eTheses Repository - University of Birmingham

evidence for the period from across all areas of Greece, and Arkadia was not alone. Recent
work has of course produced a very different picture for the period in question.
A large volume of evidence pertaining to this period now exists, at least for some sites and
areas. Large-scale excavations have been carried out at Lefkandi (Popham et al.1980, 1990,
1993, Evely 2006) and Nichoria (Coulson & McDonald 1975, Rapp & Aschenbrenner 1980,
Coulson, McDonald & Rosser 1983, McDonald & Wilkie 1994) and diachronic field surveys
from the 1970s onwards have brought to light evidence to one extent or another covering the
whole of the period. For example, in the Peloponnese, the first large-scale survey carried out
was the Minnesota Messenia Expedition in the district that is home to the Mycenaean citadel
at Pylos and the results of this survey were published as early as 1972 (McDonald & Rapp
1972; see Fotiadis 1995 for the importance of this survey in the history of archaeological
investigation in Greece). Likewise, Jameson, Runnels, & van Andel (1994) undertook a full
diachronic and systematic survey in the Southern Argolid, famous for its LH citadels at
Tiryns and the eponymous Mycenae, as well as for the later city of Argos and published the
results soon after it had been completed. Another large-scale diachronic survey covered
Lakonia, where Sparta and the Menalaion are situated (Cavanagh et al. 1996). Regions of the
wider Greek World have been subject to similar intensive archaeological investigation with
Boeotia (Bintliff 1985; Bintliff & Snodgrass 1997), Melos (Renfrew & Wagstaff 1982), Keos
(Cherry et al. 1991) and Rhodes (Mee 1982) all having undergone systematic survey over the
years, each with a published volume devoted to the recovered and analysed data.
Because these surveys were diachronic, they revealed data from all periods including the
‘Dark Age’ that allowed study of this period in those regions where the survey had been
carried out. However, Arkadia due to limited evidence for the BA, and having little to reveal
for subsequent periods presumably did not appear to be a particularly desirable place to focus
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