AUTOCHTHON: Papers presented to O.T.P.K. Dickinson on the occasion of his retirement

This tribute volume to Oliver Dickinson marks the occasion of his retirement from his post at the University of Durham. It is a tribute by only a few (unavoidably) of his friends, colleagues and former students, marking the formal cessation of OliverÆs teaching responsibilities. Oliver's ongoing participation in major projects (e.g. Lefkandi, Argolid) makes it clear that his contributions to Aegean Bronze Age studies will not end with his retirement. This Festschrift was assembled merely as a token of its contributorsÆ appreciation of his achievements hitherto, and in anticipation of many more still to come. The title of the volume, Autochthon, highlights the central notion in his classic synthesis, namely that "[...] the history of Mycenaean development can be understood as that of progressive assimilation of the mainland societies to the earlier Aegean civilisations, artistically and politically". Indeed, one of Oliver's main contributions in Aegean prehistory has been to depict the emergence of Mycenaean æcivilisationÆ as a multI-linear and dynamic process, associated with Cretan influence yet not entirely dependent on it; it was also informed, he has suggested, by indigenous Helladic cultures and heralded by the emergence of MH æshadowy aristocraciesÆ in various regions of the mainland. Contributors: (Appreciations) HECTOR CATLING: The origins of Oliver Dickinson; ANTHONY SNODGRASS: Oliver, a view from the field; CLAIRE LOADER & STUART DUNN: Oliver, the teacher (Survey and Settlement) JOHN BINTLIFF: Parallels and contrasts in the settlement patterns of prehistoric Greece; WILLIAM CAVANAGH & CHRISTOPHER MEE: Reflections on Neolithic Laconia; TODD WHITELAW: A tale of three cities: chronology and Minoanisation at Phylakopi in Melos; CYPRIAN BROODBANK, EVANGELIA KIRIATZI & JEREMY RUTTER From pharaohÆs feet to the slave-women of Pylos? The history and cultural dynamics of Kythera in the Third Palace period (Environment and Landscape) STURT MANNING: Simulation and the date of the Thera eruption: outlining what we do and do not know from radiocarbon; STUART DUNN: From Juktas to Thera: people and their environment in Middle and Late Minoan Crete; JENNIFER MOODY: æDrought and the decline of MycenaeÆ updated (æMycenaeansÆ in the Making) SOFIA VOUTSAKI: Social and cultural change in the Middle Helladic period: presentation of a new project; JOHN BENNET & IOANNIS GALANAKIS: Parallels and contrasts: early Mycenaean mortuary traditions in Messenia and Laconia; GULLÖG NORDQUIST & ANNE INGVARSSON-SUNDSTRÖM: Live hard, die young: Middle and early Late Helladic mortuary remains of children from the Argolid in social context; ELIZABETH FRENCH & KIM SHELTON: Early palatial Mycenae (Architecture) JOHN YOUNGER: Some similarities in Mycenaean palace plans; JAMES WRIGHT: Offsets in Mycenaean architecture (Administration and Economy) CYNTHIA W. SHELMERDINE: The world according to Perimos: a Mycenaean bureaucrat talks back; ANASTASIA DAKOURI-HILD: Breaking the mould? Production and economy in the Theban state; HEIDI DIERCKX: Ground stone implements from Crete: an overview of research (Iconography and Symbolism) SUE SHERRATT: Arthur Evans and the first of the Priest-Kings; MARIKA ZEIMBEKI: æNurturing the naturalÆ: a cognitive approach in the study of the Xeste 3 aquatic imagery; VASSILIS ARAVANTINOS: To have and to hoard: a gold disc from the palace of Thebes; STEFAN HILLER: The spiral as a symbol of sovereignty and power (Ritual and Cult) PAUL REHAK: The æsphinxÆ head from the Cult Centre at Mycenae; KATIE DEMAKOPOULOU: A Mycenaean ritual vase from Trachones, Attica; ELENA KOUNTOURI: Ceramic stands in the Late Bronze Age Aegean: form and function with special reference to a stand from the Vlachopoulo tholos tomb in Messenia (Contacts and Exchange) ANTHONY HARDING: Horse-harness and the origins of the Mycenaean civilization; HELEN HUGHES-BROCK: Amber and some other travellers in the Bronze Age Aegean and Europe; JACKE PHILLIPS & ERIC CLINE: Amenhote