The L.H. IIIB deposits from Mycenae fall into two distinguishable groups. The earlier, called L.H. IIIB 1, is represented by the pottery from the destruction level in the houses east of the modern road and south of the tomb of Clytemnestra. The destruction to which we owe these deposits appears to have occurred late in the L.H. IIIB 1 phase, and probably also affected the houses on the Atreus ridge. The later group, classified as L.H. IIIB 2, has been found in buildings within the Citadel and also in isolated contexts outside the walls. The deposits from within the Citadel come from the debris of a second, more widespread, destruction which affected other centres as well as Mycenae. The differentiation of the two periods was confirmed in the Citadel House area by the finding of deposits of L.H. IIIB 2 stratified above others of L.H. IIIB 1 character. The pottery of both these phases from the Citadel House will be published in the general account of the excavations which have taken place in that area since 1959. The detailed publication of the whole vases from the L.H. IIIB 1 destruction level of the houses outside the walls is planned for the next article in this series.

The fragments of an early Mycenaean pictorial krater decorated with fish from Maroni in Cyprus are discussed and illustrated. The piece is considered within the broader context of contemporary representations, and it is suggested that Minoan representations of bird and fish motifs provided the inspiration for the use of these two themes in the early stages of Mycenaean vase-painting.

§ 1. There follow two transliterations, in the first of which I have put down only those letters which seem to me now absolutely certain (from the photograph, the impression, and Mr. Bosanquet's notes); the letters underlined are slightly injured but still clear. In the second I have indicated all the readings which seem to me to be reasonably probable from the indications of the impression, corrected by Mr. Bosanquet's reading of the stone wherever he felt it was certain. Where his repeated examination left him still in some doubt, it seems wisest to leave the text suggested by the impression, as giving at least possible alternatives. In the second transcription only those letters are underlined which appear to me open to some degree of doubt.

The Agiasmati cave in SW Crete, investigated as part of the Sphakia Survey, served as a sanctuary in the Hellenistic-Early Roman period. It has four points of interest, (1) Two of its principal types of artefacts, ladles and multiple-nozzle lamps are rare or even unique to this site. (2) Fabric analysis has enabled significant progress to be made with the interpretation of the pottery. (3) Cave worship in this period is not well known on Crete. (4) Intensive exploration by the Sphakia Survey of the region in which the cave lies enables us to place the cave in the context of the contemporary settlement pattern and to reconfirm the value of archaeological survey.

The village of Senirdje is situated some 15 km. to the N.N.W. of Isbarta (Baris), in northern Pisidia, in a gap in the hills dividing the plain of Isbarta from the plain of Ketchiborlu, through which the line of the railway-extension from Ketchiborlu to Egerdir now passes. Close to the village is a low, flat mound, in marshy ground, which, when I visited it in 1911, was entirely flooded owing to the severity of the previous winter. The mound, the northern part of which is traversed by the railway-cutting, rises to a height of 13 feet above the level of the plain, and 11 ft. 6 in. above the rail, at a point 150 feet to the right of the centre-line. The top of the northern bank of the cutting is about five feet above the rail, the southern bank about 9 feet. Some 18 inches down to the level of the plain remain unexcavated.

The paper describes the continuation in 1993–4 of the investigation into the Canal of Xerxes in the Chalkidiki, N. Greece. Effort was concentrated in the central sector of the isthmus, where geophysical survey using seismic methods revealed a channel-like structure some 14–15 m below the present ground level. Encouraging support for the hypothesis that this structure is a canal came from the analysis of cores from two boreholes in the central sector: there was a marked discontinuity in the sediments at a depth of c.14.6 m. Radiocarbon dates of some sediments from these boreholes provided useful ancillary information.

In 1901 excavations were conducted under the auspices of the Cretan Exploration Fund at Praisos and Kato Zakro in eastern Crete. One of the members of the party was John Hubert Marshall, formerly of King's College, Cambridge. During his journey to and from the excavations, and described in the correspondence of Robert Carr Bosanquet, Marshall seems to have acquired antiquities from a number of sites which were purchased by the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge later in the year. This material included antiquities from Palaikastro which was to be become the scene of major excavations by the British School at Athens. Marshall was awarded a Craven Studentship at the British School at Athens in 1901, but in February 1902 was appointed Director-General of the Archaeological Survey of India. It was Marshall's experience of excavation on Crete which was to influence the development of archaeological fieldwork in India.

An important tomb group was discovered during the 1992 excavations of the Late Cypriot II town at Kalavasos–Ayios Dhimitrios. The tomb contained large quantities of Mycenaean ceramics, ranging in date between LH III A 2 and III B. Of particular importance was a chariot krater with the representation on both sides of a shrine, surmounted by horns of consecration, housing a seated female figure. As yet the iconography is unmatched among the known corpus of Mycenaean pictorial vases, though it appears to be related to Minoan–Mycenaean iconography known from other media.

The difficulties that hedged round the Garden of the Hesperides in the Greek seem still destined to make the Cyrenaica, a country to which the eyes of archæologists have so wistfully turned, almost as inaccessible to the modern traveller as to the heroes of ancient fable. The classic maidens have vanished, the Garden is somewhat run to seed, but the dragon of early legend is there, in the person of the native official who guards the historical treasures that lie strewn over the rich sites of the Pentapolis, stately tombs that worthless Arabs kennel in or plunder for statues and vases, to be peddled to Maltese or Greeks for (literally) home consumption or foreign export.

In June and July of 1954 a team often divers spent just over four weeks exploring the east coast of Chios. The team was based on Emporio in the south-east, where the British School was excavating under the direction of M. S. F. Hood and J. Boardman, and was thus able to rely on the archaeologists there for expert guidance. Most of the underwater work took place in this area, but the team was also able to spend some time exploring the north-east coasts of the island, thanks to Mr. Tom Dupree, who put his yacht Kerynia at their disposal.

The main diving equipment consisted of three twin-cylinder aqualungs with three spare twin-cylinder air-tanks, and a compressor to recharge them with air, belonging to the British School at Athens. The purchase of this expensive equipment had been made possible by the great generosity of Lord Kelmsley and the Sunday Times newspaper. Miss Dilys Powell, as representative of the Sunday Times, joined the expedition for two weeks and took an active part in the work.

Two ‘twin’ type B black-glaze skyphoi with an unusual profile to the base are described. Other examples of Type B skyphoi are listed, and the problem of origins discussed.

This article presents a new built chamber tomb from Argos. The tomb was found intact, allowing for detailed observations on its architecture and construction. It contained the remains of at least fifteen burials, together with abundant Mycenaean pottery, bronzes, ivory items, a sealstone and other small finds, dating from LH I to LH III B1 (although most are LH I–II B/III A1). Another two tombs of the same type have been found on the site, dating to LH I and LH II A. Comparison with other Early Mycenaean graves from Argos suggests that built chamber tombs were the largest and wealthiest, apparently belonging to local élite groups.

‘It is a singular fact regarding the eparkhia of Agios Vasiles, that throughout its whole extent not any ancient city has been discovered; and yet there can be no doubt that in one or two of the most populous of these valleys there must have been a town of more or less importance. To all my inquiries, however, in my two journeys through the greater part of the province, I could learn of no ruins or traditional site of any Hellenic city. … Notwithstanding this denial, I am induced to call the attention of any future traveller to this absence of any recognized ancient site in so large a district …’ So Captain Spratt at the end of the second volume of his Travels and Researches in Crete, published in 1865.

Viewed from the promontory of Perachora—and especially by night—there is a great contrast between the southern shores of the Gulf of Corinth and the northern shore of the Halcyonic gulf. To the south an almost continuous line of habitation is clearly visible—to the north, only the darkness of a coast where the mountains appear to drop directly into the sea. These mountains constitute a considerable barrier, beginning with the greatest of them, Helicon, to the west, set a little inland: next, on the very edge of the sea, Korombili; and then, further over to the east, the outliers of Cithaeron, which leave only the notoriously difficult route round the coast to Aegosthena by which a Spartan army precariously escaped. It is not surprising that the cities of the Boeotian hinterland largely turned their backs on the sea: except for certain events, to be considered below, this coast played little part in Boeotian history.

There are three significant harbours, or usable beaches, along this Boeotian coast (Fig. 1a). To the east, at the end of the bay between Cithaeron and Korombili is the beach of Livadhostro, the ancient Creusis. It is not a good beach, being open and exposed to the wind. Communication with the hinterland is not easy, and there is no modern road. The Thebans, in the year of Leuctra, kept a small fleet there, perhaps through compulsion rather than choice. At the extreme western end of this section of coast is the harbour of Sarandi. Between these two harbours, and to the west of Korombili, is the great landlocked bay of Domvraina. Even within this bay much of the coast is mountainous and abrupt, but there are two small harbours at the western end, and a reasonably large, very well-sheltered beach and harbour at the eastern end.

This addendum presents the tables of the chemical compositions of Late Bronze Age pottery that were omitted from the authors' paper with the same title, published in 1991 in the Proceedings of the Conference on Bronze Age Trade in the Mediterranean (Oxford 1989). In addition, a short description and bibliography is provided for those sites in Italy, Sardinia, and Sicily from which the pottery was analysed.

During a rescue excavation in the village of Magoula near Sparta, a pit was revealed which contained a heap of fragments of large and small vessels, the products of an unglazed ware pottery workshop. This paper presents the distinctive features of the workshop; the characteristic incised decoration on the strap-handle is considered its ‘trade mark’. The operation of the workshop is dated to the first half or the middle of the 12th cent., and its production is identified in large closed vessels (stamnia) and small jugs for everyday use.

Lead slingshots discovered on Cretan sites carry considerable weight regarding the nature of warfare on the island in the Late Classical and Hellenistic periods. On Crete, inscribed lead sling bullets have been reported from nine archaeological sites while a further inscribed slingshot, issued by the Phalasarnians, has been discovered on the neighbouring island of Antikythera.

Text on slingshots was conceived of, and cast as, an integral component of the weapon, thereby representing a fundamental aspect of the weapon's design. Slingshots bearing text are illuminating artefacts as not only can they reflect military action, leadership and civic affiliations, but they also raise questions regarding literacy levels within the forces and prompt debate concerning the psychological potential of such communications. It is the purpose of this paper to present the growing corpus of Cretan material against a wider backdrop of evidence, with a view to understanding the overarching role and purpose of such inscribed communications and to assess the degree of Cretan conformity with, or deviation from, broader military trends.

In 1913 an essay of mine appeared in the JHS (XXXIII 27 ff.) entitled ‘Three Greek Numeral Systems.’ Shortly afterwards I published in this Annual (XVIII 98 ff.) an article on ‘The Greek Numeral Notation,’ in which I collected and summarised the available evidence for all the numeral systems of the acrophonic type used among the Greeks and set forth the main conclusions to which that evidence pointed. In a later volume (XXVIII 141 ff.) I added some ‘Further Notes on the Greek Acrophonic Numerals,’ recording the examples which had accumulated since the publication of my previous article and giving a new and fuller edition of an important text from a site near Andania in Messenia (IG V 1. 1532). No further discussion of the subject has appeared and scholars have repeatedly cited my articles as giving the fullest and most recent treatment of it.

In January 1974 traces of a built tomb were found in the angle between the Knossos and Fortetsa roads, close to the Venizeleion Hospital (Fig. 1). A bulldozer had been cutting out a driveway on the south side of the Tzatzadakis house, between it and the adjacent olive grove (plan, Fig. 1) when the discovery was made. At the request of Dr. St. Alexiou, Ephor of Antiquities for Crete, a rescue excavation was carried out from 11 to 15 February 1974 by H. W. Catling, for the British School. The trenches were refilled immediately after the excavation.

The bronzes from the Orthia site are both individually and collectively of sufficient interest to bèar frequent discussion, and additional notes on some of the more important items cannot come amiss. Their appearance here facilitates direct comparison with the series from the Acropolis: this is particularly useful when applied to bronzes which, like Acropolis Nos. 4 and 6, and Orthia Nos. 13–16, are presumed to be of Spartan manufacture; it is also illuminating in the case of minor objects, some of which, like the votive fruits and the miniature vases, are common to both sites, while others, like the Geometric animals, are associated with one site only.