This tribute volume to Oliver Dickinson marks the occasion of his retirement from his post at the University of Durham. It is a tribute by only a few (unavoidably) of his friends, colleagues and former students, marking the formal cessation of Oliver's teaching responsibilities. Oliver's ongoing participation in major projects (e.g. Lefkandi, Argolid) makes it clear that his contributions to Aegean Bronze Age studies will not end with his retirement. This Festschrift was assembled merely as a token of its contributors' appreciation of his achievements hitherto, and in anticipation of many more still to come. The title of the volume, Autochthon, highlights the central notion in his classic synthesis, namely that "[...] the history of Mycenaean development can be understood as that of progressive assimilation of the mainland societies to the earlier Aegean civilisations, artistically and politically". Indeed, one of Oliver's main contributions in Aegean prehistory has been to depict the emergence of Mycenaean 'civilisation' as a multi-linear and dynamic process, associated with Cretan influence yet not entirely dependent on it; it was also informed, he has suggested, by indigenous Helladic cultures and heralded by the emergence of MH 'shadowy aristocracies' in various regions of the mainland.
