Lerna: the Architecture, Stratification, and Pottery of Lerna III

The Lerna III, or Early Helladic II, discoveries at the site of Lerna in the Argolid have provided the largest body of material yet available from that crucial period in the prehistory of southern Greece. The finds have been known until now chiefly from the preliminary reports published in Hesperia by the director, J. L. Caskey. In the present volume the evidence for the stratification and architectural remains of the Lerna III phase is presented in full, with plans, sections, and photographs, including a detailed description, tentative reconstruction, and discussion of the well-known House of the Tiles. Fascicle 2 contains a complete catalogue of the context pottery with drawings, arranged chronologically according to newly established categories of shape and fabric. In the following chapters the author discusses the history of the individual shapes, together with much comparative material, as well as painted patterns, tactile decoration, and potters’ marks. This is the first detailed study of the development of EH II ceramics. An appended report by P. P. Betancourt and G. H. Myer presents the petrographic analysis of a select group of sherds. Small objects, including lithics, listed by location in the stratigraphic sections, will be fully presented in future monographs by E. C. Banks and C. Runnels.