The Late Minoan II–III and Mycenaean Pottery from the 1911 Excavations at Phylakopi on Melos

As a result of three sets of excavations carried out by the British School at Athens at Phylakopi in 1896-9, 1911, and 1974-7, a n outline of the history of settlement at the site in the Late Bronze Age is now possible. In brief, it seems that at the beginning of the LBA the newly built Third City of Phylakopi had much LM I A influence in architecture, frescoes, and pottery. However, in the next phase, LM I B/LH II A, the influence swung to the Mycenaean mainland, probably as a result of the disruption of trade after the loss in the Thera eruption of the busy emporium of Akrotiri, where goods from Crete entered the Cyclades. In this phase Mycenaean connections were particularly manifested in the pottery, some of which included exact copies of Minoan vessels, which clay analysis has shown were made on the mainland (Mountjoy 1999a, 21). Indeed, from now until the end of LH III B the bulk of the fine decorated pottery at Phylakopi was imported Mycenaean.