This article, based on an oral presentation in virtual format by the author at its Annual General Meeting in February 2023, summarizes the activities of the British School at Athens with a focus on the calendar year 2022. It gives us great pleasure to present the innovative and varied work of BSA sponsored field and research projects, the Fitch Laboratory, Knossos Research Centre, archive, and library as well as the inspiring work of the School students, post docs, and fellows.

This research paper presents the development and evaluation of pioneering nanocomposites (NCs) based on the combination of k-carrageenan and linseed mucilage. When loaded with macela extract nanoemulsion they present an innovative approach for the sustained release of antimicrobial herbal constituents, specifically tailored for bovine mastitis treatment. The NCs, encompassing various ratios of k-carrageenan and linseed mucilage polymers (8:2, 7:3, and 5:5 w/w) with 1.25 mg of macela extract/g of gel, underwent in vitro assessment, emphasizing viscosity, degradation speed, release of herbal actives from macela nanoemulsion and antimicrobial activity. The NCs exhibited thermoreversible characteristics, transitioning from liquid at 60°C to a gel at 25°C. NCs allowed a gradual release of phenolic compounds, reaching approximately 80% of total phenolics release (w/v) within 72 h. NCs inhibited the growth of MRSA (ATCC 33592) until 8 h of incubation. No toxic effect in vitro of NCs was found on MAC-T cells. Thus, the developed materials are relevant for the treatment of bovine mastitis, especially in the dry period, and the data support future evaluations in vivo.

We start this special issue with two perspectives. First, that the sociological study of crime and law often intersects with the study of inequality, power, the state, and life chances. Second, that the study of crime and law are deeply interconnected—institutionally, politically, and culturally. Legal institutions build on normative ideas, organizations, careers, and power to govern, to criminalize, and to punish (and, conversely, to ignore or absolve), and everyday understandings of crime are deeply tied to cultural understandings of legality, perceptions of justice and injustice, and hopes for everyday life. Law and crime are thus dynamically tied to social aspirations, fears, and divisions, and are political and social contests over what unites and what divides societies.

Four substantial volumes dedicated to women in music, all published within the past couple of years, give welcome indication of the continuing growth of this area of study.1 Following some general background, I first survey the books, then consider each individually. That I select chapters to discuss in detail does not mean that others would not deserve comparable attention. I can give only a glimpse of the riches these books contain.

Aquinas's virtue-based ethics is grounded in his metaphysics, and in particular in one part of his doctrine of the transcendentals, namely, the relation of being and goodness. This metaphysics supplies for his normative ethics the sort of metaethical foundation that some contemporary virtue-centered ethics have been criticized for lacking, and it grounds an ethical naturalism of considerable philosophical sophistication. In addition, this grounding has a theological implication even more fundamental than its applications to ethics. That is because Aquinas takes God to be essentially and uniquely being itself. Consequently, on Aquinas's view, God is also essentially goodness itself. Aquinas's metaphysical grounding for his ethics is thus meant to be understood in connection with his more fundamental views regarding God's nature, and in particular his views of God's simplicity. This metaphysical grounding confers significant philosophical and theological advantages on his ethics.

The complementary radio navigation system based on the Very Low Frequency signals produced by lightning is an alternative to today's Global Navigation Satellite Systems. The system operates on different principles and uses different radio frequency bands. The signals have higher availability in problematic places. The analyses based on the historical data of Word Wide Lightning Location Network demonstrated the good availability of the service, sufficient number of lightning strokes and good geometry calculated for a 10-second time window for positioning based on the Time of Arrival principle. The geometry was evaluated with the help of the Geometric Dilution of Precision coefficient. The Geometric Dilution of Precision median for the reception of the lightning signal from a range of 10,000 km moves around one except at the southern polar regions and the probability of the service availability exceeds 80%.

The reference to ‘victoriati’ in Bloomberg Wax Tablet 31 has been interpreted as a request for 52 Roman quinarii. This paper argues that quinarii were not available in significant enough quantities to make such a payment and that a more credible alternative is to see these ‘victoriati’ as a reference to local, Celtic coinage, specifically the silver issues of Epaticcus or Cunobelin. This identification, supported by recent metallurgic studies, alongside data from hoards, excavations and the Portable Antiquities Scheme, suggests a more prolonged use of Celtic coinage in Roman London than has previously been appreciated. Supplementary material is available online and provides data supporting the assertions made.

By tracing Zionist and German Templer efforts to buy arable private property in Palestine between 1897 and 1922, I show the ways in which the changing balance of Ottoman and Levantine forces over land and labor—as well as political and economic institutions and social structures—facilitated settler-colonialism in northern Palestine. In this article, I examine official records of the Ottoman state, Jewish organizations, and Levantine, Jewish, and Templer real estate papers. I argue that changing capitalist practices in northern Palestine, driven especially by interactions of Beirut-based companies with the changing global capitalist market, facilitated settler-colonialism in the region. Specifically, Ottoman state-sponsored violence during World War I increased peasant dispossessions in the fertile region of northern Palestine, already in progress since at least the mid-19th century, making settler colonies possible.