[Agora Webpage] Overview: The Excavations

http://agathe.gr/overview/the_excavations.html

The Excavations Excavations in the Athenian Agora by the American School of Classical Studies at Athens commenced in 1931 under the supervision of T. Leslie Shear. The systematic excavation of this important ... View of the west side of the Agora at the start of excavations in Section A, June 19, 1931. ... A drawing of the house lots in the area to be excavated: (a) Section ΟΕ, excavated by the German Archaeological Institute; (b) Athens/Piraeus railroad; (c) Giants and Tritons; (d) Section ΣΑ, Stoa of Attalos; (e) Section Ε, demolition of houses begun April 20, 1931, excavations begun May 25, 1931; (f ) Section Α, demolition of houses begun May 28, 1931; (g) Section ΣΤ, demolition of houses begun August 17, 1931; (h) Church of the Holy Apostles.

[Agora Webpage] Overview: Photography

http://agathe.gr/overview/photography.html

Photography A photograph made using the traditional silver halide process is a visual record largely unaltered by the photographer. It is this quality of capturing a mirrored image of the scene that lends ... View looking southeast across Section Ε on July 7, 1931, at 5 p.m. ... (the west side of the Agora) looking southeast across Section Ε. The photographer was most likely Frederick O. Waagé, the excavator of Section Ε in 1931. In the foreground is the newest area of the section to be opened up; the Church of Panagia Vlassarou is visible in the middle, the Acropolis behind.

[Agora Webpage] Overview: The Card Catalog

http://agathe.gr/overview/the_card_catalog.html

The Card Catalog A card catalog system has been used since the beginning of the excavations to record the important information related to inventoried objects. Lucy Talcott, one of the original members ... Catalog card of the herm S 33, discovered June 4, 1931, in Section E.

[Agora Webpage] Overview: The Notebooks

http://agathe.gr/overview/the_notebooks.html

The Notebooks The process of excavating an archaeological site is essentially destructive but the irrevocable features are preserved in a notebook. The excavator records his thoughts and observations, ... An entry notes, “Contractor began the demolition of House 21, Block 631 (Section E) this morning. ... The first building to be demolished, House 21, Block 631 (Section Ε). View looking north along Patousa Street.

[Agora Webpage] Overview: The Altar of Zeus and Statue of Hadrian

http://agathe.gr/overview/the_altar_of_zeus_and_statue_of_hadrian.html

The Altar of Zeus The Agora Excavations began with the aim of revealing the monuments and history of the ancient Agora. Of course, every artifact or feature that was exposed held importance, but when something ... View looking northeast across Section E at the end of the 1931 season. ... Just a few days after the discovery of the Altar of Zeus Agoraios, exploration of the Great Drain was progressing on the west side of Section Ε when the excavator noted another surprising find: “Digging away earth between cover slab and this block was found Statue of Roman Emperor, preserved from just below kilt to about shoulders, lying at a slant, lower part resting on low end of the fallen cover slab and body slanting down and outward to E.”

[Agora Webpage] AgoraPicBk 4 2004: Judiciary and Lawcourts

http://agathe.gr/democracy/judiciary_and_lawcourts.html

Judiciary and Lawcourts The lawcourts of Athens, a city notorious throughout Greece for the litigiousness of her citizens, were both numerous and large. Several of these lawcourts were in the immediate ... Each is inscribed “official ballot”; on some a letter in relief seems to designate the jury-section. The hub of the ballot indicated the verdict (solid for acquittal, hollow for condemnation), so that each juror, holding one ballot in each hand with the thumb and forefinger covering and concealing the ends of the hub, could deposit the one which represented his vote in the official receptacle and put the other in the discard bin. 24. ... He went at dawn to the kleroteria (27) of his tribe where he deposited his ticket in a box labeled with his section letter. When the tickets of all those seeking jury-duty had been deposited in the 10 boxes, they were pulled out at random and filed in the slots of the two kleroteria (28), each of five columns, with one column being devoted to each section-letter. 26.

[Agora Webpage] AgoraPicBk 16 2003: Stoa Poikile

http://agathe.gr/guide/stoa_poikile.html

Stoa Poikile Across modern Hadrian Street are the most recent excavations (2003), along the north side of the square. Here have been revealed the remains of another large stoa, identified on the basis ... Cross section of the Stoa Poikile, with Doric columns outside, Ionic within; ca. 470–460 B.C.

[Agora Webpage] AgoraPicBk 16 2003: Odeion of Agrippa

http://agathe.gr/guide/odeion_of_agrippa.html

Odeion of Agrippa Late in the 1st century B.C. the Athenians were given money for a new marketplace by Caesar and Augustus, and the northern half of the old Agora square was filled with two new structures, ... Cross section of the Odeion, 1st phase (late 1st century B.C.), looking east.

[Agora Webpage] Birth of Democracy: The Verdict

http://agathe.gr/democracy/the_verdict.html

The Verdict After the speeches and other evidence had been presented, the members of the jury voted by casting ballots. A series of vase paintings of the early 5th century B.C. show a mythological story, ... The ballot with the solid axle bears the letter epsilon, E, which might designate a jury section, or, more likely, a tribe.

[Agora Webpage] Birth of Democracy: Tyranny

http://agathe.gr/democracy/tyranny.html

Tyranny As happened in many other Greek states, a tyrant arose in Athens in the 6th century B.C. His name was Peisistratos, and after several unsuccessful attempts he seized power in 546 B.C. and ruled ... The inscription on the section of molding from the altar illustrated here reads: "This memorial of his office Peisistratos son of Hippias set up in the precinct of Pythian Apollo."

[Agora Webpage] Publications: Monographs

http://agathe.gr/publications/monographs.html

Monographs Excavations in the civic and cultural center of classical Athens began in 1931 and have continued almost without interruption to the present day. The first Athenian Agora volumes presenting ... Many texts not given numbers in this order are included in the archaeological and topographical commentaries. Each section on a monument opens with a brief synopsis of the evidence contained in the texts which follow. ... A final section contains monuments that are potentially, but not certainly, dedicatory in character, and a small number of grave markers omitted from Agora XVII. ... An introductory section includes chapters devoted to fixed points in the chronology of the pottery, to a general discussion of the decoration of Hellenistic pots, both stamped and painted, or “West Slope,” and to the question of workshops.

[Agora Webpage] Publications: Picture Books

http://agathe.gr/publications/picture_books.html

Picture Books The Athenian Agora Picture Book series, started in 1951, aims to make information about life in the ancient commercial and political center of Athens available to a wide audience. Each booklet ... A final section moves from the ancient world to the modern, discussing the role of women as archaeologists in the early years of the Agora excavations.