This volume of final reporting on the excavations at Khóstia in 1980 and in 1983 has been long in production. Our team from McGill University, together in the first year of work with participation from Université Laval (Québec), was interrupted in its work in 1981 by disagreements with the local superintendent of antiquities of Boiotia, Dr. A. Andreiomenou and in resolving that situation in 1982 with aid of a mutual friend, Prof. Alkis Oikonomides so that work resumed in 1983 with an exclusively McGill team. This was followed by several seasons of studying the finds in the next ten years. Interim reports were produced for each of the two excavation seasons (Fossey & Giroux, 1981; Fossey, 1986) together with a volume of specialised reports on certain classes of those finds and the prehistoric material â exclusively Early Helladic in character and date â was published in a separate volume (Morin, 2004). The purpose of the current volume is to bring things as far as possible up to date publishing the âminorâ finds together with the ancient and recent testimonia to give the overall history of the site.
Where the recent testimonia are concerned I am much indebted to my friends Dr Andreas Konencny of the University of Graz and Stephanie Stringer MA (formerly of Université de Montréal, now of Concordia University) who made up for my deficiency in German; similarly my colleague at McGill, Professor Bill Gladhill helped with a text written by Lebègue over a century ago in an impenetrable, strange âLatinâ as his first thesis.
The third chapter on the small finds was drawn from several sources. In the first place my late wife Eléni Zoïtopoúlou had done the preliminary recording of the material in the field and in the years 1984â1986 in the museum at ThÃva. Her notes gave the material for the catalogue of metal and terracotta objects which provided me with material for the first three sections of chapter 3; the large final section of that chapter reflected my wifeâs particular interest in lamps and this was treated extensively by my colleague and friend, Dr Beaudoin Caron. Beaudoin has been a constant source of support over the years of producing this volume.
I am particularly indebted to my friend George Kellaris for all his effort in helping put together the final version of this volume.
John M. Fossey
Additional Note: John F. Fossey died suddenly on 1 December 2024, at which time this volume was almost in a state of completion. Final editing was performed by a long-time colleague.