Table Of ContentT H E A T H E N I A N A G O R A
RESULTS OF EXCAVATIONS
CONDUCTED BY
THE AMERICAN SCHOOL OF CLASSICAL STUDIES AT ATHENS
VOLUME XI11
T H E N E O L I T H I C
AND BRONZE AGES
BY
3ARA ANDERSON IMMERWAHR
THE AMERICAN SCHOOL OF CLASSICAL STUDIES AT ATHENS
PRINCETON, NEW JERSEY
PUBLISHED WITH THE AID OF A GRANT FROM MR. JOHN D.ROCKEFELLER, JR.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
PRINTED IN GERMANY at J.J. AUGUSTIN, GLUCKSTADT
IN MEMOROYF
LUCY TALCOTT
PREFACE
0ne of the surprising rewards of the American Excavations in the Agora and its vicinity
was the comparative wealth of early or "prehistoric" material. Although the excavations
were primarily concerned with elucidating the history and topography of Classical Athens, these
early finds constitute a most important addition to our knowledge of Athens in the Neolithic
and Bronze Ages and the place she occupies in the wider field of Aegean archaeology. Of the
nearly one thousand inventoried items of a date prior to about 1150 B.C. (roughly the end
of the Mycenaean period and the date at which the Submycenaean material begins), by far the
greater amount is pottery, both whole vases and potsherds. But, in addition, the Agora has
produced objects of stone, bone and ivory, bronze, lead, and more rarely silver and gold,
glass and semi-precious stones, some of these of real artistic merit.
The very quantity of material is a striking proof of the habitation of the Agora and the sur-
rounding slopes of the Acropolis, Areopagus and the neighboring hills from at least the fourth
millennium B.C. This had been in part deduced from earlier excavations, notably those of the
Greeks and Germans on the Acropolis, the Americans on the North Slope, the Italians on the
South Slope, and it is currently being supplemented by Greek excavations in several areas,
particularly the South Slope, the Hill of Philopappos, the Olympieion, and Plato's Academy.
Nowhere, however, is the evidence so full and the series so complete as in the Agora. Although
no actual prehistoric settlement has been laid bare, nor has any building of this period been
uncovered, this is not surprising considering the continuous habitation and usage of the area from
Geometric through Classical, Roman, medieval and modern times. Many of the building projects
of these later periods entailed a cutting down and levelling of bedrock, so that only those
deposits that cut deeply enough into virgin rock or those that were used to fill in natural pockets
and declivities have survived. Thus, our greatest source of information for the Neolithic and
the Early and Middle Helladic periods comes from wells, pits and bothroi, and for the Late
Helladic period from over forty chamber tombs and graves. Numbers based on the Agora grid
have been assigned to almost eighty such prehistoric deposits, which are listed alphabeti-
cally (followed by items in the Catalogue in boldface) in the Index of Deposits; these are
located with appropriate symbols on the Plan (PI. 91).
Since there is little real stratigraphy, the material from the Neolithic through the Middle
Helladic period has not been presented according to deposits, but selectively according to
types and fabrics. 408 items have been chosen to illustrate the range of finds from these periods,
and they have been arranged in the Catalogue under two main headings, "Neolithic" and
"Early and Middle Helladic," each preceded by a general discussion of the types of deposit, the
main characteristics of the pottery and other finds, and conclusions as to date and cultural
affinities. For the Mycenaean period, the tombs and graves are discussed individually, each
followed by the publication of its complete inventory. The tombs are designated by Roman
...
PREFACE
vlll
numerals, and are arranged in a topographic sequence, beginning with the large ones on the
North Slope of the Areopagus. The objects within each tomb are given a separate series of
Arabic numerals; thus each item from a tomb has a double numeral, Roman plus Arabic (for
example 1-16 for the large ivory pyxis from the chamber tomb N 21-22: I). In addition, some-
what less than 100 other Mycenaean objects, not from tombs, continue the running sequence
of Arabic numerals from the first part of the book (409-504). The Mycenaean section is
preceded by a discussion of t,he tomb types, burial customs, offerings, and an appraisal of the
Agora Mycenaean pottery, its chronological range, characteristic shapes and motives, and local
idiosyncracies. This section concludes with an attempt to place the Agora material within the
broader context of the Mycenaean remains on the Acropolis and the North Slope, a,nd to
synthesize a brief history of Mycenaean Athens.
This study was begun in 1961 under a fellowship from the American Association of University
Women, which enabled me to spend the summer months in Athens working with the objects and
using the excavation notebooks. A further period of study in Athens, from January to July
1964, was assisted by a grant-in-aid of the American Philosophical Society. Meanwhile library
research has been pursued at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and at the Insti-
tute for Advanced Study at Princeton during several summers. To all these institutions I owe
my thanks.
Of the many people who have encouraged and contributed to this volume I should like to
thank especially Homer A. Thompson for making this material available to me. for answering
many questions and explaining many problems, and Lucy Talcott for her interest and her
knowledge of the objects. Of the various Agora excavators over the years who dug and recorded
significant deposits of prehistoric material, the following deserve special mention: the late
Arthur W. Parsons for the prehistoric wells in Section OA, Eugene Vanderpool for the Myce-
naean chamber tombs on the North Slope of the Areopagus and for supervising those dis-
covered under the Stoa of Attalos, and Emily Townsend Vermeule for her excavation and
study of the tomb under the Temple of Ares (Tomb VII) found in 1951 and the new tomb
with the cofins discovered in 1965 (Tomb XL). Thanks are also due the various members of
the Agora staff, especially Poly Demoulini and Spyro Spyropoulos. The new group photographs
of fragments (Pls. 2-13; 15-20; 24) and of Mycenaean shapes (Pls. 65-67) were taken by
James Heyle in the spring of 1964; most of the others are by Alison Frantz. The plans are
mainly the work of John Travlos assisted by his daughter Nina, who has also drawn most of
the pottery profiles. The drawings of the Mattpainted pottery found in 1936 were made by Piet
de Jong when the decoration was still fresh; other drawings are by Hero Athanasiades. With-
out the help and patience of these people, this book could not have been completed.
To my colleagues in the field of prehistoric studies my debt is great: to the late Alan J. B.
Wace and the late Mary H. Swindler for furthering my interest in Mycenaean studies, to Carl
W. Blegen for his inspiration and guidance, to Saul S. Weinberg and Colin Renfrew for dis-
cussing specific Neolithic and Cycladio problems with me, to John L. Caskey for applying the
wisdom of Lerna and Keos, and to Evelyn L. Smithson for many helpful suggestions with the
later Mycenaean material. Our special debt to Oscar Broneer, who first revealed the full im-
portance of Mycenaean Athens with his excavation of the Mycenaean Fountain, will be
apparent in the third section of this publication. To the pottery experts, Frederick R. Matson
and Marie Farnsworth, I am indebted for much helpful counsel, although in not all instances
was the verdict unequivocal. I should also like to thank members of the Greek Archaeological
PREFACE ix
Service for allowing me to see comparative material, both published and unpublished, es-
pecially George Dontas and Nicholas Platon for pottery in the Acropolis Museum, and Semni
Karouzou and Agnes Sakellariou for objects in the National Museum.
This book was finished in the summer of 1967, and it has not been possible to include sub-
sequent bibliography. It was possible to add the new chamber tomb (Tomb XL) and the
Mycenaean grave (XLI) found during the clearing of the South Square in the summer of 1965,
but the manuscript was too far along to incorporate in the Catalogue other fragments of
prehistoric ware found that summer; these are referred to by their inventory numbers under
similar objects.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
vii
...
Xlll
xvii
1
INTRODUCTIO..N. .................................................................
1
DEPOSITS .......................................................................... 1
~.P~TTER..Y........................................................................ 4
REDB URNISHEWD A RE ............................................................
4
GRAYOR BLACKB URNISHEWD ARE .................................................
9
PAINTEDWARES..................................................................10
WHITES LIPPEDW ARE ............................................................11
FINEINCISEDWAR.E. ............................................................ 1
2
FINEU NDECORATWEDA RE .
........................................................ 13
COARSWE ARE ................................................................... 13
.
3 SCULPTURAEND OTHERA RTIFACT.S. .................................................. 1
6
.
4 RELATIVAEN D ABSOLUTCEH RONOLOGY................................................
18
22
22
48
49
51
51
51
55
55
55
55
56
56
56
57
57
58
58
58
59
60
60
61
61
66
68
68
xii TABLE OF CONTENTS
CATALOGUE .......................................................................
.
1 DESCRIPTIOONF TOMBSA ND CATALOGUEOF OBJECTS ...................................
THETOMBSON THE NORTHSLOPEOF THE AREOPAGU(SI-IV) ..........................
THE TOMBSO N THE HILLOF THE NYMPHS(V-VI) ....................................
DISTURBEDCHAMBERTOMBSO N THE EASTSLOPEO F THE KOLONOASG ORAIOS.. ...........
THE TOMBSA LONGTHE WESTSIDEOF THE AGORA(VII-XII) ..........................
THETOMBSAT TRE NORTHEASTCORNEROF THE AGORA(XIII-XXI) ....................
THETOMBSBENEATTHH E STOAO F ATTALOS(X XII-XXXVI) ..........................
POTTERFRYO M DESTROYETDO MBSU NDER THE STOAO F
ATTALOS(P-R 6-12) .............
THEBURIALISN THE SOUTH-CENTRAALR EA(XXXVII-XLI)
...........................
2.THENON-SEPULCHRMAYL CENAEAND EPOSITS..........................................
PITSAND BOTHRO.I...............................................................
WELLS ..........................................................................
STRATIFIEFDIL LS. ................................................................
.
3 MYCENAEAPNO TTERWYIT HOUT SIGNIFICANCOTN TEXT ..................................
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
FIGURES IN TEXT
PAGE
8 ............................................................................... 23
111-20 .............................................................................1.7.7
XL-5 ............................................................................... 244
PLATES
Frontispiece (Color) Neolithic Pottery
Platme
1 Red Burnished Biconical Jars, Late Neolithic
2 Fragments of Red Burnished Biconical Jars, Neolithic
3 Red Burnished Bowls, Neolithic
4 Red Burnished Bowls, Neolithic
5 Red Burnished, i\liscellaneous Shapes, Neolithic
6 Gray Burnished Wares, Neolithic
7 Painted Ware, Neolithic
White Slipped Ware, Neolithic
Incised Ware, Neolithic
Fragments of Scoops and Related Ware
The Sesklo Scoop, Athens, National Museum
Miscellaneous Fine Undecorated, Neolithic
Coarse Incised Ware, Neolithic
Coarse Ware with Incisions, Impressions and Relief Decoration, Neolithic
Coarse Ware with Plastic Bands, Neolithic
Cooking Pots, Neolithic
Bowls
Bases
Pithoi and Baking Pans
Handles, Coarse, Neolithic
Miscellaneous Coarse, Neolithic
Neolithic Sculpture: Stone Statuette, Terracotta Head and Figurine
Neolithic Celts
Neolithic Grinder and Millstones
Neolithic Miscellaneous
Early Helladic and Period of Lerna IV
Cycladic Imports and Middle Helladic Red Burnished
Argive and Gray Minyan
Gray Minyan
Yellow Minyan
Description:(American School of Classical Studies 1971)
