The Proto- and Neopalatial Town
Published by: British School at Athens
Supplementary Volumes No. 47

Authors: Carl Knappett, Tim Cunningham
Block M is a substantial architectural complex comprising three large buildings at the heart of the Minoan town of Palaikastro. With traces of activity stretching back to the Prepalatial period, and occupation in the Protopalatial period, Block M sees its most intensive use in the Neopalatial period, in the 17th century BC. This period sees widespread construction, followed by two severe destruction horizons: the first seismic, the second associated with the Theran eruption, by which time the Block may already have been in ruins. Its subsequent history is very different from that usually encountered elsewhere in the town - it became an open area used only for the dumping of refuse in two abandoned wells, without widespread reoccupation in the LM II-III periods. This volume presents the results of excavations conducted by the British School at Athens, which uncovered these extensive remains in the late 1980s, 1990s and 2003. These investigations have helped to elucidate the character of this important town during the Middle and early Late Bronze Ages, and offer valuable evidence for relations between eastern Crete and sites in the centre of the island such as Knossos. xvi + 338p, tables 2, text figs. 180, pocket plans 2, half-tone plates 36, colour plate 1.

ISBN: 978-0-904887-65-5

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Early Minoan
Published by: British School at Athens
Supplementary Volumes No. 46

Authors: M.S.F. Hood, Gerald Cadogan
Knossos Excavations 1957-61: Early Minoan edited by Sinclair Hood and Gerald Cadogan From 1957 to 1961 the British School at Athens undertook an extensive programme of stratigraphical excavations at Knossos under Sinclair Hood, then Director of the School. This report publishes in detail the results of investigations into Early Minoan levels, which shed much new light on the era before the "Old Palace" was established. The three excavations comprised: an Early Minoan I deep well, the oldest at Knossos; trials on the north side of the Royal Road, with Early Minoan II-III house remains; and similar trials in the Early Houses below the South Front of the Palace, which included investigation of the South Front House of Early Minoan III. The volume provides invaluable data on the types and phased development of pottery in this major settlement site of the third millennium BC, a period when much of our Cretan evidence derives from tombs. It also helps to chronicle the expansion of Knossos during the Early Bronze Age and offers new insights into the material culture of Prepalatial society, including possible feasting in Early Minoan I, new evidence for olives and wine and well-dated Early Minoan III seal impressions of the Parading Lions group. A valuable addition is a chapter devoted to other Early Minoan pottery from Knossos held in museums in Europe and the USA. Copiously illustrated with line drawings and photographs, the volume will serve as a major resource for all interested in early cultural developments in the Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean. 395p, 65 half-tone plates, 90 text figs, 30 tables (British School at Athens, 2011)

ISBN: 978-0-904887-64-8

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Published by: British School at Athens
Supplementary Volumes No. 45

This is the account of an excavation by the British School at Athens at the major Mycenaean settlement in the central Eurotas valley of Laconia, close to the site of ancient and modern Sparta, in the south-central Peloponnese. The site was first identified and partly explored by the British School (under its sixth Director, R. M. Dawkins) in 1909–10. This volume presents the results of fieldwork undertaken by the School in 1973–77, 1980 and 1985, led by the then Director, H. W. Catling. Excavation of the Mycenaean settlement concentrated on the upper part of the Menelaion ridge — comprising the North Hill, the Menelaion and Prophitis Elias Hills, and Aetos — covering an area of not less than 10 hectares. The ridge may have been first occupied during the Final Neolithic; there had certainly been a small Early Helladic settlement. All three hilltops had traces of Middle Helladic use, including several burials. Reinvestigation of the 1910 complex on the Menelaion Hill revealed superimposed ‘Mansions’, the earlier built in the 15th c. BC (LH IIB), the later in the earlier 14th c.(LH IIIA1). Their plans suggest prototypes for the much larger 13th c. palaces at Mycenae, Tiryns and Epano Englianos (Pylos). On the North Hill remains were damaged by severe erosion, but on Aetos a 15th–13/12th c. building sequence was associated with a ruined, once massive terrace wall. The present volume presents an exhaustive account of the Bronze Age structures (ca 50 in all) spread across the Menelaion Ridge. Detailed considerations of the stratigraphy and architecture are supported by approximately 175 plans and sections; a further 25 in-text illustrations elucidate specific features. The pottery from each deposit is presented in catalogue format, supported by statistical analyses, drawings and photographs. In addition, there is an overall appraisal of the ceramic finds, in relation to those attested elsewhere in mainland Greece and beyond. Also catalogued and discussed are ‘small finds’, including objects of metal, terracotta figurines, spinning and weaving equipment, and objects of stone. The few seals and sealings are described by H. Hughes-Brock. Painted wall plasters and architectural stone are also fully treated. A final chapter considers topographical and environmental issues, and places the Menelaion within the context of both Laconian and wider Aegean developments Much further information is gathered in CD-Rom form, including the 1910 excavation records and commentary; and full qualitative and quantitative tabulations of uncatalogued pottery. Appendices by R. E. Jones present technical analyses of plasters and pigments; XRF analysis of bronzes; the proton magnetometer survey; and chemical analyses of pottery (with J. Tomlinson). Further appendices concern human skeletal material (N. Brodie); and animal bone (G. Jones). Two volume set. Vol. 1. Text: xxxvi + 488. CD-Rom. Vol. 2. Figures & Plates: xviii + 348 plans / figures + 138 half-tones.

ISBN: 9780904887594

Price: £205 + post/packing (£143.5+ post/packing to individual Subscribers and Friends of the British School at Athens).

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Excavations at a Bronze Age and Medieval Settlement in Southern Laconia
Published by: British School at Athens
Supplementary Volumes No. 44

Lord William Taylour’s excavations at Ayios Stephanos in 1959-77 investigated a port that relied on trade, fishing and metallurgy. It lay just north of the main Minoan east-west trade route via Kythera and exported the rare stone lapis lacedaemonius to Cretan workshops. As a Linear A inscription shows, the site illuminates the diffusion of Minoan culture to the mainland. Ayios Stephanos yielded a stratified pottery sequence from EH I to LH IIIC, with a break at the end of the Early Bronze Age. Study of this sequence has vastly improved our knowledge of the chronology, clarifying Cretan relations with the mainland. There were three phases of EH. After disastrous fires, rectangular buildings replaced the MH I apsidal dwellings, and the street plan came to resemble Minoan prototypes. The pottery illuminates the invention of Mycenaen ceramics. In line with the fortunes of Crete, the site declined in LH IIA, traded with Knossos in LH IIIA1, and declined again. It briefly revived in LH IIIC Early, probably following an influx of refugees. Then it was abandoned, perhaps after a massacre. Ayios Stephanos was reoccupied in c. 1270 AD, when a building with a walled yard and stables was erected to guard the approach to Skala along the River Vasilopotamos. This phase fills a gap in our knowledge, since no site of this period has been excavated south of Corinth. After 1321 a hostile raid plunged the site into oblivion. This publication studies the architecture and stratigraphy, the burials, the Medieval period, the pottery and small finds, the human and other organic remains, the settlement pattern and the regional and historical context. Numerous figures and plates document the results. Appendices containing techinical analyses, stratigraphic tables and concordances are on an accompanying CD

ISBN: 9780904887587

Price: £150 + post/packing (£105+ post/packing to individual Subscribers and Friends of the British School at Athens).

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Published by: British School at Athens
Supplementary Volumes No. 43
Editors: Hugh Sackett, Alexander Macgillivray, Jan Driessen

When Sir Arthur Evans was establishing the chronology of the Minoan period at Knossos in the early twentieth century, Robert Carr Bosanquet and his team from the British School at Athens began to define the contemporary sequence at Palaikastro in eastern Crete. One of the aims of the recent British School excavations at Palaikastro is to refine the early excavator’s results and to explore social, political and environmental change within the Cretan Bronze Age. The discovery of two wells with undisturbed layers of the LM IB to LM IIIA2 periods (the fifteenth and fourteenth centuries BC) provided a rare opportunity to study the pottery chronology and development in detail, but also to look at diet, foreign connections, and religious practices at that time. One surprise was the discovery of the remains of several dogs related to the modern Cretan Tracer Hound. Another was part of an exquisite stone vase with dolphins carved in relief. This volume gives the first detailed template of LM IB to LM IIIA2 pottery at Palaikastro along with final reports on the wells’ excavation and complete contents by members of the international team of specialists who excavate at Palaikastro. Volume contents: 1. Introduction (L. H. Sackett, J. A. MacGillivray and J. M. Driessen); 2. Well 576: excavation and stratigraphy (S. M. Thorne); 3. Well 576: the pottery deposits and ceramic sequence (E. M. Hatzaki); 4. Well 605: Stratigraphy and Catalogue (J. A. MacGillivray); 5. The Late Minoan pottery (J. A. MacGillivray); 6. The ceramic petrography of LM III A2 conical cup fabrics (C. Doherty); The stone and terracotta finds (D. Evely); 8. The stamped seal impression on pot 251 (J. Weingarten); 9. The stone ‘horns of consecration’ or ‘twin peaks’ (J. A. MacGillivray); 10. The animal bones (S. Wall-Crowther); 11. Archaeobotanical observations (A. Sarpaki); 12. The fish remains (D. Mylonas); 13. Shells and snails (D. Reese); 14. Synthesis (L. H. Sackett and J. A. MacGillivray) pp xv + ca 245: figs. 113, tables 20, half-tone plates 47 ISBN: 9780904887570

ISBN: 9780904887570

Price: £79 + post/packing (£55+ post/packing to individual Subscribers and Friends of the British School at Athens).

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