 Thank you very much. What I'm going to do today is give an overview of what's been happening in the islands and key research questions. My own involvement is continuing the British schools work on the island of Ithaca, where we've been directing a survey on a publication programme as well and on Meganisi. So I'm very happy to answer more specific questions as well as the general overview material. Y central Ionian Islands, anarchipelago, framed by Cephalonia on the south, left cast in the north, lie off the coast of Achanania, with southern Cephalonia forming a bridge, as you see, down into the Peloponnes. The group, which also includes Ithaca and Meganisi, and then the smaller Atacos, Acudic, Alamos, Castos, and many, many tiny islands, almost too small to fit on there, is a distinctive chain within the broader Ionian island chain. To the north, Keikira, Paxi and Antipaxi formed a separate network with its own material culture, connections into Iperus and the Adriatic, and indeed a different political history. Keikira and left cast were both Corinthian colonies, but at least from the 5th century onwards, their attitudes to their mother city more often divided them, united them. Zacynthos to the south was in contact, especially with southern Cephalonia, but had a more direct relationship down into the western Peloponnes. In their different ways, both Keikira and Zacynthos were associated with the central archipelago, more so in some periods than in others, but the connection in general is a little looser. So today I'm going to focus on this central group because it does form a very distinct island cosmos. The group may be less well known than, say, the Cyclades, but it's extremely interesting for its composition, a mix of large and small islands with contrasting environments, population dynamics and relations to each other and to the mainland, as well as for its broad strategic position and international connections. For such a very compact group, it's one of the most complicated and varied situations in the entire Mediterranean. Throughout antiquity, the islands were a strategically important hub and they variously served as stations on sea routes between the Peloponnes, central and north-western Greece and southern Italy. They lie on the eastern edge of intense Italian connections, the Adriatic routes linking across to Otranto, of which Keikira and Lefkars form part, plus direct routes to the area of Sibyrus and round to the Bay of Naples. The Italian perspective is playing in the struggles which led to Roman control, beginning with the subjugation of Cephalonia in 189-8BC, as well as what is now emerging as a very distinctive western coastal pattern of Romanisation. But it's clear as we'll see that it dates back much earlier. At the same time, the islands are on the western fringes of the Old Greek polis world, with connections demonstrated in different ways, in different areas and time periods to take but three examples. The earliest known example of a Kean local script, which is itself a kind of fusion of traits culled from other region scripts all the way round the Corinthian Gulf, is in an inscription of around 700 BC found at Ayatos on Ithaca and apparently referring to guest friendship and the pottery assemblage from that site does indeed include many Peloponnesian imports. Secondly, a more direct political relationship is seen in the Corinthian colonisation of Lefcas in the late 7th century, following upon that of Kekela around 725. In fact, some scholars have argued that the entire city-state network all the way down the Akhenanian coast was due to Corinthian intervention. But Lefcas and Alectorium in southern Iparus are part. There are simply too many problems with the sources and the late, consistently 4th century date of this development for this argument really to work. Lefcas is the only secure colony in our area and its role in consolidating the trading potential of the area echoes Corinth's foundation of Ambrachia, modern Arta, which controlled the inland river routes. Thirdly, in the later 5th and early 4th century, Athenian intervention on Kefalonia had a direct effect on the physical development of certain settlements and a wider impact on relations within the network, as we'll see. Then the north-western context is important. Since Lefcas, at least, was physically linked to Akhenania, after colonisation relied upon its peria to secure the great harbour works of the city, the city in fact stretches out along the area of modern building on the south coast so you can see how important the peria is. It became the seat of the Akhenanian canon, the Confederacy, after 230, through its economic development, helping to create a market for the produce of other islands in the chain as well. In short, in their settlement history and external relations, the central Ionian islands are neither colonial nor part of the Aegean milieu, but they're not simply a contact zone. They'd already begun to operate as a distinctive network for the development of the great federal states of the Hellenistic and later West, i.e. from the 4th century BC onwards. They helped to define these states and they responded and reacted to their presence and policies. So let's take a look at the islands individually. Kefalonia, at almost 800 km2, is the largest of the Ionian islands. It's in fact a big island by Greek standards. It's mountainous, especially in the north and east, with plains covering only some 15% of its area, chiefly in the south and west, and less than a quarter of its overall area, suitable for arable. It is, however, highly fertile and its mountains, in Noss in the south in particular, a major source of pine for shipbuilding and construction. Kefalonia supported four city-states, each with their own distinctive settlement histories. Sami and Peroni, modern poros in the southeast, Peroni in the area of modern Agostoli, and Parle, all with good harbors. There's little evidence of settlement in the mountainous centre of the island, from modern Ayah-Ethymia upwards, until the late classical period at the very earliest, and settlement even further north, notably attention Panamos, modern Fiscato, is essentially a Roman introduction. Kefalonia's eastern neighbour, Ithaki, is at just over a tenth of the size, a small rocky island with arable resources, which are either very restricted or hard to defend. Data of all periods up to the devastating 1953 earthquake, which changed the pattern of rural settlement, revealed two basic responses. A small resident population and the export of manpower for maritime activity and or cultivation abroad, including to the neighbouring island chains and the Aconanian coast. This intensive exploitation sustained by cash cropping for an external market. With no significant internal buffer, population levels responded to external changes with unusually sharp fluctuations, and this is something we now recognise as a particular small island phenomenon. Survey data from Ithaki in comparison with Kefalonia are very similar to those from Antikithera in comparison with Kithera, for example, although Ithaki is the more complicated case. There's also, as you see, a marked north-south divide. The island is physically articulated around an ismus, and there's a big contrast in topography with smaller but visually connected pockets of cultivable land in the north, whereas the south has a larger but more confined plain. Ancient sources treat Ithaki as a single polis, yet with rare gaps there were always two population centres with their own external connections and internal organisation. In the south, Ayatos is the only site with long-distance visibility, this is the view from the Acropolis, along the west coast and across the channel to the eastern cities of Kefalonia. It has, as you see, a clear sightline to Polis Bay in the north, and it's effectively just across the pond from Sami. In the north, the balance of settlement shifted along sightlines, much depended on the balance of interests and connections between Kefalonia, Lefkast and Acanania. Given this geography, two separate polis could easily have formed. There must have been powerful local factors, such as land inheritance and its marriage patterns, favouring separation. Conversely, there are security and economic advantages in close communication, both within the island and with the opposite sides of the surrounding straits, and the most obvious unifying factor is the long coastal connection with Kefalonia. Considering site location in terms of elevation, transport routes and accessibility, the west, where north-south visibility can be combined with defensive positions and access both to harbours and culpable land was consistently favoured. The east is much more rugged and with fewer sightlines. Avithica's harbours, Vathi can accommodate a deep water fleet, but it's secluded and marshy. This is the high water table in a Lake Roman complex, excavated just two blocks from the modern coastline. It's marsh. But there's a little evidence of archaic to Hellenistic settlement here and on the surrounding hills, but basically opportunities for excavation in the historic town have been few. What we know tends to be Roman. Polis Bay is shallower and more exposed, but much easier of access. The community at Ayatos use the anchorage at Piso Ayatos on the west coast, and possibly also its counterpart in the east. In the north-east, Keoni is equally hard to protect unless you control that ridge the harbour is just hopelessly vulnerable. Further north still, Friches, selectly an important east anchorage in most periods, is very vulnerable to bad weather and flooding. The east-west distinction is important not only in terms of local development, but because when the left-cast canal was closed and shipping went around the west coast of left-cast, the best route south was indeed straight down through the Ithaca Channel. Moving north to left-cast, the coastal plain focuses in the east and south. The west coast is mountainous and the centre of the island consists of mountain uplands intensively exploited at various points in the island's history. After colonisation, settlement focused along the east coast in the area of the capital, the Hora, which seems to have been a new creation, and then south around Nidry, ancient Elemenon, framing the channel and in contact with the Parea opposite. A second settlement centre of which little is known, ancient Farah, is supposed to lie near the Vasiliki Plain and the island's main sanctuary excavated by Wilhelm Döbfeld last century, is on Cape Ducato, the southernmost tip of the island. It's unclear when the cult began, though poets from Anachria and onwards comment on it, in fact, as the traditional place of suicide. This is Safo's Leap, and it's a very dramatic one. This second focus is again related to sea lanes down to Kefalonia in Ithaca, from which, as you see, southern left-cast is clearly visible. Of the smaller islands, Meganisi currently supports the largest overwintering population, just over 1,000, mostly centred on the northern plains around Spathachwari and Vathi, with Nidry as the closest service centre. The slim southern leg is now almost deserted and very hard to access, but in antiquity, the reverse was true. The recent University of Crete survey found some 11 post-prehistoric ancient sites, all but three of which are on this leg. Myli, as you see here in particular, was more or less continuously occupied from the Bronze Age to Lake Roman times. It faces out towards the Akananian coast, and its material culture is directly linked to the mainland and not back out towards the islands. The other two largest, but rather rugged islands, which currently support permanent populations are Castos and Calamos, ancient Caernos. The rest are either privately owned or privately owned islands, and these were used mainly by Ithochesians and Lefcavins for seasonal pasture and even cultivation in the 18th and 19th centuries. So there's a recent model of intense exploitation. And thanks to the brilliant work of the Ithochesian historian, Janis Flasopoulos, on the Venetian period port records, we have a very clear view of the nature and intensity of movement between the islands through the 18th century. During that century, movement within the archipelago alone, not even long-distance trade. And certainly in survey, as you see, we've found very, very intense occupation activity. All this adds up to an unusually complex network of interactions. And knowledge of the region's archaeology is also now enriched following many decades of reliance on the pioneering 19th and early 20th century work of Wilhelm Dirkfeldt on Lefcas, Walter Huckley in Sylvia Benton and beyond. Nicolaus Cybary sees in spirit on Maranatys on Kefalonia. There's been a very sharp growth in rescue archaeology following the establishment of epherias of prehistoric and classical antiquities in Augustoli, Preveza, in Misalongi from 2003 onwards. Undergrowing corpus of data from intensive surveys on Zacynthos, Kefalonia, Northern Ithaca, Meganisi, the playa peninsula, and from comparison I've also added Nicopolis and Stratichae, sorry about the crude slide, but it gives you a notion of the sheer extent of the area that's been walked in one form or another over the last 15 years. As well as extensive perspective on Kefalonia and Lefcas. My focus today is on the historical, archaic to late Roman periods, but changes evident right across the board. The sheer quantity of new Paleolithic material, for example, is quite extraordinary. So all this makes the continuing Homeric focus of the popular presentation of Ionian archaeology forgive me, but just a little bit frustrating. Excavation on Ithaca has been guided by it. Dirtfelt II approached Lefcas through this filter, and pretty well every major late bronze age discovery in Kefalonia is greeted as the palace. Here you see a site that's up on the Catevelata hill just outside Poros, which probably relates to the Zanat Atholos dug in the 1990s, which is currently being touted as the palace. It's an eye sight, but we don't know much about it yet. Even though not since Moses Finlay in the late 1950s have historians actually considered Homer's Greece purely Mycenaean, it still recurs. By contrast Homer enters our discussion today, only in respect of the role played by the Ithakisian reception of Odysseus in the constructed island identity. On present evidence this is first attested late in the fourth century on the island's coinage and was plainly important by the late third century when the Ithakisian reply of round about 208 BC to an embassy sent by Magnesia on the Mianda to request recognition of the state and her festival of Artemis included the offer of Proedria at the Odysseus usually interpreted as a festival and the instruction that the response be displayed in the Odysseum probably, as I'll argue, the Polis cave shrine. I'll return to this inscription later on. Odysseus' name first appears in a dedicatory inscription on an Artemis figurina a Protomi of the second or first century BC from the Polis cave. As we'll see this chronology fits an assertion of Ithakisian political identity as part of a sequence of local identity statements by communities right across Kefalonyar to Lefkars which began on Kefalonyar in the sixth century and quickened in pace and intensity with the marked westward shift in wider Greek political interests from the time of the Peloponnesian wars onwards. Odysseus was just a local strand in this not an overarching regional figure. Either prominent local stories are entirely disconnected thus Felachydus writing in the sixth century derives the name of Kefalonyar from Kefalos who was rewarded with the island then called Sami for helping Amfytrian of Mycini in a war against the Tafians and Telerburns a story which reinforces cultural collections with Athens. So against this background I'd like to explore three successive periods the early Iron Age about 1000 BC to give or take 700 collapse of the palaces to the early city states. The classical and Hellenistic periods when we're getting the big federations forming and then Rome and looking at the imposition of an external empire to see how and where major changes occurred and their subsequent impact across the chain. During the early Iron Age attention focuses on Ayatos as the only extensively excavated site in the archipelago and the only major early Iron Age settlement yet known on Ithaca. It's a rare period in Ithachesian history when settlement seems to be concentrated in the south of the island and in fact Ayatos may be the only site with a continuous record from Mycini into Imperial Roman times. From 1931 to 1934 and again in 1938 the so-called Cairns area was investigated by the British school. More of the lower city including geometric housing has since been uncovered by a team from Washington University. But Ayatos' apparent prominence could just be a matter of chance. Eighth-century evidence has been found in trials at all four of the future Cephalonian polis centres, notably Sami just over the water from Ayatos and closely linked to it over the next century. But earlier finds are few. Of the major late and sub-Mycini insights only Cocholata junction just extends into protegeometric and then there's a little late pottery from Sami and ninth century from Cairni. Now given the very limited extent of excavation it's possible that Ayatos will come to be understood as just one of a group of local centres if I think almost certainly a very prominent one. The early Iron Age architectural remains in the Cairns area can convincingly be reconstructed into a sequence of long houses. The ceramic record is dominated by local products throughout with a liberally adapted Corinthianising style current in the eighth century though probably no more actual Corinthian imports than Achaean or western Peloponnesian. Spanning the gulf zone and mirroring the connections implied by the local use of Achaean script. During the eighth century exports of Ithochesian pottery indicate wide connections. In Italy it appeared around the Bay of Naples as far north of Satricum. It went along the Corinthian Gulf to Perechora and in Ipera sits found inland at Vitsa probably reflecting wider trade up the main river valleys and on the coast at Mavre Mandiliar opposite Kerkera where connections are also seen after the colonies foundation. The Ayatos elite mark their status by dedicating at a shrine within the settlement, luxury and especially metal objects like any good western aristocrat. Personal ornaments show stylistic connections from northwest Greece to the eastern Achaean and Crete and the quantity of amber in particular suggests trade connections with southern Italy. A tripod leg mould as you see bottom right found in the Washington University excavations indicates that monumental bronze vessels were made locally and terracotta imitations are also attested. By the late eighth century the Ayatos votive deposits contained ritual paraphernalia distinctive for the vessel shapes represented cairnoistans and light holders for example as well as for their painted and plastic iconography. A small but eclectic collection of human images links closely to the Bay of Naples drawing as heavily on near eastern and Italian iconography as on mostly Corinthian Greek. It suggests that the Ayatos elite used an international language of status even when images were not strictly appropriate to the island. For example a chariot procession on this Ithochesian-figured cantheros in the San Montano cemetery at Pitha Cusai sits poorly with Homer's description of Ithaca as a rugged island not fit for driving horses. Well it could be a Pitha Cusyn commission but it's more likely I think to reflect widely held values since the context of the Homeric reference is Telemachus' apology for not being able to accept a gift of horses which was so obviously a desirable present he's just got nowhere to put it. And we find horses depicted on other vessels too on a pixis from Ayatos with its robed processional and confronted figures and side saddle male rider. The cultural reference via which elite status was expressed during the second half of the 8th century underneath the early 7th were widely drawn but the precise mixture is local and unique. The other major early Iron Age site on Ithaca, the Polis Cave has long been interpreted as a hero shrine to Odysseus at least from the 8th century onwards and seen from an outsider perspective as frequented chiefly by sailors before the opening of the Lefcas canal when shipping as we saw would naturally have run down the Ithaca channel. Indeed our very slight evidence for early Iron Age pre-colonial settlements on Lefcas consists of a shrine in the vicinity of the portata on the west of the island which has produced small bronze age pendants similar to those from Ayatos. Unfortunately these were sold to Dirkfalt so we don't have an excavation context for them. And a pithas beryl at Sifolos just in none from Vasiliki both pointing to communication along this western route. So it is reasonable to assume foreign visitors at Polis. And the Xenos inscription that I mentioned earlier at 100 from Ayatos points in the same direction. Indeed to digress for just one moment this inscription is of considerable interest. A long probably hexameter text runs in a downward spiral around a long net conical inokoi decorated on the base with an image of the vessel of the vessel of the same shape. Only the first part of the text is now preserved and or legible and it refers to a friend, a guest friend, a friend and a faithful companion combining formally attested in the early poets in Homer and Theognes. Key parts of the text including the main verb unfortunately are lost so we can't be sure of the formula being used but this is a vessel used for consumption for serving as a host might treat a friend or companion the specific importance of which is reinforced by the drawing on the base and it's a vessel which was literally wrapped round with an expression of social ties in a verse form closely linked to incantation and it's dedicated in a ritual context strongly associated with the celebration of personal or family status. The interplay between the power of writing, the oral formula and the nature of the object and the context of its use recalls other vessels like Iotos, but it's interesting to see Xenia given such political prominence at Iotos. To return then to Paulus external explanation should not be overrated. There is a powerful long-term local story especially when one considers all the evidence. The 1930s site publications while models of their time include almost no post-archaic material and emit certain categories of artefact like cooking pots which give a very clear picture of changing practices. This was one of the factors that led the British school to return to the site in 2002 to make a new reconstruction of the physical feature and to place all the objects found by period within it to look at deposition and site formation processes. In fact we reconstruct an open rock shelter oriented towards the Stavros Ridge and accessible by land from it. With the Rossano acropolis above it, one of the most northerly points visible for myotos, the shrine could serve both areas as a marker of the ruler's authority. By the second half of the 6th century our earliest inscription from the site refers to the peripoloe the surrounding of the deities worshiped, Athena and Hera. Although we do not know what form this group took and indeed Northern Ithaca has produced only very slight evidence for early Iron Age settlement and then from 200 onwards. The picture changes markedly only from the later 7th century. In pre-classical times before the polis sanctuary came to follow the general Greek trend for simpler lower value votives especially figurines. The material record I think suggests an island wide strategy since there is some overlap with Iotos mostly in pottery shapes but there's also a significant complementarity in the votives offered at the two shrines. Personal ornament, figurative iconography and small bronzes are more evident at Iotos with monumental metal dedications, tripods and armour largely confined to polis. Together the two assemblages are typical of wider trends in votive behaviour in western Greece and I think the famous tripod dedications must be understood within this longer history rather than as the key to identifying the cult. Given the strong external links of some offerings, three of the tripod seem to have been produced from moulds used at Olympia and they retain traces of their clay investment which we've just sampled for analysis, it's impossible to prove that the Ithochesian elite were entirely responsible for the form of the shrine but I think there is a very strong argument to be made for this. It's also likely that the same Olympian deities were worshiped at both sites. The polis inscription confirms the worship of Athena Polius, the earliest hint of a polis on the island, and of Hera. Both are tentatively identified at Iotos too although Hera's epithet of polis, Telaire, implies a role in protecting marriage which is slightly at odds with her slightly more lively image that we find at Iotos in this iconography. Artemis images form the great majority of Hellenistic figurines at polis and are also found at Iotos. An inscribed sacred law reported by William Gell in the 19th century as found at Bathie refers to a precinct of Artemis. The stone may have been removed from Iotos as was so much construction material but it's tempting to link it to a coastal shrine identified by tiles and architectural terracottas found on the beach at Brostar Iotos and that's likely the origin of part of a terracotta statue found by the BSA before the Second World War. It's no great leap to associate the worship of Odysseus with that of his patron, Athena and the epithet polis strengthens the political impact but there's no clear indication of when he moved from being the model votary to being a recipient of cult. Aristotle's Constitution of the Ethichesians which we know from Plutarch refers to an annual recompense of barley, wine, honeycombs, olive oil, salt and adult animals paid to Telemachus by the Ethichesians. This looks like a ritual practice linked to a hero but we don't know the practicalities or how far back it predated the fourth century. However it is clear that this pivotal location of the shrine relevant to both south and north made it liable to changes in emphasis over time and whereas in the south there is only a small archaic temple at Iotos plus the coastal shrine and a spectacular classical cave of the nymphs at Dexiar. In the north there is no secure evidence for any other sanctuary before the establishment of a late Hellenistic or Roman shrine at Ios Athanasius. So the early Iron Age record of Ithaca is exceptionally rich and with all due caution given hints of centres on Kefalonia the island may be the epicenter of the archipelago at this point. The lack of a cemetery before about 700 is a puzzle but here's some very new evidence from Meganisi may give a clue. Now as I noted survey evidence indicates substantial settlement in the Mili area on the Bronze Age Iron Age transition and again going down in late geometric to early archaic. There may be continuity but we need to do more work on the pottery. We were reading this only a month before I came out for Australia so it is really quite new. But colleagues in the archeological service have just in the past few months excavated a series of burials including a spectacular transitional warrior grave in the kinds of stone piles which we tended to dismiss as farmers feel clearances. These extend right down the southern leg of the island. In the case of the Mili one local tradition marked it out as a monument. It actually carried the folk named Tocomnima the Turkish monument. But perhaps we need to be a little bit more curious about our stone piles in general we are rather groaning at this. We were walking past them in the fields on Ithaca I think we need to start taking them apart. The picture changes from later archaic times onwards with major and very different changes occurring at the two pole islands Lefcas and Kefalunia. The colony founded by Corinth on the new site of Lefcas around 625 had by the early 5th century become extremely prosperous. It was able to send three triremes to the battle of Salamis and along with its sister colony Anectorium, 800 hoplites to Platia. The source of its wealth and of the development of Lefcas as a commercial centre combining agriculture and mercantile trade was a six kilometre long canal opened by the Corinthians soon after colonisation. Which gave a safer passage between the Adriatic and the Corinthian Gulf than that around the west coast. Although given the recurrent silting of the canal, the western route was never entirely abandoned. The South Harbour Mole, which linked Lefcas with the mainland at 8 to 10 metres wide and over 600 metres long, one of the largest such constructions in Greece secured the commercial dock and the protected anchorage and guaranteed a basic maritime outlet for the mainland coast which was otherwise rather hard to pass by land although in turn as I've said this created a need to secure the Porea. Pottery especially Amfri on the Mole dates from the classical period to the 6th century after Christ. Thereafter the Mole was submerged. The date of its construction remains unknown although since it lies outside the city wall as you see it's tempting to suggest that it predates the construction of the wall going back to the very early years of the colony. The creation of the port left the east coast as the centre of settlement on the island. The Polish town extended along the narrow section of the straits in planned insulae containing houses, workshops and agricultural facilities which expanded steadily into the Hellenistic period. A bridge over the straits is partially preserved and attested also in an inscription. The second major settlement centre laid to the south on the same coast in and around the Nithry Plain and here you see some of the material graves from the archaic period onwards again housing expanded into the Hellenistic period with towers in the wider plain too. And indeed it's the spread of agricultural tower residences into the upland plains which confirms the harnessing of the island's economy in out to this commercial outlet. 15 of these towers have so far been found in the uplands and in the south at Custry. And this also provides the context for the rise of polis along the Akarnanian coast. Just slightly off the image in the south at Iniave, the big docklands, dock centre, Astercos, Elysia and Paleros where fortifications and harbour works were built plus sanctuaries. At the top of the image there's a fourth century Dremont Rhine of Artemis in the territory of Elysia just overlooking the coast. And then I've put some of the pottery from the British excavations that you see in the middle image just from Sylvia Benton's notebook on the bottom. The best anchorage was indeed in the Bay of Astercos where the first signs of post prehistoric activity are found in this late 6th, early 5th century layer in the Cavitas Nicolius. In general until the 4th century coastal Akarnania was largely self-sufficient. Thereafter you get a rich trading economy swiftly developing carrying on through the 4th and 3rd centuries. Cavitas Nicolius presents a very different picture with a steady process of city state definition from the late 6th century onwards. Border forts begin to appear in the archaic period and where polished centres were not fortified until the later 5th century at the earliest, temple building began in the 6th century and where preserved the architectural reference and the imports at these temple sites are very widely drawn from Caercula on the northern Adriatic down to the Peloponnes. By the early 5th century the polished status of Palae is reflected in the dispatch of 200 hoplites to Plataea in 479 and in its city coinage. Silver is then struck at Crani around 50450 and at all four cities of the Trapolis around 400. The imagery chosen both unites and distinguishes the city. Kefalos and his wife Procrus are ubiquitous but where dead is a depicted they differ. Palae choosing Demeter and Corrie as you see Crani and Salmi, Apollo and Artemis and Peroni, Heracles and Zeus. So Odysseus is on none of this he's purely athichesian this is the different mythology of the Kefalonian cities. From the 450 onwards Athens expanded its political influence in the west effectively subjugating Zacanthos and Kefalonia capturing Etolian calchis and settling the Messenians from Ithomi at Naftpactos. The Kefalonian polis mostly allied with Athens as a conflicts with the Peloponnesians developed and I'll pass over the long story of subsequent Athenian military and diplomatic action in the wider region a region which traditionally had stronger Corinthian connections and focus simply on the material implications. Athenian influence and city planning and fortification grew from the mid 5th century into the early 4th although most of these projects were not completed. The Messenian fortification at Clani with its Dippelon style gate is a case in point probably completed by the Macedonian kings. The second major period of coinage around 375 with silver emissions from Palae as we've just seen Salmi and Peroni more or less coincides with heavy Athenian tax impositions and the beginning of intensive settlement in the Pilaros valley north of Salmi may indeed be due to Aetolian colonists. We have a nice inscription of 223 in the main Aetolian sanctuary at Thermon setting out laws of property and inheritance specifically for these colonists on Kefalonia. So what impact did the contrasting patterns of development on Lefcais and Kefalonia have on the rest of the archipelago? Well Ithaca for one was simply pulled in two directions. Materially the north due steadily closer to Lefcais. In both north and south archaic to early classical pottery shapes of broadly Peloponnesian especially Carinthian derivation were retained well into the Hellenistic period. But although Attic and Peloponnesian imports continued to circulate around the island as the 5th century progressed they came to be more congregated in the south with Achananian, Aetolian and local red figure and black glaze more popular in the north. Settlement in the north also expanded from the late 7th century onwards. By the 4th century Stavros was substantial. Here you see one of the newly excavated 4th century retaining walls which defined the settlement. With scattered graves roughly aligned the south. Beside, sorry I didn't want to do that the south. Beside the modern road from Polis Bay a line which continued in use. This tomb monument which you see being excavated in 2003 in fact destroyed an early 3rd century grave. And then to the north, broadly following the route between Stavros and Aesothanasis via Pilicata, with additional graves on the slope Prilo-Platrothias. Many grave steely, many of the late 4th to early 1st centuries BC have been discovered built into structures in the surrounding villages. In that discussion of Ithaca in the early Iron Age we were considering a period of low resident population and high maritime dependency. Now the situation is reversed and we've got intensive exploitation of the landscape from the end of the classical period for an external market. Survey data show that the slopes around Stavros were heavily used with extra urban construction in the Polis Valley and a steady extension of the settlement chain north along the Pilicata ridge towards Aesothanasis. No evidence of ancient terracing was found in our survey even though other kinds of structures like this Hellenistic house wall and indeed the funery monument we just saw were adapted into modern terrace lines. These structures must have stood on cultivated but largely unterraced valley slopes leading us to investigate the possibility that anthropogenic slope erosion actually started at that time and in fact we think it did. The tower system on Lefkas was also linked visually through Ithaca to northern Kefalunia. On Ithaca the earliest towers in the Iotos upper and lower fortification systems date around the end of the fourth century. Slightly later a smaller tower at Aesothanasis built some 50 years after the resumption of settlement here in the third quarter of the fourth century is the best Ithachesian candidate for an agricultural tower residence like those on Lefkas. The fortification on the Rossano Acropolis of Bobpolis which again is just about 50 years 50 to 100 years later than the resumption of settlement in the upland valley behind it as you see provides the critical visual link between Aesothanasis the upland plains Stavros and Iotos. Occupation of areas like this marked the start of systematic exploitation of these uplands probably for herding in tandem with lowland cultivation. The strengths of this northward's pool is illustrated both epigraphically and archaeologically. In the first quarter of the second century BC Ithaca first appears in the Delphic catalogue of Theorodauci those magistrates city by city magistrates who received Delphi's envoys announcing the Pythian games but it appears as part of a north-western Greek route involving also Caercyla, Lefkas and Achanania not as an adjunct to the southern route that involves the four cities on Kefalonia which is listed quite separately in the inscription. Both the Peloponnesian and the northern routes were already in place by the late fourth century so in theory Ithaca could have been added to either the choice of the north is reflecting the proximity and pre-ties. Archaeologically I note also the rapid growth in settlement at Iesaf the Narsius which soon overtook Stavros an initial excavation campaign by the British school in 1930 sampled an area of some 50 hectares revealing Hellenistic and early to Middle Roman settlement remains. A second season in 1937 focused on the smaller area around the tower and the terraces beneath again producing important settlement remains dating at least into the third century AD. So we know a lot about the town's date and extent and its material culture but not in the details of its planning or its very specific diachronic development. Both northern Ithaca Stavros and Iesaf the Narsius and Iotos in the south have produced exceptionally wealthy Hellenistic burials with a range of luxury imports including for the first time imported Italian pottery and jewellery. In the north, new graves are still being found but overall much evidence comes from the work of early 19th century travellers and from the concentrations of largely reused gravestones. But while elite luxury was shared across the island the ordinary domestic assemblages of Iesaf the Narsius are on present evidence by far the most varied. Imported tablewares include megarian bowls from Ephesus to Iperos glazed wares from Mithilini and some Italian black glaze. There's also evidence of experiment with so-called Roman decorative techniques including double dipping shapes which are Corinthian in tradition and sometimes reaching back into the archaic period. The most complete example on top right is Cotterly from a late third century with a Cotterly shape with later third century West Slope decoration got it difficult to say but mostly comes from a neighbouring grave. It's a very curious fusion indeed. Most general comparison with Ayatos remains very impressionistic given the very different focuses of excavation. The British school campaigns here focused on the sanctuary within the red box and the Hellenistic tower with trials beside the fortification walls and the harbour at Piso Ayatos. Classical and Hellenistic houses on and around the saddle below the hill were subsequently excavated by Washington University but the lower slopes of the Acropolis on which streets and house walls are clearly visible have yet to be fully investigated. Unfortunately the Cairns excavation was simply in the wrong place to document the city's expansion. To judge from the lines of the walls and the surface remains on the lower slopes plus tombs excavated in the 19th century Ayatos must have been a large and prosperous late classical and Hellenistic town. Predictably so if it mirrors contemporary Sami over the Straits which by this point had grown to be the leading city on Cephalonia. There are some signs of a shared material culture especially in the ceramic repertoire and while more work is needed to document this fully it's clear that there's a local pattern of connection distinct from that observed in the north. On the smaller islands too survey data show that the main peaks of activity date to the later classical Hellenistic, late Roman and then early modern periods. Exploitation for herding or small scale cash cropping occurred in quite clear and discreet phases. Meganisi at least had a more stable local populations we've seen with near continuous settlement in the south but these peak periods are also evident in the spread of activity across the countryside. Given the likely scale of the market for produce on left class in particular it's easy to see why the classical to Hellenistic boom happened but who was cultivating and on what basis is less clear. The Venetian and later boom was seasonal and driven from Ithaca in particular given the constraints on local resources and also from left class. The parallel with this recent history is inviting if rather speculative. So turning finally to the rise and decline of Roman power in the area certain overarching similarities in the material record again concealed contrasting experiences on left class and Cephalonia. Before Augustus's final defeat of Mark Antony and his foundation of his victory city at Nacopolis in 31 BC which reduced left class and the other Arcananian cities to dependencies left class as capital of the Arcananian League had a long history of engagement with Rome and almost certainly had Italian residents. Livy attributes Flamininus's success in besieging left class in 197 after it refused to exceed to Rome to the tretery of the exiled Italians who lived there. The impact of the siege is clear for example in the violent destruction of a commercial building by the port and in building inscriptions which indicate at least partial reconstruction probably of the walls. Left class retained its role in the Arcananian Kinon until the battle of Pidna in 168 when Thurion became the seat and left class was granted independence as a civitas libera minting its own coinage a situation which lasted until the foundation of Nacopolis. Although Strabo says that the establishment of Nacopolis left left class and the other Arcananian cities deserted Eremia it's clear that the city and some rural sites were settled into the 4th century after Christ. Eremia rather means the loss of a certain kind of civic life. The port continued in use through the 5th century AD reflecting the central importance of the sea route linking Nacopolis with Patras and Corinth. However there seems to be a shift towards wealthy Roman landowners controlling agricultural production. Settlement of the intramural urban area continued in some form at least until the 1st century AD but it's likely that gradual decline and desertion began early and elsewhere there's at least one early Roman grave dug among deserted Hellenistic houses. The south cemetery was abandoned with only the northernmost part of the north cemetery remaining in use for burials and to a more limited extent than that in the Hellenistic period. Roman burials of the 1st to 3rd centuries scattered through the cemetery either reusing classical or Hellenistic cysts or in new tile graves probably relate to a large 1st to 2nd century farmhouse or agricultural complex as you see here founded between the city walls and the cemetery and this fits a pattern that rural residences established along the coasts of Iperus and Achananeania from the 1st century BC onwards. We know of at least one family the Cossini family from Pugdioli who are among the Italian landowners who settled along the Iperot coast at this time as well as on left cast. A similar picture is founded in Ildri where there is extensive evidence of Roman settlement, water management and burials including a cemetery of tile graves into the 4th or 5th century after Christ at Stenon the site of the very famous Bronze Age cemetery. In the absence of extensive architectural remains to go with these graves is likely that this too represents rural agricultural installations and there are further scattered remains especially in the south. You see here the ancient probably Roman temple beneath the church of Ayas Ioannis Roddakis at Vunica. Cephalonia too is strategically significant and 189 following Roman patrols against Cephalonian pirates cutting off trade down the straits the consul Marcus Favilius Nabilio crossed to the island and demanded 20 hostages each from Paale, Crani and Sami. Sami revolted and fell after a former siege in 188. Samians were sold as slaves and a Roman garrison installed. In general on the island settlement changes were sharp. Survey data saw a shift from numerous higher lying sites before the first half of the 2nd century BC to a fewer lower lying Roman sites including the coastal villas of the late republican and imperial periods those as we see at Scala, Cato Caterlius and Paale. A Crani, the late Hellenistic and early Roman industrial quarter produced stamtown free to ship local produce. Sami shows some similarities with Lefkas in its development after the SAC although with rather more evidence of continuing Roman and especially port life. The Roman city plan in fact extends from the top of the modern town down towards the plain and right along the shore with no indication that intramural settlement was abandoned. However gets considerable new installations at Lutro well on the shore parts of the commercial centre as you see bottom left have been excavated and we have a number of bards which remain in use for long periods. There is yet little evidence for the architecture of simple private houses although several large residences and at least two public buildings had floor mosaics as you see. The major development on the island was the foundation of Panama in the far north at modern Fiskadol which first became the richest settlement on the island physically and politically closest to Nicopolis. Inscriptions on basis surrounding the Roman agor providing information on office holders religious beliefs and personal names and the last two lines on one in particular placed the citizens of Panama in direct political relationship with the Emperor Hadrian. Other monuments excavated through the modern town include vaulted mor selio parts of a theatre or Odeon and a small bath complex almost next to the cemetery on the bay of Ayasandreus. In many ways the city feels like an insertion into the island system with wider external connections than evident elsewhere and there are certainly big differences in its material culture. As one very small example we're currently completing an analytical programme on course and cookware fabrics between Cavelonia and Itaki and analysis of these fabrics indicates that unlike Sami or Ayasandreus very few of the samples from Panama are local. They're importing all over and in particular from across Italy. In comparison with the Hellenistic period early imperial Ithaca appears to have been a backwater with no distinctive role. The northern trade routes were particularly important after the establishment of Nicopolis and Panama and indeed only Ayasandreus and a new coastal site at Ayasandreus opposite Panama have pottery closely datable to the late 1st century BC or early 1st AD both tableware and as you see here the particularly distinctive Campanian amphory. The externally imposed Augustan pattern of control negated local identity the decline of the shrine in the Polish cave was probably a direct result. Only four years before Actium in 35 BC the freedman Epaphroditus who was an ungrint salesman had left an inscribed dedication there but that's almost the last call thereafter the sanctuary declines very rapidly through the early Roman period with no subsequent revival. At Ayasandreus the ceramic assemblage offers valuable insights into local consumption of Roman material culture. The fine wares include a few examples of Aratine and Eastern Sigilata A from Patras workshops but Roman style tablewares mostly consists of a few plate and platforms made somewhere in the coastal zone from Cephalonia to Kekela and beyond into the Adriatic. Exactly how many workshops were located within this area and where is unknown. There's no direct evidence of production on Ithaca. A tile kiln excavated in 1938 in Polis Bay is likely early Roman but there are no wasters to indicate that other ceramic products were fired here. This isn't an unusual picture in rural Greece where uptake of Sigilata shapes was often limited and plates and platters generally more popular but it's perhaps surprising to find it in such a previously well connected area. To judge from the cookpots culinary practices stayed resolutely Greek at least until the late 1st or early 2nd century AD as they did in southern Iparus along the Achanelian coast but activity was not confined to the north. From the later 1st and 2nd centuries AD there was considerable activity at the deep water harbour in Vathe as you see here we've got a number of tomb groups and a Roman to late Roman complex with a domestic shrine and adjacent bath and we think also we have a continuation at Ayatos. The story ends with what is now emerging as a rather complicated set of changes flowing from the decline and then very sharp contraction of Nicopolis and its trade networks after the 3rd century AD. Predictably left cast was hit hardest with very very little evidence post dating the 3rd century. Later on in the 7th and 8th centuries after Christ we start to find some monumental construction but on the island as a whole this period remains ill understood. The situation is rather better further south along the Achanelian coast. At Astercos for example dense and extensive late Roman and early Christian building remains in the bay of Ayos Pantelimon some 200 metres west of the ancient settlement include a probable basilica with a 4th century floor mosaic partially submerged in the sea and I'm sorry about the quality of this image. But more generally the decline of Nicopolis had a strong centrifugal effect with population moving out to marginal areas around and beyond the old political borders. This is strikingly clear on Meganisi where usually low density scatters of late Roman course and cooking wares were found across much of the area surveyed including now the north of the island a rather different pattern to the previous Hellenistic Peak. Other islands too have produced pottery with building remains also on both Castos and Calamos. How long this phenomenon lasted in the small islands isn't present on clear our initial reading of the Meganisi pottery suggests a gap after late Roman until the 7th century AD but late Roman is itself an imprecise notion when you're dealing with surface pottery and it's still rather early on in the study. Kefalunia and Ithachii in particular together enjoyed a major late Roman revival. Panomos remained an important centre in addition to the 6th century Basilica on the Carver's Promethry a 5th to 6th century complex where the hearth and storeroom has recently been excavated in the Agara area. But while the sources from the 6th century onwards sometimes use Panomos as a short time for the whole island the archaeological picture is much richer. At Sami an early Byzantine house complex with associated burials was founded on Hellenistic remains in the area of the Roman port and a 3R Basilica with a floor mosaic in the nave and an associated cemetery as you see here was built in the west part of the modern town. And at Caroni there's at least one public building plus extensive early Byzantine complexes by the sea which must be harbour installations. On both islands survey data allow us to move beyond the old town centres to document rural settlement in both lowlands which lay gradually to the development of the complex upland systems that characterise the medieval and early Venetian record. This is not a flight to the hills it's a gradual shift of focus to the uplands after several centuries of exploiting the uplands and the lowlands together. Northern Ithaca illustrates this well a considerable activity in the polis valley is shown by surface remains as well as a dump through tableware and amphory which confirms that the island remained widely connected and this is combined with a marked growth around Rossano and the associated uplands. The sense that these islands were moving back together and more firmly into a north-western milieu is reflected in their political status. During the 7th century Kefalunia was part of the province of Helaus or Ikea and Ithaca was in Pallia Iperos. By the 8th century Ithaca, Kefalunia and indeed Zacanthos were all part of Proti Iperos so they moved up politically northwards. Rossano its name, a corruption of Jerusalem was to become one of the island's most significant medieval landmarks. So I end this long story of island history with the account of the Byzantine chronicler Anna Comnina that the name derived from the vision of Roberto Giscar, Duke of Apulia and Calabria and Conqueror of Kefalunia who in 1085 had a vision of the holy city on the mountain over the water as he lay dying in the town renamed for him Fiscardo. So, thank you.