The Hagia Photia Cemetery takes its name from the nearby village on the northeast coast of Crete, 5 km east of modern Siteia. This large Early Minoan burial ground with over fifteen hundred Cycladic imports was discovered in 1971. A total of 263 tombs were excavated as a rescue excavation in 1971 and 1984. Among the 1800 artefacts are some of the earliest known Cretan discoveries of several types: the grave goods come mostly from the Kampos Group, an assemblage of artefacts known mainly from the Cyclades. Similarly, the tombs represent an architectural style and a series of burial customs that are foreign to Crete but familiar from elsewhere within the Aegean. In fact, the cemetery has such close parallels from the Cyclades that it has often been regarded as a Cycladic colony. The burial contents are an extremely interesting body of evidence for the study of the formative phases of Minoan Crete.

The publication of the Hagia Photia Cemetery is planned in three volumes. The first volume, which has already been published (Davaras and Betancourt 2004), presented the tomb groups and the architecture. The second volume about the excavation of the Hagia Photia cemetery focuses on the pottery. The third volume will present the obsidian, stone finds, metal objects, and other discoveries. The Early Minoan I tombs at Hagia Photia included the largest assemblage of vessels in Cycladic style known from Crete as well as vases from production workshops in Crete. The pottery is extremely important for several reasons, including the definition of the EM I ceramic styles that were being used as funerary offerings in this part of Crete, the establishment of the chronological synchronisms between Crete and the Cyclades, and information on the history of the Minoan pottery industry. When compared with other deposits from EM I Crete, the pottery helps to establish a better understanding of the ceramic development within the first Minoan time period.

The 27 papers in this volume harken to the themes that Jeffrey Soles has influenced during his illustrious career in Aegean Bronze Age archaeology: ancestry, burial customs, religion, trade, jewelry, the development of the Minoan settlement of Mochlos in eastern Crete, and the rise and fall of the Minoan civilization.

This second volume on Early Cycladic (and Cycladicising) sculptures found in the Aegean, examines finds from mainland Greece, along with the rarer items from the north and east Aegean, with the exception of those discovered in the Cyclades (covered in the preceding volume), and of those found in Crete. The significance of these finds is that these are the principal testimonies of the influence of the Early Bronze Age Cycladic cultures in the wider Aegean. This influence is shown both by the export of sculptures produced in the Cyclades (and made of Cycladic marble), and of their imitations, produced elsewhere in the Aegean, usually of local marble. They hold the key, therefore, to the cultural interactions developing at this time, the so-called ‘international spirit’ manifest particularly during the Aegean Early Bronze II period. This was the time when the foundations of early Aegean civilization were being laid, and the material documented is thus of considerable significance. The volume is divided into sections wherein contributions examine finds and their archaeological, social, and economic contexts from specific regions. It concludes with an overview of the significance and role of these objects in Early Bronze Age societies of the Aegean and eastern Mediterranean region. This will be the first time that this material has been systematically gathered together. Highly illustrated, it follows and builds on the successful preceding volume, Early Cycladic Sculpture in Context (Oxbow 2016).

The papers published here are dedicated to the memory of Ellen N. Davis, one of the most valued and beloved Aegean scholars of her generation. All of the articles are in some way inspired or influenced by Davis' own contributions to the field. In the area of metalwork, several papers investigate interconnections within and around the Aegean during the Early, Middle, and Late Bronze Ages (Betancourt, Ferrence, and Muhly, Weingarten, Kopcke), while others examine metal ware in its social context (Wiener). Papers on wall painting range from studies of pigments and optical illusions (Vlachopoulos), to representations of water (Shank). Anthropomorphic representations, or their absence, of goddesses or priestesses (Jones), rulers (Palaima), or initiates (Koehl) are also studied here with new eyes and fresh insights.