Abstract :
PHYLAKOPI was first excavated by the British School at Athens from i8g6 to 1899 under the
successive directorships of Cecil Smith and David Hogarth, and the direct supervision of
Duncan Mackenzie. The results of these excavations were published in 1904 as Excavations at
Phylakopi in Melos (Atkinson et al. 1904) (FIG. 1). The final chapter of Excavations at Phylakopi
was a synthetic piece written by Mackenzie, in which he provided a description of the siteʹs
stratigraphy and suggested some cultural and historical contexts for its interpretation.
Mackenzie saw the settlement at Phylakopi as comprising three successive ʹCitiesʹ, preceded
by evidence of ʹpre-Cityʹ occupation. Each ʹCityʹ constituted a discrete architectural period,
terminated by a site-wide destruction leading to its abandonment, followed by wholesale
rebuilding, except in the case of the final ʹCityʹ, when the abandonment was permanent.
Mackenzie termed these cities ʹFirst Cityʹ, ʹSecond Cityʹ and ʹThird Cityʹ, and they are now
considered broadly equivalent to Early Cycladic III, Middle Cycladic, and Late Cycladic
periods of occupation (Barber 1987, 23 fig. 24; Warren and Hankey 1989, 41 table 2. 3, 55
table 2. 5, 71 table 2. 6), though the exact dating is open to refinement.
