Two aims of recent excavations at Azoria have been to understand the early history of the site and to explore stratigraphically the changes in the form of the settlement in the transition from the Early Iron Age (or Greek Dark Age) (Late Minoan IIIC-Late Geometric; c. 1200-700 BC) and Orientalizing (c. 700-600 BC) to Archaic periods (c. 600-500 BC).
Delibes also composed various operas, the last of which, the lush orientalizing Lakmé (1883), contains, among many dazzling numbers, the famous coloratura showpiece known as the Légende du Paria or Bell Song ("Où va la jeune Indoue?") and The Flower Duet ("Sous le dôme épais"), a barcarolle that Patricia Rozema made famous in her film "I've Heard the Mermaids Singing" and later used by British Airways commercials.
Towards the end of the 3rd and during the 4th century, as a result of the orientalizing of the Imperial court by Diocletian, it became customary to celebrate as a matter of course the superhuman virtues and achievements of the reigning emperor, in a formally staged literary event.