The Archaeology of Athens

353 Pages·2004·3.31 MB·English

by  Professor John M. Camp

THE ARCHAEOLOGY
OF ATHENS

THE
ARCHAEOLOGY
of
ATHENS
JOHN M. CAMP
Yale University Press New Haven and London
To Elizabeth Ann Fisher
Copyright ©2001 by John M. Camp.
All rights reserved.
This book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, including illustrations, in any form (beyond that copy-
ing permitted by Sections 107 and 108 of the U.S. Copyright Law and except by reviewers for the public
press), without written permission from the publishers.
Designed by Sonia Shannon and set in Scala and Scala Sans type by
The Composing Room of Michigan, Inc., Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Printed in Italy by EuroGrafica SpA, Vicenza.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Camp, John M., 1946–
The archaeology of Athens / John M. Camp
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0–300–08197–9
1. Excavations (Archaeology)—Greece—Athens. 2. Athens (Greece)—
Antiquities. 3. Historic sites—Greece—Athens. I. Title.
DF275 .C28 2001
938(cid:2).5—dc21
2001002711
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
The paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanence and durability of the Committee on Production
Guidelines for Book Longevity of the Council on Library Resources.
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Contents
Preface ix
PARTI
THEMONUMENTS OF ATHENS
1 INTRODUCTION
THE PHYSICAL SETTING 3
2 THE PREHISTORIC PERIOD 11
Paleolithic and Neolithic 11
Early Bronze Age 12
Middle Bronze Age 13
Late Bronze Age 14
3 EARLY ANDARCHAIC ATHENS 21
The Dark Ages 21
The Eighth and Seventh Centuries 22
The Sixth Century 26
Solon 26
Peisistratos 28
The Rise of Democracy 39
The Persian Wars 47
4 CLASSICAL ATHENS 59
Kimon 63
Perikles 72
The Parthenon 74
The Propylaia 82
The Temple of Athena Nike 90
v
vi CONTENTS
The Erechtheion 93
The Lower City 100
Attica 106
The Peloponnesian War 117
The Fourth Century 137
5 HELLENISTIC ATHENS 161
6 ROMAN ATHENS 183
7 LATE ROMAN ATHENS 223
Epilogue 239
PARTII
SITESUMMARIES
ATHENS 247
Acropolis 248
Acropolis Slopes 254
Agora 257
Kerameikos 261
Mouseion Hill, Pnyx, Areopagos 264
Olympieion, Southeast Athens 266
ATTICA 271
Acharnai 274
Brauron 277
East Coast: Steireia, Prasiai
(Porto Raphti, Koroni, Perati) 281
Eleusis 283
Ikaria 289
Marathon 291
Peiraieus 294
Phyle 299
Contents vii
Rhamnous 301
Sounion 305
Thorikos 311
West Coast: Euonymon, Aixone,
Cape Zoster, Cave of Pan
(Trachones, Glyphada,
Vouliagmeni, Vari) 315
BORDER AREAS 319
Eleutherai 319
Oropos (Amphiareion) 322
Salamis 324
Abbreviations 328
Illustration Credits 329
Index 330

Preface
The city of Athens has played a leading role in the development of European civiliza-
tion. When we look back through time to the origins of so many of the institutions and ac-
tivities which thrive or are valued today, we are led to ancient Greece and, most often, to
Athens in the Classical period (480–323 B.C.).Time and again we find a connection with
antiquity and a sense that little has changed but the technology; this is true in the case of
theater, philosophy, art, law, athletics, medicine, architecture, and politics. Every time we
watch a marathon, walk through the colonnaded facade of a public building, tell the story of
the tortoise and the hare, or vote, we pay tribute to the enduring legacy of ancient Greece.
Of the figures associated with the greatest accomplishments of Classical Greek civi-
lization, many were native Athenians and others were drawn to the city from all over the
Mediterranean to contribute to a remarkable period of intellectual and artistic achieve-
ment. Statesmen and playwrights, historians and artists, philosophers and orators—
Thucydides, Aischylos, Sokrates, Pheidias, Euripides, Demosthenes, Aristotle, and Praxi-
teles—all flourished here in the fifth and fourth centuries, when Athens was the most
powerful city-state of Greece; collectively they were responsible for sowing the seeds of
Western civilization.
Here, too, the political institution of democracy first took root under the guidance of
Solon, Kleisthenes, and Perikles. Even when the city’s political, economic, and military sig-
nificance waned, Athens remained an influential cultural and educational center for cen-
turies, drawing teachers and students of philosophy, science, logic, and rhetoric until the
sixth century A.D.Archaeological exploration of the city and study of its monuments can
therefore shed light on all aspects of the early history of modern institutions.
Archaeology is the study of the past using physical evidence: buildings, monuments,
gravesites. When we study Athens we are especially fortunate, however, because the abun-
dant archaeological record can be supplemented by an equally rich written tradition. Much
of ancient Greek literature is, in fact, Athenian or concerns Athens. The historians He-
rodotos, Thucydides, and Xenophon provide a narrative account of the fifth and fourth cen-
turies B.C., which can be supplemented by the extant speeches of orators such as Demos-
thenes, Lysias, and Lykourgos. In the years around A.D. 100 the philosopher Plutarch
studied in Athens and later wrote a series of biographies which include considerable infor-
ix