9 papers presented at a colloquium held in honour of J.J. Coulton at Lincoln College, Oxford on 17 April 2004, to mark his retirement from the Readership in Classical Archaeology at Merton College, Oxford. Jim Coulton devoted much of his early career to the study of Cycladic architecture. He saw earlier than most how important this area would be in advancing our knowledge not only of ancient architecture but also of many aspects of ancient Greek civilisation in general.

The new series Studies in Classical Archaeology aims to bring recent archaeological finds, fieldwork and research to the forefront among Greek scholars. This first volume includes 24 papers, plus an epilogue by John Boardman, taken from a colloquium held at Somerville College in Oxford in 2001). The papers are well illustrated throughout, including 86 pages of photographs, and covers a range of different approaches, finds and sites from c.900 BC-AD 200, including: Everyday life and the afterlife in ancient Thasos (M Sgourou); Classical Amphipolis (Ch Koukouli-Chrysanthaki); Discoveries in Pella (M Lilimpaki-Akamati); Skyros in the Early Iron Age (E Sapouna-Sakellaraki); the cemetery at Kerameikos (E Baziotopoulou-Valavani); Ancient theatre of Sparta (G Waywell); Sanctuary of Delos