This publication is the outcome of a project begun in 1973 with an intensive survey of the Lasithi plain in Crete; it documents and discusses the history of ancient settlement in this rich valley high up in the Diktaian mountain range. The core of the book is a survey of archaeological evidence for settlement in the Neolithic to Late Roman periods, but the author also extends his work to later periods. The area was exploited by the Venetians in the 15th and 16th centuries as a source of grain, and the author draws on documentary evidence to describe their agricultural practices#151;many of which have extended into the modern period.