[Agora Webpage] Overview: The Old Excavation House

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The Old Excavation House The photograph below, taken in June of 1939, illustrates the extent of the Agora Excavations during the first eight years. The so-called Old Excavation House, located at Asteroskopeiou ... The Old Excavation House The photograph below, taken in June of 1939, illustrates the extent of the Agora Excavations during the first eight years. The so-called Old Excavation House, located at Asteroskopeiou St. 25, was actually a group of houses that formed a complex of temporary storerooms and workspace for the early excavations (highlighted in yellow). ... The Old Excavation House complex is highlighted in yellow.

[Agora Webpage] AgoraPicBk 16 2003: Southeast Fountain House

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Southeast Fountain House The slight traces just south of the Church of the Holy Apostles have been identified as the remains of an early fountain house (Figs. 33, 34). The identification is based on a ... Southeast Fountain House The slight traces just south of the Church of the Holy Apostles have been identified as the remains of an early fountain house (Figs. 33, 34). ... Model of the Southeast Fountain House, view from the north. ... Juncture of overflow pipes from the basins of the Southeast Fountain House.

[Agora Webpage] AgoraPicBk 16 2003: Southwest Fountain House

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Southwest Fountain House Closer to the agora proper a row of five public buildings lined the south side of the square in the Classical period (Fig. 29, 36). They comprise several important monuments, though ... AgoraPicBk 16 2003: Southwest Fountain House

[Agora Webpage] AgoraPicBk 16 2003: Boundary Stones and House of Simon the Cobbler

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Boundary Stones and House of Simon the Cobbler Inscribed marble posts were used to mark the entrances to the Agora wherever a street led into the open square. Two have been found in situ, inscribed with ... AgoraPicBk 16 2003: Boundary Stones and House of Simon the Cobbler

[Agora Webpage] Overview: The Notebooks

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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). ... “By the end of the day most of the walls above the first floor of House 21 had been razed.

[Agora Webpage] AgoraPicBk 16 2003: Mint

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Mint Just east of the fountain house lie the miserable remains of a large square building with several rooms; the northern half lies under the Church of the Holy Apostles and the Southeast Temple (Early ... Mint Just east of the fountain house lie the miserable remains of a large square building with several rooms; the northern half lies under the Church of the Holy Apostles and the Southeast Temple (Early Roman) (Figs. 36, 37; see also Fig. 41).

[Agora Webpage] AgoraPicBk 16 2003: Middle Stoa

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Middle Stoa The appearance of the south side of the Agora was radically changed during the 2nd century B.C. with the construction of several new buildings. This South Square, as it is called, was made ... Of the Classical buildings, the Aiakeion and Southwest Fountain House were incorporated, South Stoa I was demolished, and the Southeast Fountain House and Mint were left out.

[Agora Webpage] Birth of Democracy: Sokrates

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Sokrates The philosopher Sokrates was one of many Athenians critical of the people and their control over affairs of state. His probing public debates with fellow citizens led to his trial for impiety ... Photograph of the House of Simon the Shoemaker. ... The photograph shows the foundations of a house to the left of a roadway. ... The name Simon thus indicates whose house it was, and the findspot in the roadway is logical.

[Agora Webpage] AgoraPicBk 4 2004: The Council and Magistrates

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The Council and the Magistrates Like selection for military service, allotment to the Council was organized according to the division by tribes; 50 members from each tribe acted as a unit in the Council ... Tholos (blue), Council House (green), Metroon (orange), Temple of Apollo (yellow), and the Stoa of Zeus (red). ... The originals, presumably written on papyrus or parchment, were deposited in the so-called Old Council House (Old Bouleuterion), which probably housed the shrine of the Mother of the Gods and the state archives. In the Hellenistic period the Metroon complex (14, 15) replaced the Old Council House and took over both its functions.

[Agora Webpage] Overview: The Excavations

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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 ... Digging confined to area occupied by House 22 until it shall be levelled off. 28 men / 135 wagons" (Notebook [Nb.] ... 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] AgoraPicBk 4 2004: The Agora and Pnyx

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

The Agora and Pnyx Center of public activity, the Agora was a large open square where all the citizens could assemble (2, 3). It was used for a variety of functions: markets, religious processions, athletic ... Around its edges stood the buildings needed to run the democracy: the Council House (Bouleuterion), magistrates’ headquarters, archives, mint, lawcourts, and civic offices.

[Agora Webpage] Birth of Democracy: Democracy from the Past to the Future

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Democracy from the Past to the Future Searching for models for the new government they were creating, America's Founding Fathers studied both the democracy of Athens and the republic of Rome, but they ... LIV; by Alexander Hamilton or James Madison) To justify the size of the House of Representatives, the author argued against a larger assembly by claiming that in large groups, like the Athenian assembly, "passion never fails to wrest the sceptre from reason."

[Agora Webpage] Birth of Democracy: Marble Stele

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Law Against Tyranny In 338 B.C. Philip II of Macedon and his son Alexander defeated the Athenians and other Greek states in a battle at Chaironeia in central Greece. In the following year (337/6 B.C.) ... The law was inscribed on two stelai (stone markers) to be set up at the entrances of the Bouleuterion (senate house) and the ekklesia (assembly).

[Agora Webpage] Birth of Democracy: Democracy

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Introduction Classical Athens saw the rise of an achievement unparalleled in history. Perikles, Aischylos, Sophokles, Plato, Demosthenes, and Praxiteles represent just a few of the statesmen and philosophers, ... Most important, perhaps, was the Bouleuterion (Senate House), where the newly created senate of 500 members representing the ten "tribes" of Athens met most days to consider legislation for the city.

[Agora Webpage] Overview: The Museum

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The Museum On display in the public galleries of the stoa is a selection of the thousands of objects recovered in the past 75 years, reflecting the use of the area from 3000 B.C. to A.D. 1500. The public ... Fragment of an allotment machine (kleroterion), probably used in the Council House (in the period when there were 12 tribes) for the selection of committees representing all the tribes except that holding the presidency.

[Agora Webpage] AgoraPicBk 4 2004: Judiciary and Lawcourts

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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 ... The kleroterion illustrated in 27 has 11 columns and was probably used not in the courts but in the Council House (in the period when there were 12 tribes) for the selection of committees representing all tribes except that holding the presidency. ... The klepsydra illustrated in 30 is marked with the name of a tribe, Antiochis, and was probably used in the Council House when that tribe was presiding in the Council.

[Agora Webpage] Birth of Democracy: The Boule

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The Boule (The Senate) The Athenian legislature also included a deliberative body known as the Boule. It was made up of 500 members -- 50 from each of the 10 tribes -- who were chosen by lot and served ... In the late 5th century a new Bouleuterion, immediately adjacent to the old one, was built to house the 500 senators.

[Agora Webpage] Birth of Democracy: Political Organization of Attica

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Political Organization of Attica: Demes and Tribal Representation Each tribe was divided into three parts, and each third (trittys) was from one of the three regions of Attica, plain, coast, or hills ... Surviving lists of tribesmen serving in the Boule (Senate) show that large demes regularly sent several representatives to serve each year, while small demes sent fewer, just as the number of congressmen and congresswomen from each state in our House of Representatives is determined by the population of the state.

[Agora Webpage] AgoraPicBk 16 2003: History of the Agora

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

History of the Agora The excavations of the Athenian Agora have uncovered about thirty acres on the sloping ground northwest of the Acropolis (Fig. 3). Material of all periods from the Late Neolithic to ... (Herodotos 1.153) A gradual change from private to public land seems to have occurred during the middle of the 6th century, and the first certain public buildings or monuments (Southeast Fountain House [15], Altar of the Twelve Gods [2]) were erected in the 520s, during the tyranny of the Peisistratids.

[Agora Webpage] Overview: The Staff

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The Archaeologists The First Generation The Agora Excavations staff and work force, 1933. Archaeologists, staff, foremen, and workmen gathered under the Hephaisteion for a group photograph. The staff of ... Piet de Jong at work in the Old Excavation House, 1937. Virginia Grace joined the records staff of the Agora in 1932.