport, and Resilience Strategies (Leiden)

Bumke, H., Gaisberg, E. and Miller, A.C.J. (eds) (2023) Der archaische Heiligtumsbefund vom Taxiarchis-Hügel in Didyma. Teilband 1: Grabungsstratigraphie, archäologischer Kontext und topographische Einbindung (Wiesbaden)

Caliò, L.M., Lepore, G., Raimondi, G. and Todaro, S.V. (2022) Limnai: archeologia delle paludi e delle acque interne (Roma)

Callot, O., Fourrier, S. and Yon, M. (eds) (2022) Kition-Bamboula VIII : Le port de guerre de Kition (Lyon)

Capdetrey, L. (2022) L’Asie Mineure après Alexandre (vers 323–vers 270 av. J.-C.) : l’invention du monde hellénistique (Rennes)

Ciglenečki, S. (2023) Between Ravenna and Constantinople: Rethinking Late Antique Settlement Patterns (Ljubljana)

Cipriani, M., Greco, E. and Pontrandolfo, A. (eds) (2022) Dialoghi sull’Archeologia della Magna Grecia e del Mediterraneo. Atti del VI Convegno Internazionale di Studi, in memoria di Dinu Theodorescu. Paestum, 1–3 ottobre 2021 (Paestum)

Courtjaens, W. and Loeben, C.E. (eds) (2022) Queer Archaeology. Winckelmann and His Passionate Followers: Queer Archaeology, Egyptology and the History of Arts Since 1750 (Rahden)

Davis, J.L. (2022) A Greek State in Formation: The Origins of Civilization in Mycenaean Pylos (Oakland, CA)

Davis, J.L. (2023) Ένα ελληνικό κράτος νπό διαμόρφωση: οι απαρχές της μνκηναϊκής Πύλον (Heraklion)

Devoto, C. (2022) Coins of Knossos: Between Archaeology and History (Rome)

Diomidis, A.P. and Meyer, C. (2023) Drawing the Greek Vase (New York)

Dogiama, L. (2022) Projectile Points, Hunting and Identity at the Neolithic Çatalhöyük, Turkey (Oxford)

Dosuna, M., Julián, T.G.P. and García, C.V. (eds) (2022) TA-U-RO-QO-RO: Studies in Mycenaean Texts, Language and Culture in Honor of José Luis Melena Jiménez (Washington, DC)

Doudalis, G. (2022) Mochlos in the Protopalatial Period: Ceramic Analysis and Social Perspectives in the Middle Bronze Age (Heidelberg)

Drakopoulos, T. (2022) Mεσαιωνικές Aιρέσεις: οι Bογομίλοι-Καθαροί (Athens)

Franković, F. (2023) To Die (and Live) Between Two Worlds: Re-examining the Burial Practices in the 14th and 13th Century BCE East Aegean–West Anatolian Region and the Cycladic Islands (Bonn)

Fraser, J.A., Llewellyn-Jones, L. and Bishop-Wright, H. (2023) Luxury and Power: Persia to Greece (London)

Grand-Clément, A. (2023) Au plaisir des dieux: expériences du sensible dans les rituels en Grèce ancienne (Toulouse)

Greenberg, R. and Hamilakis, Y. (2022) Archaeology, Nation, and Race: Confronting the Past, Decolonizing the Future in Greece and Israel (Cambridge)

Hajnal, I., Zangger, E. and Kelder, J. (eds) (2022) The Political Geography of Western Anatolia in the Late Bronze Age: Proceedings of the EAA Conference, Bern, 7 September 2019 (Budapest)

Hoffmann, S. (2023) Between Deity and Dedicator: The Life and Agency of Greek Votive Terracotta Figurines (Berlin)

Hofmann, D., Klingenberg, A. and Zimmermann, K. (eds) (2023) Religion und Epigraphik. Kleinasien, der griechische Osten und die Mittelmeerwelt: Festschrift zum 65. Geburtstag von Walter Ameling (Bonn)

Hosni, A. (2023) Forgeries and the Authenticity of Archaeology (Newcastle upon Tyne)

Innemée, K.C. (ed.) (2022) The Value of a Human Life: Ritual Killing and Human Sacrifice in Antiquity (Leiden)

Ivanovici, V. and Sullivan, A.I. (2023) Natural Light in Medieval Churches (Leiden; Boston)

Johnston, J. and Gardner, I. (eds) (2022) Drawing Spirit: The Role of Images and Design in the Magical Practice of Late Antiquity (Berlin)

Kakissis, A.G. (ed.) (2023) Byzantium and British Heritage: Byzantine Influences on the Arts and Crafts Movement (Abingdon)

Khansa, E., Klein, E. and Winckler, B. (eds) (2022) Thinking Through Ruins: Genealogies, Functions, and Interpretations (Berlin)

Loy, M. (2023) Connecting Communities in Archaic Greece: Exploring Economic and Political Networks through Data Modelling (Cambridge)

Manning, S.W. (ed.) (2022) Critical Approaches to Cypriot and Wider Mediterranean Archaeology (Sheffield)

Marangou, A. and Petit, T. (2023) Le palais d’Amathonte : des origines à la fin de l’Antiquité : état de la recherche (Rennes)

Margaritis, E., Oikonomou, A., Nikita, E. and Rehren, T. (eds) (2023) Field Sampling for Laboratory Analysis in Archaeology (Nicosia)

Mattern, T. and Goester, Y. (2023) Thisoa am Lykaion (Wiesbaden)

Mattila, R., Fink, S. and Ito, S (eds) (2022) Evidence Combined: Western and Eastern Sources in Dialogue (Vienna)

Meneghetti, F. (2022) Miniature Oxhide Ingots from Late Bronze Age Cyprus: An Update on the Material (Bonn)

Meyer, N.O. (ed.) (2022) The Real Israel Disembarked: The Phoenician Origins of Samaria (Leuven)

Milka, E. (2023) Mortuary Differentiation and Social Structure in the Middle Helladic Argolid, 2000–1500 BC (Oxford)

Moles, A.C. (2023) Urbanism and its Impact on Human Health: A Long-term Study at Knossos, Crete (Oxford)

Mühlenbruch, T. (2022) Heinrich Schliemann und die Naturwissenschaften: Festvortrag anlässlich des 200. Geburtstags von Heinrich Schliemann (Neubukow)

Mull, J. (2022) Towards the Borders of the Bronze Age and Beyond: Mycenaean Long Distance Travel and its Reflection in Myth (Leiden)

Nevett, L.C. (2023) Ancient Greek Housing (Cambridge)

Nilsson, M., Almásy-Martin, A. and Ward, J. (2023) Greek Inscriptions on the East Bank (Leiden; Boston)

Nishiaki, Y., Maeda, O. and Arimura, M. (eds) (2022) Tracking the Neolithic in the Near East: Lithic Perspectives on Its Origins, Development and Dispersals. The Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on the PPN Chipped and Ground Stone Industries of the Near East, Tokyo, 12th–16th November 2019 (Leiden)

Nudell, J.P. (2023) Accustomed to Obedience? Classical Ionia and the Aegean World, 480–294 BC (Ann Arbor)

Papantoniou, G., Vionis, A.K. and Morris, C.E. (eds) (2022) Unlocking Sacred Landscapes: Religious and Insular Identities in Context (Basel)

Paul, J.W. (2022) Worked Animal Bone of the Neolithic North Aegean (Leuven)

Pavlin, P. (2023) Typology, Chronology, and Distribution of Bronze Age Tanged Sickles in South-Eastern Europe (Ljubljana)

Pedrucci, G. (2022) Votive Statuettes of Adults and Infants in Ancient Italy from the End of the 7th to 1st c. BCE: A New Reading. Volume II: Campania, Magna Graecia, Sicily (Rome)

Pologiorgi, M.I. (2023.) Bρανρών: λίθινα και φαγεντιανά αφιερώματα (Athens)

Price, T.D. (ed.) (2023) Isotopic Provenencing and Mobility: The Current State of Research (Cham)

Raaflaub, K.A. (ed.) (2023) Bürger und Staat im griechisch-römischen Altertum: gesammelte Schriften von Walter Eder (Stuttgart)

Recht, L. (ed.) (2022) The Spirited Horse: Equid–Human Relations in the Bronze Age Near East (London)

Rönnberg, M. and Sossau, V. (eds) (2022) Regions and Communities in Early Greece (1200–550 BCE) (Rahden)

Roux, M. (2023) La colonisation militaire en Phrygie (IVe siècle avant-IIIe après J.-C.) : dynamiques spatiales, économiques et sociales (Lyon)

Şahoğlu, V. (2023) Hayat: A Life Dedicated to Archaeology. Studies in Mediterranean Archaeology in Memory of Hayat Erkanal (Ankara)

Schmidts, T. and Triantafillidis, I. (eds) (2022) Mare Thracium: Archaeology and History of Coastal Landscapes and Islands of the Thracian Sea During Antiquity and the Byzantine Era (Mainz)

Sezgin, Y. (2022) Aigai: An Archaeological Guide (Istanbul)

Sitz, A.M. (ed.) (2023) Pagan Inscriptions, Christian Viewers: The Afterlives of Temples and Their Texts in the Late Antique Eastern Mediterranean (New York)

Trümper, M., Lappi, T. and Lengyel, D. (2023) House of the Two Skeletons at Morgantina (Wiesbaden)

Tsagrakis, A. (2022) H Γραμμική B γραφή: επιγραφές Γραμμικής B σε αγγεία, σε σφραγίσματα και σε δνσερμήνεντες πινακίδες χωρίς λογόγραμμα. Aποκατάσταση τον κειμένον θρανσμένων πινακίδων. Tα έγγραφα των σειρών V-, W-, X-, Z- Γραμμικής B (Athens)

Tsangari, D. and Paraskevopoulos, K. (eds) (2023) The Other Side of the Coin: Persons, Images, Moments (Athens)

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Acknowledgements

We would like to express our warmest thanks to all the contributors to this year’s volume, to Ioannis Dalezios (BSA systems administrator) and Nathan Meyer (BSA volunteer) for the production of the excellent maps, to Tania Gerousi (BSA administrator) and to Niki Papakonstantinou (BSA administrative assistant) for much practical help regarding copyright and images, to Evi Charitoudi (BSA librarian), Evgenia Villioti (BSA assistant librarian), Lyn Bailey (Cambridge), and Stephen Howe (Cambridge) for bibliographic advice, and to Mary Hobbins for her superb assistance in the publication of this issue. We also express our thanks to Vicki Verona and Jamie McIntyre (CUP) and to Fiona Haarer, the journal’s executive editor and secretary of the Hellenic Society, for advice and encouragement. We take this opportunity to thank Yannis Galanakis, previous co-editor of AR, for instructive and helpful advice on taking up the reins for this volume.

Numerous individuals and institutions, credited in the appropriate captions, granted us permission to use images; without them, this issue would not have been possible. It is thanks to the hard work of the members of the Greek Archaeological Service and museums, and the fruitful collaborations between colleagues and institutions based in various countries and rooted in different scholarly traditions, that we are able to report on new discoveries, academic discourses, and the vibrant scene of archaeology in Greece.

Competing interests

Tulsi Parikh co-authored this introduction while A.G. Leventis Fellow in Hellenic Studies at the British School at Athens.