Acknowledgements. The work on which this article is based forms part of a Ph.D. thesis (University of St. Andrews) and, as such, has been aided by awards from the following: the British School at Athens (School Studentship), the Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland, the Meyerstein Fund (Oxford University), the University of St. Andrews Travel Fund; and by a period of leave of absence generously granted by the University of Glasgow. To all these bodies I am greatly indebted.

For help and advice of various kinds, I should like to thank Mrs. K. Bolton (née Scholes), Professor J. L. Caskey, Professor Sp. Iakovides, Mr. M. R. Popham, and Professor A. C. Renfrew. My special gratitude is due to Dr. H. W. Catling for much patient advice and criticism. The responsibility for remaining defects is naturally mine alone.

I have received a great deal of kind assistance from members of the Greek Archaeological Service in the Cyclades, Dr. C. Doumas, Mr. Y. Tsedakis, Dr. and Mrs. N. Zaphiropoulos, and from the staff of the museum on Melos, Mr. S. Markandonis and Mr. A. Karamitsos.

The figures are the work of Mrs. A. Watrous and the typescript of Mrs. Christa Mee. For their generous and willing help in these and many other ways, I cannot give adequate thanks.

Abbreviations other than standard

FM, FS = Motifs and shapes as enumerated in Arne Furumark, The Mycenaean Pottery, Analysis and Classification, 1941.

MM Cat = Catalogue of Pottery from Phylakopi in the Melos Museum (see below, 2).

PM = SirEvans, Arthur, The Palace of Minos at Knossos i–iv, 1921–1936.Google ScholarPMB= Pottery notebook of the 1911 season at Phylakopi (see below, 2).

SNB = Site notebook of the 1911 season at Phylakopi (see below, 2).

Buck = Buck, Robert J., ‘Middle Helladic Mattpainted Pottery’, Hesperia xxxiii (1964) 231.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

Eutresis = Hetty Goldman, Excavations at Eutresis in Boeotia, 1931.

Keos Pt I = Caskey, John L., ‘Investigations in Keos. Part I: Excavations and Explorations, 1966–70’, Hesperia xl (1971) 359.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

Keos Pt 11 = Caskey, John L., ‘Investigations in Keos. Part II: A Conspectus of the Pottery’, Hesperia xli (1972) 357.CrossRefGoogle ScholarKythera = J. N. Coldstream and G. L. Huxley (Edd.), Kythera, 1972.

Mylonas = A, B, 1972.

Pendlebury = J. D. S. Pendlebury, The Archaeology of Crete, 1939.

Phylakopi = T. D. Atkinson and others, Excavations at Phylakopi in Melos (Supplementary Paper of the Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies), 1904.

Renfrew = Colin Renfrew, The Emergence of Civilisation: The Cyclades and the Aegean in the Third Millennium B.C., 1972.

Scholes = Scholes, K., ‘The Cyclades in the Later Bronze Age: A Synopsis’, BSA li (1956) 9.Google Scholar

Thera i–v = Spyridon Marinatos, Excavations at Thera, Preliminary Reports I–V (Seasons 1967–71), 1968–72.

Zervos = Christian Zervos, L'Art des Cyclades, 1957.

¹ Published in Phylakopi.

² For publications to date on the Ayia Irini site see Keos Pt I 359 n. 1 and Keos Pt II 357 n. 2. For Akrotiri see Thera i–v.

³ Duncan Mackenzie, Daybook of the Excavations at Phylakopi in Melos 1896–99. Unpublished transcript by Colin Renfrew.

⁴ BSA xvii (1910–11) 1–22 pis. i-xiv.

⁵ Items 2, 3, and 4 are in the Library of the British School at Athens.

⁶ Chapter X.

⁷ BSA xvii 3.

⁸ Chapter IV.

⁹ Phylakopi 239–43.

¹⁰ Renfrew Chapter X.

¹¹ Phylakopi 243–54.

¹² Op. cit. 105.

¹³ Op. cit. 254–63.

¹⁴ Op. cit. 263–72.

¹⁵ Op. cit. 259–61.

¹⁶ BSA xvii 19.

¹⁷ BSA xvii 20.

¹⁸ Renfrew 511.

¹⁹ This vase is incorrectly noted in the Melos Museum Catalogue as being BSA xvii pl. x. 86.

²⁰ Keos Pt II 387.

²¹ Ibid. 381, 388.

²² Phylakopl 270.

²³ Scholes 35.

²⁴ SNB 6.

²⁵ PNB 9a.

²⁶ See below, Section 13.

²⁷ Phylakopl 105.

²⁸ Op. cit. 96.

²⁹ Op. cit. 103.

³⁰ Op. cit. 94.

³¹ See above, n. 27.

³² Zervos pl. 234.

³³ Scholes 14.

³⁴ Buck 247, Shape CI (Barrel Jar); also 287.

³⁵ Phvlakopl 249 and pl. viii. 4.

³⁶ The convex upper profile seems characteristic of the MH pithoi, e.g. Hesperia xxiv (1955) pl. 12b (from Lerna).

³⁷ Scholes 14.

³⁸ See above.

³⁹ Buck M100.

⁴⁰ Keos Pt II fig. 8.

⁴¹ Phylakopl 250–1, where vases like pl. ix. 2 are said to have come from contexts earlier than I–iii, but most of the vases on pl. ix with rudimentary curvilinear motifs to belong to the final floors of I.

⁴² Op. cit. 98.

⁴³ See above, n. 41.

⁴⁴ Phylakopl pl. xiv.

⁴⁵ See Scholes 14 for references.

⁴⁶ Renfrew 511.

⁴⁷ See also Phylakopl pl. viii. 8 and 12; pl. x. 1–5.

⁴⁸ section 7. 3.

⁴⁹ For details of this form see Phylakopl 102 and refs.

⁵⁰ I refer to the three successive types described in Phylakopl 103, as 2a, 2bi, and 2bii.

⁵¹ Phylakopl pl. xi. 2; pl. xii. 24, 26, 27.

⁵² (1969), Πτν. viii, ἀρ. 6945.

⁵³ Phylakopl 259, 260.

⁵⁴ Op. cit. 156 and pl. xxiv. 15, also Scholes 14.

⁵⁵ Op. cit. 171.

⁵⁶ Keos Pt II E24. (pl. 88).

⁵⁷ Cf. Hesperia xxvi (1957) pl. 43b.

⁵⁸ Keos Pt II 376 and 387.

⁵⁹ Phylakopl 152; BSA xvii. 19.

⁶⁰ See n. 59.

⁶¹ AM xlii (1917) pl. 56.

⁶² Phylakopl 251–2.

⁶³ AE 1899 pl. ix. 6, 24, 27.

⁶⁴ Keos Pt II 381, 383; see also sherds from Phylakopl in ADelt xxii (1967) pl. 346 δ.

⁶⁵ Phylakopl 152 and MM443 (FIG. 3 and PLATE Ib).

⁶⁶ 152.

⁶⁷ Op. cit. 153fr.; BSA xvii. 19; Schales 16.

⁶⁸ Eleusis: Κ. Κουρουνιώτης, Ἐλενοινιακά 1932, Εἰκ. 59, though the vases illustrated have thinner feet than the Phylakopl examples; Mycenae, : BSA xxv (1934–1935) fig. 44.Google Scholar

⁶⁹ Unless Eutresis fig. 133, 10 (EHII).

⁷⁰ Pendlebury pl. xvii, 2d and 3a–33.

⁷¹ Pendlebury pl. xxii. 2.

⁷² See also ADelt xx ( 1965) 514 and pl. 645 δ for an interesting recent surface find.

⁷³ BSA xvii. 19.

⁷⁴ Keos Pt II D128–33 (fig. 9 and pl. 84).

⁷⁵ Op. cit. 387.

⁷⁶ For this terminology and a most illuminating discussion of the MH period see Howell, R. J., ‘The origins of the Middle Helladic Culture’, in Crossland, R. A. and Birchall, Ann (Edd.), Bronze Age Migrations in the Aegean, 1973, 73.Google Scholar I am extremely grateful to Mr. Howell for allowing me to see a draft of his article in advance of publication.

⁷⁷ Scholes 18 discussed this section under the dual headings of Curvilinear and Naturalistic Style.

⁷⁸ Phylakopi 106.

⁷⁹ Schales 18.

⁸⁰ For motifs see Phylakopi 109.

⁸¹ Amorgos: CVA Denmark i pl. 37, 3; Kea: Keos Pt II D62, 63, 69; apparently none in F; Naxos: Renfrew pl. 13, I; Tenos: Scholes 19; Knossos: Renfrew 199 and pl. 13, 2; Lerna, : Hesperia xxvi (1957) 152Google Scholar, illustrated in Archaeology ix (1956) 219.

⁸² Thera iv col. pl. H and pl. 69b.

⁸³ Thera ii pl. 36.

⁸⁴ For motifs see Phylakopi 110.

⁸⁵ Op. cit. 114.

⁸⁶ Op. cit. 260.

⁸⁷ Op. cit. 114, 106.

⁸⁸ Op. cit. 260.

⁸⁹ Keos Pt II F 25–29 (pl. 91).

⁹⁰ Op. cit. 393.

⁹¹ Thera v 31 and pl. 62.

⁹² Mylonas 290 and references, especially pls. 53 and 115;355 (for chronological discussion).

⁹³ Karo, G., Die Schachtgräber von Mykenai (1930) pl. clxxiii. 953, 943.Google Scholar

⁹⁴ Korakou 25b and fig. 34 2, 6, 11, 14.

⁹⁵ PM i. fig. 421,8.

⁹⁶ Pendlebury 202, fig. 36, 7.

⁹⁷ Phylakopi 262, 264.

⁹⁸ Op. cit. 264; PM i 557.

⁹⁹ Archaeological Reports 1971–2, 24.

¹⁰⁰ Frödin, O. and Persson, A. W., Asine (1938) 295 fig. 203, 2Google Scholar; AAA iv (1971) 2, 148 fig. 4.

¹⁰¹ Biegen, Carl W., Korakou (1921) 25.Google Scholar

¹⁰² Mylonas 144 and pl. 127b, 2 (Grave Λ).

¹⁰³ Thera ii col. pls. A and C8; Thera v col. pl. A.

¹⁰⁴ Thera ii. 44 fig. 30; Phylakopi 120 fig. 92.

¹⁰⁵ Thera ii col. pl. A.

¹⁰⁶ Mylonas 57 and pl. 44a (Grave Γ).

¹⁰⁷ Thera ii. 14 fig. 5.

¹⁰⁸ Pendlebury 202, fig. 36, 7 and 12.

¹⁰⁹ Scholes 24.

¹¹⁰ For MH antecedents of the type see FS 135.

¹¹¹ OpArch vi. 195.

¹¹² Ibid. n. 5; see also Scholes 24 ff.

¹¹³ Phylakopi 264; BSA xvii. 13, 14.

¹¹⁴ BSA xvii. 14.

¹¹⁵ Keos Pt II 391.

¹¹⁶ OpArch vi. 195 n. 5.

¹¹⁷ For references to published sherds of this ‘close’ style of decoration see Phylakopi 133 and OpArch 198 nn. 6 and 7.

¹¹⁸ Thera v pl. 66b left is verging on our types.

¹¹⁹ Keos Pt II 392.

¹²⁰ Phylakopi 135.

¹²¹ Furumark's Stemmed Conical Bowl, OpArch vi. 195 n. 5.

¹²² Thera ii pl. 34, I.

¹²³ Phylakopi 139.

¹²⁴ Phylakopi 139 and pl. xxxv. 6 and 9.

¹²⁵ e.g. Keos Pt II 397 and H22–25 (fig. 13); Phylakopi 139 and pl. xxxvi. 3.

¹²⁶ Keos Pt II fig. 14 (LH III).

¹²⁷ Op. cit. 391, 393, 397.

¹²⁸ 143; also BSA iv. 36 and 43 ff.

¹²⁹ Thera i fig. 36, Thera iv pl. 101a.

¹³⁰ Renfrew 511.

¹³¹ AM xlii (1917) pl. 15.

¹³² Thera iii fig. III.

¹³³ Keos Pt II D121, 122, 123 (fig. 9, pls. 83–5).

¹³⁴ Phylakopi 145.

¹³⁵ Op. cit. 144.

¹³⁶ Op. cit. 145.

¹³⁷ Keos Pt II D76 (pl. 85) and 145 (pl. 83), F23, 24 (fig. 12), 31, 32.

¹³⁸ Phylakopi 145; BSA xvii. 18; OpArch vi. 193 ff.; Scholes 30.

¹³⁹ See below; BSA xvii. 18 and pl. xii.

¹⁴⁰ These vases were described in the original report as LM II, BSA xvii. 14.

¹⁴¹ Kythera 302; BICS xvi (1969) 150.

¹⁴² Renfrew 198 and Table 1. 31.

¹⁴³ PM i fig. 437.

¹⁴⁴ Thera iii figs. 34 and 35.

¹⁴⁵ See above, 2.

¹⁴⁶ Renfrew 170.

¹⁴⁷ Op. cit. 174 and 510 fig. Appx. 1. 2.

¹⁴⁸ Keos Pt II 362 and Renfrew 174.

¹⁴⁹ R. J. Howell, ‘The Origins of the Middle Helladic Culture’, Crossland and Birchall 84 (cf. note 76).

¹⁵⁰ Renfrew 534.

¹⁵¹ CAH ch. xxvi (a). For Crete see Warren, P. M., Myrtos, an Early Bronze Age Settlement in Crete (1972) 269 ff.Google Scholar

¹⁵² Buck 283 ff.

¹⁵³ See above, n. 76.

¹⁵⁴ Popham, M. R. and Sackett, L. H., Excavations at Lef kandi, Euboea, 1964–66 (1968) 10.Google Scholar

¹⁵⁵ See above, 18, 23.

¹⁵⁶ BSA xvii. 17.

¹⁵⁷ Keos Pt II 376.

¹⁵⁸ See above, 27.

¹⁵⁹ See above, 33–5. From Circle B note especially Mylonas 68 and pl. 53α2 (Γ–59); 135 and pls. 115αι and 2, β (Λ–119 and 120); 144 and pl. 127 β2 (Λ1–114); 166 and pl. 143αβ, (N–165); 354 for chronology. For Circle A, see Karo, op. cit. 164, no. 947 (pl. 81), a Black and Red Style Jug and 165, no. 953 (pl. clxxiii), a Panelled Cup, both from Grave VI.

¹⁶⁰ Renfrew 510, fig. Appx. 1. 2, and 524, fig. Appx. 1. 6; Scholes 10 ff.

¹⁶¹ AAA vi (1973) i. 101. I am most grateful to Miss Philippaki for discussing her work with me.

¹⁶² ADelt xx (1965) 506 n. 4.

¹⁶³ Scholes 13.

¹⁶⁴ Phylakopi Chapter III.

¹⁶⁵ Op. cit. 261.

¹⁶⁶ Keos Pt II 387.

¹⁶⁷ Vermeule, E. T., Greece in the Bronze Age (1964) 90 ff.Google Scholar

¹⁶⁸ Phylakopi 263.

¹⁶⁹ Keos Pt II 391.

¹⁷⁰ Phylakopi 267 and above, pp. 14, 16.

¹⁷¹ OpArch vi. 194.

¹⁷² See above, p. 46.

¹⁷³ Phylakopi 263; Keos Pt II 391.

¹⁷⁴ See above, 35.

¹⁷⁵ See the list of destructions complled by D. L. Page in his The Santorini Volcano and the Destruction of Minoan Crete (1970) 3 ff.; Keos Pt II 393; Kythera 292. Kythera seems to have been abandoned radier than destroyed at the end of LM IB but the site may have suffered some destruction and been repaired within the LM IB period.

¹⁷⁶ Ada of the First International Scientific Congress on the Volcano of Thera (1971) 371.

¹⁷⁷ Archaeological Reports 1970–71, 31.

¹⁷⁸ See above, n. 176. Support for a substantial interval between eruption and explosion comes from a note by Money, James in Antiquity xlvii (1973) 50.Google Scholar Mr. Money recognized a humus layer on the site at Akrotiri, supposedly formed between the two events.

¹⁷⁹ e.g. Hood, Sinclair, The Home of the Heroes (1967) 110.Google Scholar Mr. Hood, however, argues against these signs being specifically Mycenaean.

¹⁸⁰ Unexplored Mansion: Popham, M. R., ‘The Unexplored Mansion at Knossos: A Preliminary Report on the Excavations from 1967 to 1972, Part I: The Minoan building and its occupation’, in Archaeological Reports 1972–1973, 50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar Royal Road: ILN 17 Feb. 1962.

¹⁸¹ Hesperia xl (1971) 122.

¹⁸² Hesperia xxxi (1962) 273.

¹⁸³ Schales 31.

¹⁸⁴ CAH ³, chapter xxvii (forthcoming).

¹⁸⁵ Loc. cit.

¹⁸⁶ e.g. the settlement and associated cemetery at Lygaridia, and Karvounolakkoi, on Naxos, , ADelt xx (1965) 505.Google Scholar

¹⁸⁷ ADelt xvi (1960) 249; Ergon 1960, 189ff.

¹⁸⁸ Desborough, V. R. d'A., The last Mycenaeans and their Successors (1964), 217 ff.Google Scholar, and, for a detailed discussion of the Cyclades in LH IIIC, ibid. 147 ff.