O S& continued View of the mound of Iolkos, seen from the southwest.Below: Large matt-paintedvase, MiddleHelladic.Photographsby S. Weinberg. the most important port and largest urban center in this part of Greece. Although only some thirty-odd feet high, it measures a quarter of a mile long and a fifth of a mile wide- an area of about twenty-five acres. It was somewhat protected on the west and north by marshy ground about a river- perhaps the Anauros which Jason crossed when he came from Pelion, and where he was said to have lost his sandal. A fortress on this hill could easily dominate both the harbor and the narrow coastal strip which forms an entrance into the fertile fields of central Thessaly. The desirability of fully excavating Mycenaean Iolkos has lately become urgent- if it is ever to be done- for following the recent disastrous earthquakes at Volo, a settlement now being built is threatening to engulf the site. At my request, therefore, the Greek Archaeological Iolkos: general view of the main section of the excavations.Above is seen the mediaevalfortress wall and some modern houses. 14