BIJILDINGS ON THE WEST SIDE OF THE AG-ORA PLATES I-VITI INTRODUCTION' The region to the north of the Areopagus and to the east of Kolonos Agoraios had many natural advantages to recommend it as the site for thZecentral public place of the com- munity (Fig. 1). It was the most open and level area of any extent beneath the immediate shelter of the Acropolis. Along its southern edge a series of springs bubbled out from the foot of the Areopagus, so abundant as to have formed the principal source of drinking water in the city throughout antiquity. A gentle slope toward the north guaranteed adequate natural drainage, desirable for private habitation and essential for the construc- tion of large public buildings. The region lay, moreover, on the direct route between the Acropolis and the Dipylon, the principal gate of the city, and so was conveniently situated alike for residents and visitors. Actual habitation in the area can now be shown to extend at least well back into the second millennium B.C. Scattered fragments of household pottery of typical Middle Helladic types, Gray Minyan and Matt-painted wares, have appeared above bedrock along the north foot of the Areopagus, along the east slope and foot of Kolonos and even at the north foot of Kolonos. A simple shaft burial not later than this period was made near the mid point of the east foot of the latter hill 2 (Fig. 64, Section C-C). Practically no house- hold pottery of Late Helladic times has been found in the area so that there is no direct evidence for habitation in this period. Graves of the time, however, have come to light: two in the miiddle of the area that was to be the market square,3 traces of another on the east slope of Kolonos (p. 167 below). The following period, the eleventh through the eighth centuries, is abundantly represented by deposits of household pottery found close above bedrock and in con- temporary wells, sufficient in bulk and in distribution to indicate that much if not all of the area of the later square was then inhabited. The dead of this age were buried on the slopes of the adjacent hills, the Areopagus and Kolonos. 1 This paper owes much to my colleagues: to John Travlos all its plans and architectural drawings (save the colored restorations done by Piet de Jong for Figs. 23 and 26) and infinite help in the working out of the architectural restorations; to Lucy Talcott the study of all the fifth-century pottery used as chronological evidence, particularly that discussed on pp. 47 if., and to my wife innumerable suLggestiveideas. 2 Hesper ia, V, 1936, pp. 20 if. Hesperia, IV, 1935, pp. 318 if.; V, pp. 21 f. American School of Classical Studies at Athens is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve, and extend access to Hesperia ® www.jstor.org DiPYLON SCNDCNVI 15c 0 a0 too 2o 25O~ A-r~~~~~~~~Af A ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ A" I~~~~~~~~~~I Go- fW .~4z~z 404 do ...~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ACROPOLtS5 J T RAVLO35 Fig. 1. The Agora anid its Environs in the Second Centulry A.D. BUILDINGS ON THE WEST SIDE OF THE AGORA 3 The latest regular burials thus far found within the area are graves that have appeared to the south of the later Tholos. They run down into the early part of the seventh century., That habitation continued and indeed became more intense through this century is suf- ficientlv shown not only. by the cessation of burial buit also by growing masses of pottery found, again, in wells and scattered among the lower layers of earth accumulation. To about the middle, of the century may be dated a mass of votive objects fouud at the foot of the Areopagus, our earliest evidence for a regular place of worship in the region.2 And in the course of the present study we shall find reason to trace back the beginnings of the Council House, situated at the foot of Kolonos Agoraios, to about the same time (p. 124 below). But as yet the actual buildings in the area, whether public, private or sacred, must have been extremely slight and it is not until well along in the following century that the site and the buildings around it begau to assume a monumental character. One of the primary needs of the area, was the proper organization of the water supply. This was provided for on a magnificent scale by the square fountain house set close in by the north foot of the Areopagus.3 To its basin was led in stone channels the combined yield of several of the springs that break out to the east and southeast of the building. The site for the fountain house was well chosen at the southern edge of the comparatively level area and the build- ing seems to have fixed for all time the line of the southern limit of the market square. The next most obvious want to be met was adequate drainage, a channel which would provide not only for the waste from the new fountain house but also for the wassh from the slopes of.the adjacent hills and for the large volume of water from the south of the Areo- pagus which found its natural outlet through the Agora region. The need was met by the great stone drain, found early in the current excavations, which made its way north in an almost straight line following in general the bottom of the valley.4 This original channel has been exposed toward the south only to a point opposite the Tholos. But that it was designed to take the waste from the fountain house and that it did originally carry through to that building is sufficiently shown by the fact that its line, projected southward, strikes the fountain house near its northwest corner precisely at the point where a large stone drain leaves that building. Subsequently a branch was carried in a southeastern direction from a point opposite the Tholos so as to intercept the drainage along the south side of the area, and (probably somewhat later still) a corresponding arm was carried from the same point along the bottom of the hollow which leads around the west end of the Areopagus. These channels continued always to be the main veins for the drainage of the region. The main north-south line fixed the orientation of the public and sacred buildings that were subsequently to spring up along the west side of the square as also of the innumerable mrionumentsthat eventually formed a continuous row on either side of it. IHesperiia, V, 1936, pp. 24 if. 2 Ibid., II, 1933, pp. 542 if. 3 Ibid., IV, 1935, p. 360. 4 Ibid., II, 1933, pp. 103 if. 4 HOMER A. THOMPSON A glance at the plans (Figs. 72 and P1. VI) will show the striking difference in orientation between the pre-drain and post-drain buildings on the west side. The laying of the earliest part of the Great Drain was accompanied by another step essential for the preparation of the area as a public square. This was the levelling of the adjoining terrain. As was necessary for a channel of such proportions, a gradient was established as uniform as possible throughout its course and this involved the filling of extensive areas. Exploration thus far has illustrated this procedure most clearly in the region to the east of the later Metroon and Tholos. Here the pre-existing ground level to either side of the drain was raised as much as two meters by a filling of earth and broken bedrock demonstrably brought in during the construction of the drain (Fig. 64). In the northern part of our area a lesser filling was required; the region between Tholos and fountain house remains to be explored. From the same springs that fed the fountain house water was carried to the lower town in terracotta pipes, one running east past the south end of the later Stoa of Attalos,1 another diagonally across the square toward the northwest and the Dipylon (Fig. 72). This second pipe line we shall meet again in the following pages. Its relation to the Great Drain shows that it is younger than the drain; the fabric and shape of its sections prove it to be not later than the late sixth century. The style of the polygonal masonry employed in the original line of the Great Drain, combined with the evidence of pottery gathered from several exploratory trenches cut across its line, indicates that the drain is to be dated toward the end of the third or the beginning of the last quarter of the sixth century. The same date may therefore be accepted with assurance for the fountain house and the levelling of the squa.re. It is clear, then, that Athens owed to the Peisistratids not only the fountain house, which we may now call the Enneakrounos, but also the inception of a program for the organization of her chief public square on a monumental scale. A word about the road system of the region. The most direct route from the Dipylon to the entrance of the Acropolis must always have passed diagonally through the area of the market square. Its course has now been established with certainty between a point 125 m. to the southeast of the Stoa of Attalos and the modern railway cutting which appears to skirt the northern edge of the square. Between the railway cutting and the Dipylon a section of it was exposed long ago by Dorpfeld 2 So that its line in this area can be fixed within a very few meters.