Excavations in Siphnos

Abstract

The delay in the publication of this report is due to World War II, and therefore requires no apology from us. A few drawings, notes and photographs were lost or mislaid during the evacuation of April 1941, and have not yet been traced. Post-war conditions have made it impossible to revisit Siphnos, where the great majority of the finds were stored. Such a visit, however, might not have availed us much, since, according to an official report received by the Ministry of Education during the occupation, the officer in command of the Italian garrison took all the objects of value into his own custody, on the ground that they were insecurely housed. As this officer appropriated the catalogue also, the persons making the report were unable to say which of the finds had been removed; but it is believed that the two important seventh-century figurines in vase technique (Pls. 6–8) are among those missing.