Book excerpt: This volume presents essays on the ancient history and classical archaeology of the Black Sea. Like a Periplus, it offers a journey throughout the Pontus. The introductory chapter provides an overview of developments across the region over the last 20 years in the study of Greek colonisation, the local population and the relationship between them. The following chapters take the journey to the Cimmerians and Thrace, and how we understand them from written sources. Next to the southern Black Sea and recent surveys and excavations there, local peoples and the early Greek presence; then to the west and an account of archaeological research from the Archaic period to the Roman conquest. To the north, with an essay on recent archaeological research, a chapter on one of the local peoples, the Taurians, and another on the economy of the Greek colonies of the region, presented through an examination of Kerkinitis in the Crimea. The northern and western shores are combined in a consideration, based on epigraphic sources, of religious experience there. The final journey is to the eastern Black Sea, and a survey of recent discoveries and studies in Colchis.