The excavations undertaken by the British School at Athens at the Bronze
Age site of Phylakopi in the Cycladic island of Melos from 1896 to 1899,
under the immediate supervision of Duncan Mackenzie, have been described
(by no less an authority than Carl Blegen) as: 'the first really serious
effort to understand stratification, the first really good excavation in
Greece'. Since that time Phylakopi has been a key site both for the
study of the Cycladic Bronze Age and of prehistoric Aegean
interconnections. This volume completes the authoritative account of the
excavations undertaken for the British School of Archaeology from 1974
to 1977 under the direction of Colin Renfrew. Leading specialists
contribute full descriptions of the stratigraphy, of the pottery of
successive phases and of the other finds, now making Phylakopi one of
the most comprehensively documented and published sites of the Aegean
Bronze Age. Phylakopi was a settlement in close touch with other areas,
notably Minoan Crete and Helladic Greece, from the Early Bronze Age
onwards, with a marked increase in Minoan imports during the Middle
Bronze Age.