These differing conclusions, regarding early Euboean trade at Al Mina, from leading Students of the School may seem to contain the seeds of another internecine, Lelantine War. So, since the author has a homely interest in the Plain, and counts the two contestants among his friends, he thought he might intervene, though with no pretence to the same expert knowledge of the period in question and with a strong vested interest in Euboean enterprise.
The point at issue is the source of a distinctive group of sherds from Al Mina, probably the earliest Greek pottery found on that site; they belong to rather shallow skyphoi, or cups, decorated on each side with two groups of compass-drawn semicircles pendent from the lip and usually overlapping.