The Greek edition of the Mycenaean Acropolis of Athens was published in 1962 and was favourably reviewed by O. Broneer (Gnomon 55, 1963, 708-711, Archaeology 17, 1964, 70-71), H. W. Catling (JHS 86, 1966, 271-272) and F. Schachermeyr (Anzeiger fur die Altertumswissenschaft XIX, 1966, Forschungsbericht). Since, however, it was written in Greek it remained largely unread by non-Greek scholars. Those who dealt with the subject referred as a rule to a couple of precis of the monograph, published much later, the first as a chapter in the volume E1 of Archaeologia Homerica, pp. 193-204 (Gottingen 1976) and the other as part of my monograph Late Helladic Citadels on Mainland Greece (Leiden 1983). Thus, the detailed description of the Mycenaean remains of the Athenian Acropolis -either already known or identified as such by me after careful investigation and small scale excavations which I had conducted on the rock- went mainly unnoticed and so did the resulting close argumentation leading to the conclusions I had arrived at. As a result the Late Helladic citadel of Athens is still much less known than the other similarly fortified sites of the period.
Time went by with much to do and the idea of a translation was shelved again and again, until finally I realized that, if I wanted my work to reach a larger public, it would have to be translated into the lingua franca of international scholarship, namely English. For this purpose I was fortunate enough to secure the collaboration of Dr. Miriam Caskey, an archaeologist in her own right and an experienced translator of scholarly texts, who produced not a literal metaphrase but an accurate and at the same time a free English version of the Greek original.
During the years between the publication of the book and its translation very little has been added to the relevant bibliography. What was written concerned the west retaining wall of Terrace III, the arrangement of the West Entrance and the houses on the NE ascent. The views expressed about them, however, do not take, in my opinion, account of the archaeological evidence. It became therefore necessary for me to alter some of the footnotes of my original text and add a few others with my own comments.
My thanks are due to the Board of the Athens Archaeological Society and its Secretary General, Dr. B. Petrakos, who agreed to include this English translation of my book in the prestigious monograph series of the Society.
My thanks and congratulations go to Mrs Electra Andreadi for her invaluable editorial assistance. During our close cooperation this book and its author profited greatly from her long and noted expertise and her meticulous attention to detail. SP. lAKOVIDlS

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