Leekley Dorothy, Efstratiou Nicholas. Archaeological Excavations in Central and Northern Greece

Park Ridge, N.J.: Noyes Press, 1980. — vii, 184 p. — ISBN 0-8155-5056-1.This book describes archaeological excavations undertaken in Central and Northern Greece. It is the third in a series of three books which relate to archaeological excavations in all of Greece. The previous volumes were entitled Archaeological Excavations in the Greek Islands and Archaeological Excavations in Southern Greece.
The information given for each site in each of these volumes includes the names of excavators, the dates in which the excavations were carried out, a very brief description of the finds, and, more important, a bibliography which will enable the researcher to locate the book and/or article which describes in greater detail the excavations and finds in which he is interested. Reports of travelers and secondary literature are for the most part not included in this book.
Maps of the archaeological sites will not be included here. Current Greek maps are a hazardous trap for the unwary, and the authors have found that the drawing of maps and the precise locating of all these excavations on the maps are tasks which would require so much time as to delay the publication of the first three volumes. Plans to publish a fourth volume consisting solely of maps of the Greek archaeological sites are under way.
One of the reasons for publishing these books is to correct the present difficulty which exists in obtaining information on minor archaeological sites. Information on major excavations is simple enough to locate; consequently, entries on the major sites are very brief. This book contains information on all excavated sites in Central and Northern Greece, many of which can be considered as minor. For the most part, entries have been limited to sites at which planned excavations have taken place. Chance finds and rescue operations, except for the most important, have been excluded. These finds have been reported, since 1960, for all of Greece in Archaeologikon Deltion. Sites on which ancient remains have been noted, but not excavated, have also generally been omitted. Sites dating from all periods up to the Roman have been included, except for early Christian remains.
The information in this book is as current as possible up to the late 1970s. However, it must be realized that many excavations of the Greek Archaeological Service are not reported for a few years after the work has been done. Those who use this book should utilize it in conjunction with the invaluable Archaeological Reports issued annually by the Council of the Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies and the Managing Committee of the British School at Athens as a supplement to Journal of Hellenic Studies, and the arinual report published in Bulletin de Correspondance Helinique issued by Ecole francaise d'Athenes.
In every book of this nature, a question arises regarding the difficult task of transliterating Greek into English. The authors have used a "mixed" system, conforming to no particular rules, but attempting to choose the most commonly accepted spelling; historic spellings are used for the better known sites. The material presented in this book was taken from numerous periodicals in many languages, and no attempt has been made to transliterate any specific name on a consistent basis.
The sites in this book are organized by modem political nomes, which vary somewhat from ancient political subdivisions. An index of all sites included in this book wdl be found at the end of the volume.
Miss Dorothy Leekley received her B.A. in Classics from Queens University, Kingston, Ontario, and is presently a doctoral student in Greek at Bedford College, University of London, working specifically on religion in Phrygia in the Greek and Roman periods. Nicholas Efstratiou received his B.A. from the University of Thessaloniki and his M.A. from Bedford College; he is working on his doctorate in Greek archaeology at the Institute of Archaeology at the University of London.