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The original Kerameikos of Athens and the siting of the Classical Agora
Papadopoulos, John K
Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies; Summer 1996; 37, 2; ProQuest
pg. 107

The Original Kerameikos of Athens 
and the Siting of the Classical Agora 

John K. Papadopoulos 

O
F THE MANY PROBLEMS that still plague discussion of early 
Athenian topography, one that has never been adequate­
ly resolved is the siting of the Classical Agora of the 

city within an area otherwise known as Kerameikos, as well as 
the date of this event. The chief aim of this paper is to show 
how a body of largely unpublished material from Iron Age de­
posits in the area casts important light on the topography of the 
early city in general and on these questions in particular. 

The testimonia pertaining to the problem were gathered in 
summary form by Richard Wycherley (Agora III 221-24), and 
the passages in Pausanias dealing with the" Agora-within-the­
Kerameikos" were discussed by Eugene Vanderpool in his 
typically understated though always penetrating fashion.! It was 
clear that 'Kerameikos' was associated with many aspects of the 
city, from processions and the distribution of meat, to pottery 
and prostitution, and that the district was quite large; it is also 
clear that Wycherley was troubled by the ancient usage of the 
word "Kerameikos." His concluding paragraph on the Potters' 
Quarter reads (Agora III 224): 

Perhaps the truth of the matter is something like this. 
Throughout antiquity the name Kerameikos meant, essen­
tially, "Potters' Quarter," a very extensive district in the north­
west. A particular official usage is attested by the boundary 
stones (and possibly I. C. Il2, 968), and people used the name 
in various ways with special reference. But Kerameikos does 
not mean literally the cemetery, or the agora, save that Pau­
sanias, perhaps with misguided precision, takes it in the latter 
sense. These usages are colloquialisms or metaphors, varying in 
relative frequency in different epochs. Similarly "Covent Gar­
den" can mean now a vegetable market, now an opera house, 

1 "The 'Agora' of Pausanias 1, 17, 1-2," Hesperia 43 (1974) 308-10. 

107 



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108 TI IE ORIGINAL KERAMEIKOS OF ATHENS 

while all the time it is in fact a London square, but no longer 
a garden. 

The literary testimonia relevant to the problem were also 
gathered and discussed by A. N. Oikonomides, who attempted 
to distinguish between those references he believed had to do 
with the" Agora in the old town" and those referring to the 
"later Agora in Kerameikos."2 The latter was equated with the 
area north and west of the Acropolis and east of the Kolonos 
Agoraios, being the district excavated by the American School 
of Classical Studies since 1931 (Fig. 1). With regard to the "old 
agora," the only definite information was in Wycherley's view 
the fragment of Apollodorus quoted in Harpocration, referring 
to Aphrodite Pandemos.3 The quantity of testimonia with direct 
bearing on the problem was queried by Oikonomides and this 
led to further discussion and clarification by Wycherley.4 

Despite the many subtleties of the debate, few would now 
seriously doubt that there was an earlier Agora at a site other 
than the Classical successor,5 although its nature and exact loca-

2 The Two Agoras in Ancient Athens (Chicago 1964) esp. ix-xii, 1-50 for the 
Agora in the old town, 51-111 for the testimonia referring to the Agora in the 
Kerameikos. Oikonomides claims (xviii) that the testimonia referring to the 
Agora in the Kerameikos were either not properly collected or misinterpreted 
by Wycherley in Agora III. 

3 Agora III 224f; FGrHist 244Fl13; cf L. Beschi, "Contributi di topografia 
ateniese," ASAtene 45-46 (=N.S. 29-30 [1967-68]) 511-36, esp. 517-28; E. Simon, 
"Aphrodite Pandemos auf attischen Miinzen," SN R 49 (1970) 5-19, and 
Festivals of Attica: An Archaeological Commentary (Madison 1983) 48f; A. F. 
Kolb, Agora und Theater. Volks- und Festversammlung (Berlin 1981) 20; N. 
Robertson, Festivals and Legends: The Formation of Greek Cities in the 
Light of Public Ritual (Toronto 1992) esp. 49. 

4 Oikonomides (supra n.2) ix-xii, 51-111; R. E. Wycherley, "Archaia 
Agora," Phoenix 20 (1966) 285-93, and The Stones of Athens (Princeton 1978) 
65. 

5 This is perhaps best typified by Thompson and Wycherley, Agora XIV 19, 
who came to accept the existence of an early Agora, more or less where 
Oikonomides suggested: 

The Agora as a great center of community life developed slowly in the course of 
the 6th century B.C. Athens presumably had a simple agora before this time, but 
we know almost nothing about it ... the west of the Acropolis, not far from its 
entranc<~, would be appropriate for a simple prototype of the Athenian Agora, 
and the saddle between the Acropolis and the Areopagus, where the ground is 
comparatively level, is perhaps the most suitable spot. 

Or Thompson's earlier statement, The Athenian Agora. A Guide to the Exca­
vation and Museum 2 (Athens 1962) 21: "There appears to have been an earlier, 
less formal Agora just outside the entrance of the Akropolis." The idea of the 



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JOHN K. PAPADOPOULOS 109 

tion continues to exercise scholars working on the topography 
of early Athens. For Oikonomides, the old Agora was to be 
found in the area to the southwest of the entrance to the 
Acropolis.6 More recently, the discovery of an inscription 
found in association with its original base sheds light on the 
problem by placing the Sanctuary of Aglauros not, as previous­
ly thought, on the northwest slope of the Acropolis, but at the 
prominent natural cave on the east side of the rock, as Stephen 
Miller anticipated.7 This positive identification of the Sanctuary 
of Aglauros would thus relocate several important monuments 
of old Athens known from the literary evidence-among these 
the Anakeion, the Theseion, and the Prytaneion, and with 
them, presumably, the old Agora-to the east (whether north­
east or southeast) of the Acropolis and therefore closer to the 
primary area of early habitation to the south of the citadel (see 
below; Fig. 2).8 It is therefore clear that there was a major shift 
of focus from the general area to the east or southeast of the cita-

slow development during the sixth century of the area northwest of the 
Acropolis as a civic center is echoed in J. Camp, The Athenian Agora: 
Excavations in the Heart of Classical Athens (London 1986) passim. 

6 Oikonomides (supra n.2) viif; see also J. Travlos, nOAro80lll1CJ-t E~tAt~li; 'troy 
'AeT]vrov (Athens 1960) 24, 28, who refers to an «Agora of Theseus," which he 
located to the west and north of the Acropolis. Cf. E. A. Gardner, Ancient 
Athens (London 1902) 12M. Note, however, the view of R. Martin, 
Recherches sur I'agora grecque (Paris 1951) 256-61. 

7 S. G. Miller, The Prytaneion (Berkeley 1978) 41 ff; for a reaffirmation of the 
importance of this discovery see Miller n.15 infra.; cf. G. Dontas, "The True 
Aglaureion," II esperia 52 (1983) 48-63; the great cave is illustrated in J. 
Travlos, Pictorial Dictionary of Ancient Athens (New York 1971) 407, and 
72f, 578 for the location of the Sanctuary of Aglauros; see further W. Judeich, 
Topographie von Athen2 (Munich 1931) 303; O. Broneer, • A Mycenaean 
Fountain on the Athenian Acropolis," Hesperia 8 (1939) 317-429, and 401-405 
for the Early Iron Age pottery in the fill; R. E. Wycherley, The Stones of 
Athens (Princeton 1978) 176f. See also N. Robertson, ·Solon's Axones and 
Kyrbeis and the Sixth-Century Background," lIistoria 35 (1986) 147-76, esp. 
157-69; T. Holscher, "The City of Athens: Space, Symbol, Structure," in A. 
Molho et aI., edd., City-States in Classical Antiquity and Medieval Italy 
(Stuttgart 1991) 355-80, esp. 359; C. Schnurr, ·Zur Topographic der Theater­
statten und der TripodstraBe in Athen," ZPE 105 (1995) 139-53. For the most 
recent discussion with further references, see T. L. SHEAR, J r, "'IcrovoflO\l<; t' 
'Ae~va<; btotT]cratT]v: The Agora and the Democracy," in W. D. E. Coulson et 
aI., edd., The Archaeology of Athens and Attica under the Democracy 
(Oxford 1994: hereafter 'Shear') 225-48; C. Schnurr, "Die alte Agora Athens," 
ZPE 105 (1995) 131-38. 

8 See esp. Shear; Schurr (supra n.7) 131-38. 



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110 THE ORIGINAL KERAMEIKOS OF ATHENS 

N ... 
+ PA[MISTORIC GR ... ... ES ON TME ACROPOl.IS 

__ "",,YCENAEAN CHAMBER TOt-4 B S 

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00 

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Figure 1. Plan of the Athenian Acropolis and area 
to the northwest (by J. Travlos; after Agora XIV pI. 2). 

J .TRAVLOS 
'970 



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JOHN K. PAPADOPOULOS 

..... ::, .. ,><:~-:.- ~" 

..... ..). -.- . 

. ~~/ 
Cl 

100 .. 

111 

J....1.- -

Figure 2. The Athenian Acropolis and surrounding area in the early 
fifth century B.C., showing locations of early civic buildings, 
sanctuaries, and streets in relation to modern city blocks (after T. L. 
Shear, Jr, ·'Ioov6~ou~ "C' 'A9"vac; EltOlT\<HX't-T1V: The Archaeology of 
Athens and Attica under the Democracy [Oxford 1994] 226, fig. 1). 



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112 THE ORIGINAL KERAMEIKOS OF ATHENS 

del, towards the northwest in historical times (Figures 1-2). 
Such a shift goes hand-in-hand with two important develop­
ments in the history of the city that left their imprint on its 
topography. The first is the move from Phaleron to Piraeus for 
the principal harbor of the city. Whereas the old road from 
Phaleron to Athens approached the city from the south, the 
systematic development of Piraeus would have greatly in­
creased traffic through the area west and northwest of the 
Acropolis, thereby favoring the location of the Classical Agora. 9 

The development of Piraeus as the main harbor of Athens has 
been linked with the archonship of Themistocles (493/492) and 
would have been greatly precipitated by the realities of the Per­
sian attack in 480. 10 Although it would be difficult to argue for 
any significant exploitation of the Piraeus before the early fifth 
century,. the Athenian domination of Eleusis enjoyed a greater 
prehistory in Athenian tradition (Agora XIV 1 n.2). Whatever 
the diachronic vicissitudes of Athenian hegemony over Eleusis 
and its fertile plain, particularly in the light of the Persian defeat, 
Athenian domination of her neighbor would have given greater 
importance to the roadway leading northwest of the Acropolis 
and with it the siting of the Classical Agora. ll 

Whatever the nature and precise location of the old Agora, 
current consensus has come to accept the later «Agora-within­
the-Kerameikos" as its Classical successor. This is well stated in 
the words of two successive Directors of the Athenian Agora 
excavations. Homer Thompson writes: 

The Potters' Quarter (Kerameikos) of ancient Athens occu­
pied a large area in the northwestern part of the city. From the 
literary and epigraphical evidence, the district is known to 

9 Agora XIV 1; cf K.-V. von Eickstedt, Beitriige zur Topographie des 
antiken Piriius (Athens 1991), esp. 1-6; R. Garland, The Piraeus, from the 
Fifth to the First Century B. C. (Ithaca 1987). 

10 Agora XIV 1 n.3; von Eickstedt (supra n.9) 4; Judeich (supra n.7) 69, 430. 
In fact it seems that a shift from Phaleron to the Piraeus was much more 
likely after Salamis, rather than the 490s. On the historical problems 
associated with late Archaic and early Classical Athenian history, see E. 
Badian, "Archons and Strategoi, " Antichthon 5 (1971) 1-34, esp. 9-17. It is 
worth kc(!ping in mind that it was to Phaleron that Hippias led the remnant 
of the Persian fleet after Marathon and, independently, the defenders of the 
city (old men, womcn, and children) marched to frighten off the Persians; 
here, too, the Marathonomachoi marched. Clearly Phaleron was then the 
harbor. 

11 Agora XIV 1 n.2; G. E. Mylonas, Eleusis and the Eleusinian Mysteries 
(Princeton 1961) esp. 21-29. 



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JOHN K. PAPADOPOULOS 

have embraced the Agora or city center, and to have extended 
outward to include the principal cemetery of the city, reaching 
even the famous gymnasium, the Academy. The sheer extent 
of the district is enough to attest the importance of the 
industry in the life of the city.12 

More recently, T. Leslie Shear, Jr states (228): 

Let us return now to the familiar ground northwest of the 
Akropolis where sixty years of excavations have revealed in 
detail the archaeological history of the civic center. That this is 
the Agora of classical Athens is a central fact in the archaeol­
ogy of the city. From the fifth century B.C. until the Roman 
conquest, the area between the Areopagus and the Eridanos 
River teamed with the political, cultural, and commercial 
activities that made Athens the greatest polis of Greece. 

113 

Shear goes on to discuss (228-45) the pertinent question of 
when, and in what circumstances, this district became the 
Agora. He notes that the private flelds and family cemeteries of 
the Early Iron Age only gradually gave way over time to the 
public space and open square of the Classical market place, and 
here he is in general agreement with most scholars working on 
early Athens (Figures 1-2). 13 The date for this event is usually 
stated to be sometime in the sixth century. One current view 
holds that the Agora was largely the work of Pisistratus and his 
sons,14 though in various quarters debate has turned towards 
the period from 500 to the end of the Persian Wars.1S One fact 
that has emerged fairly clearly is, as Miller notes, that there are 
no demonstrably public buildings on the west side of the Clas-

12 H. A. Thompson, "The Athenian Vase-Painters and their Neighbors," in 
P. M. Rice, ed., Pols and Potters: Current Approaches 10 Ceramic Archaeology 
(Los Angeles 1984) 7-19, esp. 7; cf. Agora XIV 186. 

13 Shear 228; cf. Agora XIV 1-19; Camp (supra n.5) 19-60. 
14 J. McK. Camp II, "Before Democracy: Alkmaionidai and Peisistratidai," 

in Coulson et al. (supra n.7) 7-12, esp. 9ff; cf. T. L. Shear, Jr, "Tyrants and 
Buildings in Archaic Athens," in W. A. P. Childs, cd., Athens Comes of Age: 
from Solon to Salamis (Princeton 1978) 1-19. 

15 See, among others, E. D. Francis and M. Vickers, "The Agora Revisited: 
Athenian Chronology c. 500-450 B.C.," BSA 83 (1988) 143-67; L. M. Gad­
bery, "The Sanctuary of the Twelve Gods in the Athenian Agora: A Revised 
View," Ilesperia 61 (1992) 447-89; T. L. Shear, Jr, "The Persian Destruction of 
Athens: Evidence from Agora Deposits," Hesperia 62 (1993) 383-482. The 
fullest and most recent overview and discussion is S. G. Miller, "Architecture 
as Evidence for the Identity of the Early Polis," in M. H. Hansen, cd., Sources 
for the Ancient Greek City-State (=Acts of the Copenhagen Polis Centre 2 
[Copenhagen 1995]) 201-42, esp. 224 n.4. 



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114 THE ORIGINAL KERAMEIKOS OF ATHENS 

sical Agora that clearly predate 500. 16 A date of 500/480 would 
also be in keeping with the date of the Agora horos inscrip­
tions, which in themselves represent the most explicit evi­
dence for the establishment or formalization of the market­
placeY 

Whatever the exact date of the establishment or formalization 
of the Classical Agora as a civic center, the problem of its 
location in the area north and west of the Acropolis, in 'the 
Kerameikos', remains problematic. The most recent argument 
for the choice of site suggests: 

When the Basileus moved his seat from the archaic Boukolion 
to the newly built Stoa Basileios, ca. 500 B.C., the Lithos was 
transported to its new site in front of the stoa. Here it served 
as a very tangible symbol of that sacred trust which the laws 
imposed on Athenian magistrates, laws that they swore to 
obey as they stood on the Lithos in front of the actual texts 
themselves displayed on the kyrbeis. The archons of 
Aristotle's day swore the same oath as they had in Solon's 
day; and the great stone itself formed the physical link 
between them and their predecessors and the law-giver 
himself.ls 

The Lithos (6 Ai80<;) is of especial interest because if Emily 
Vermeule's suggestion is correct, that this was the lintel block 
of a Mycenaean tholos tomb, then the massive stone predates 
even the legendary Solon, and makes the link to the past even 
more symbolic and real. I9 The reason why the Lithos, and the 

16 Miller (supra n.15) 224; cf Camp (supra n.5) 48-57; Shear 245. For some of 
these buildings see, most recently, S. G. Miller, "Old Metroon and Old Bou­
leuterion in the Classical Agora of Athens," and T. L. Shear, Jr, "Bouleuterion, 
Metroon, and the Archives at Athens," in M. H. Hansen and K. Raaflaub, 
edd., Studies in the Ancient Greek Polis (Stuttgart 1995) 133-56; 157-90. 

17 Both Shear and Camp (supra n.14) date these to ca 500. The two Agora 
boundary stones in situ are Agora inv. I 5510, 7039: see Agora XIX 27 nos. 
H25-26; a third horos inscription in the same series is H27 (inv. 5675). See also 
H. A. Thompson, "Activity in the Athenian Agora: 1966-1967," Hesperia 37 
(1968) 36-72, esp. 61-64. 

18 Shear 245; the Lithos, always with the definite article, is described and 
illustrated at 242ff, figg. 15f; see also 238, figg. 13f; cf Camp (supra n.5) 101f. 
The stone measures 0.95 x2.95 m. 

19 Vermeule's ingenious suggestion has entered general Agora lore and is 
even mentioned in Camp (supra n.5) 101f. There are no known tholos tombs 
in Athens,. though the likelihood of a now-vanished tholos tomb is strength­
ened by the two tholos tombs at Thorikos and one each at Marathon and 
Menidhi: see Agora XIII 1 SO (with references); Camp (supra n.5) 26. See also 



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JOHN K. PAPADOPOULOS 115 

seat of the Basileus, was moved to this quiet corner of Athens, 
under the shadow of the Kolonos Agoraios, just south of the 
Eridanos, may never be known, but there is good evidence, 
essentially unpublished, to suggest why this area would have 
been known to any Athenian as the Potters' Quarter. 

As Wycherley points out, in all extant literary authorities it is 
always "Kerameikos" or "the Kerameikos"; the convenient 
terms "Inner Kerameikos" and "Outer Kerameikos" are inven­
tions of modern topographers (Agora III 224). Despite more 
than a century of excavations in and around Athens, there is, to 
my knowledge, only minor evidence for potters' workshops of 
the Archaic and Classical periods within the fortified city of 
Athens, with the exception of that area just within, and around, 
the Dipylon Gate. The evidence was collected by Robert 
Cook, and recently amplified by John Oakley and Efi Bazioto­
poulou-Valavani. 20 The latter (46, fig. 1) documents numerous 
potters' workshops of the sixth and fifth centuries in the area to 
the northwest of the city, in the immediate vicinity of the 
Dipylon Gate and extending for some distance to the north­
west; kilns and related evidence of the fourth century are noted 
for the same area, as well as that to the southwest of the city, 
outside the fortification wall proper but within the area pro­
tected by the 'Themistoclean' Long Walls. By the Hellenistic 
period, a huge factory for the production of moldmade 
<Megarian' bowls was sited in the area just south of what is to­
day Syntagma Square. 21 

M. A. Pantelidou, Ai Ttpo"iO't0Pl1Wl 'A91lVUl (Athens 1975) passim; P. A. Mount­
joy, Mycenaean Athens Uonsered 1995), esp. 18. It should be noted that many 
of the richest chamber tombs in Athens have been found in the area south of 
the Acropolis (references in Mountjoy), as well as Tomb I in the area of the 
later Agora: Agora XIII 158-69. The most recent discussion of the Tholos 
tombs at Thorikos, Minidh~ and Marathon, as well as tomb cult elsewhere in 
Attica, is C. M. Antonaccio, An Archaeology of Ancestors: Tomb Cult and 
Hero Cult in Early Greece (Lanham, Md., 1995) 102-26. 

20 R. M. Cook, "The 'Double Stoking Tunnel' of Greek Kilns," BSA 56 
(1961) 64-67; J. H. Oakley, "An Athenian Red-Figure Workshop from the 
Time of the Peloponnesian War," in F. Blonde and J. Y. Perreault, edd., Les 
ateliers de potiers dans Ie monde grec aux epoques geometrique, archaique et 
classique (=BCH Supp!. 23 [Paris 1992]) 195-203; E. Baziotopoulou-Valavani, 
«AVOOlCa<PE~ OE 0911vo·lKO: KEPOlltKO: EpyoO'tTjPtO apXOtKcl>V Kat KMxOOtKcl>V 
XpOVCOV, " in Coulson et aL (supra n.7) 45-54. 

21 Oakley (supra n.20) 197; P. D. Stavropoullos, «'A(lllvat- 'A't't\Ki]. r' 
'£<popdo KMxOOU;:WV apXUlo'tTj'tcov. 29. :=:EVO<Pcl>V'to~ 4," ArchDelt 20 (1965), 
Chron. B' 1, 94ff; A. Andreiomenou, «'AOllvat- 'A't'tllCi]. r' '£<popdo KAOO-



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116 THE ORIGINAL KERAMEIKOS OF ATHENS 

This evidence of potters' activity in the area of the later 
Athenian Agora during the sixth through fourth centuries (see 
below)22 is far exceeded, however, by Early Iron Age finds that 
have emerged in excavations in the area of the Classical Agora 
by the American School since the 1930s,23 In addition to 
numerous graves of the period, there are over thirty-five well 
and other deposits that cover the time conventionally defined 
as CSubmycenaean' through CLate Geometric' (a few of these are 
shown on Fig. 1; Agora XIV 10). Some of these deposits, par­
ticularly the wells and pits, have yielded industrial debris, 
including a small quantity of discarded metalworkers' molds,24 
the precursors of a later and more substantial industry in the 
area. 25 Prominent among the industrial material is a large quan­
tity of potters' refuse (Fig. 3).26 Among the items clearly dis­
carded by potters are test- or draw pieces, unfinished and un­
glazed pots, or parts of pots, and obvious wasters. In addition to 
the more obvious wasters, many fragmentary pots and sherds 
preserve serious cracks, dents, and other flaws resulting from 
the process of forming, drying, or firing the vases that would 

O"t1CWV apxalO"t~"t(Ov. 23. '0&><; "OOovo<; 4, " ArchDelt 21 (1966) Chron. B' 1, 80. 
See also the evidence of Hellenistic potters' debris dumped in the area of the 
Pnyx: G. R. Edwards, "Hellenistic Pottery," in L. Talcott et aL, Small Objects 
from the Pnyx II (=Hesperia Supp!. 10 [Princeton 1956]) 79-112, esp. 83-91; see 
also Agora XIV 187. This pattern of Hellenistic or later potters' kilns located 
in the area of an earlier Agora is known at other sites, and is best documented 
at Morgantina in Sicily: see N. Cuomo di Caprio, Morgantina Studies III: 
Fornaci e Officine da Vasaio Tardo-Ellenistiche (Princeton 1992), reviewed by 
J. K. Papadopoulos, CR 44 (1994) 151-55. 

22 For the Classical, Hellenistic, and Roman potters' waste in Athens, see J. 
K. Papadopoulos, "MrANA, Tuyeres, and Kiln Firing Supports," Hesperia 61 
(1992) 203-21. 

23 For a plan of all graves, wells, and other deposits of the period covering 
the so-called "Submycenaean" period through the seventh century, see Agora 
VIII pI. 45; cf Agora XIV 19. These deposits will be published by the late E. 
L. Smithson and J. K. Papadopoulos in a forthcoming volume of the Athenian 
Agora series. 

24 Especially in Well U 26:4, the so-called Klepsydra well; see E. L. Smith­
son, "The Prehistoric Klepsydra: Some Notes," in Studies in Athenian 
Architecture, Sculpture and Topography Presented to Homer A. Thompson 
(=Hesperia Supp!. 20 [Princeton 1982]) 141-54. 

25 C. Mattusch, "Bronze- and Ironworking in the Area of the Athenian 
Agora," Hesperia 46 (1977) 340-79; Agora XN 187-91. 

26 This material is briefly noted in Agora XIV 186; see also Thompson 
(supra n.12) esp. 8; cf. J. N. Coldstream, Geometric Greece (London 1977) 311. 



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JOHN K. PAPADOPOULOS 117 

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deposits with significant Early Iron Age potters' debris. 



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118 THE ORIGINAL KERAMEIKOS OF ATHENS 

have rendered them likely or possible discards, best described 
as 'production discards' rather than 'wasters'. There is also a kiln 
dating to the Late Geometric and Protoattic periods associated 
with the remains of a contemporary house,27 as well as a deposit 
of the Protoattic period that represents evidence of a potter's 
workshop along the east side of the later Agora (Fig. 3).28 As for 
subsequent periods, there is what appears to have been a mass 
of refined potter's clay dumped into a well at the north foot of 
the Areopagus that was closed in the middle of the sixth cen­
tury.29 In the later fifth century a potter's shop on the east side 
of Kolonos Agoraios was mostly levelled to make way for the 
construction of the Stoa of Zeus. 30 The later use of the area by 
potters is also well attested in the Roman, Byzantine, and 
Ottoman periods. 31 Among the latest remains of potters' 
activity in the area were two kilns, destroyed to make way for 
the Church of the Vlassarou in the seventeenth century.32 

Although the area of the later Agora was used by potters 
throughout much of its history, the most substantial evidence 
of their activity dates from the Early Iron Age (Fig. 3). The 
largest single group of potters' refuse comes from Pit or Well L 
11:1, the so-called "Odeion Well."33 Of a total yield of 1,972 

27 Kiln Deposit H 12:7; see H. A. Thompson, The Tholos of Athens and its 
Predecessors (=Jlesperia Suppl. 4 [Princeton 1940» 3-8. Thompson, interested 
in the Tholos and its architecture, never published the material from the 
earlier kiln in full; see also Agora XIV 186. 

28 Pit S 17:2. A small fraction of the relevant material is published in sum­
mary form in Agora VIII 103f, 131, pI. 40; see also Agora XIV pI. 92b; H. A. 
Thompson, "Activities in the Athenian Agora: 1959," Hesperia 29 (1960) 327-
68, esp. 322. The copious debris from this deposit deserves to be more widely 
known. 

2'1 Agora XIV 186; T. L. Shear, "The American Excavations in the Athenian 
Agora, Second Report: The Campaign of 1932," Hesperia 2 (1933) 451-74, esp. 
472. Note also the abandoned mining shaft on the west side of the Agora, 
used as a potters' dump from the mid-sixth into the early fifth century: see 
Thompson (supra n.12) 8. 

30 Agora XIV 186; H. A. Thompson, "Buildings on the West Side of the 
Agora," Hesperia 6 (1937) 1-226, esp. 8, 20 with fig. 11, 47-53. 

31 Agora XIV 186; see further R. S. Young, "An Industrial District of An­
cient Athens," Hesperia 20 (1951) 135-288, esp. 286; H. A. Thompson, 
"Activity in the Athenian Agora 196~1965," Hesperia 35 (1966) 37-54, esp. 43. 

32 Agora XIV 186; A. Frantz, "Turkish Pottery from the Agora," Hesperia 
11 (1942) 1-28, esp. 2. 

33 Section !1l1: ·Well" in Ode ion Trench L. Discovered June 8, 1946 and ex­
cavated July 3-4, 1946 by Homer A. Thompson. Deposit noted in H. A. 
Thompson, "The Ode ion in the Athenian Agora," Hesperia 19 (1950) 31-141, 



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JOHN K. PAPADOPOULOS 119 

pieces. some 202 fragments (or about 10% of the deposit) could 
be classified as potters' waste with certainty; other pieces might, 
if complete, display flaws or damage sufficiently serious for 
them to qualify as makers' discards, and it is not impossible that 
the entire deposit represents rubbish from a potter's establish­
ment. Similar material was noted in a number of other deposits, 
though never in the quantity of deposit L 11:1. Chronologically, 
these deposits cover all the discerned phases of the Early Iron 
Age. The well groups and other deposits that have yielded 
potters' waste include, in chronological order (Fig. 3):34 

Well N 12:3 
Pit or Well L 11:1 
Pit or Well A 20:5 
Well K 12:1 
Well H 16-17:1 

·Submycenaean» -Early Protogeometric 
Early-Developed Protogeometric 
Developed Protogeometric 
Developed Protogeometric 
Late ProtogeometriclEarly Geometric 

esp. 37: - a shallow well of the time transitional between the Submycenaean 
and Protogeometric periods." For the existence of wells in the area immedi­
ately southwest, see also T. L. Shear, -The American Excavations in the Athen­
ian Agora, Seventh Report: The Campaign of 1934," Hesperia 4 (1935) 340-70, 
esp.362f. 

H Evelyn Smithson's division of the Early Iron Age into distinct phases 
coincides with that of J. N. Coldstream for the Early and Middle Geometric 
phases in Greek Geometric Pottery. A SUMley of Ten Local Styles and their 
Chronology (London 1968) 8-28, following the system worked out from 
study of the finds from the Athenian Agora; cf E. T. H. Brann. -Late Geo­
metric Well Groups from the Athenian Agora," Hesperia 30 (1931) 93-146, 
esp. 95. Smithson does, however, tentatively divide the Protogeometric period 
into four phases, labelled PG I-IV, on the basis of the internal evidence 
provided by the Agora graves and deposits, particularly the well deposits. 
Within this four-part division she saw a good deal of chronological overlap 
between the various discerned phases. For example, she considered that what 
is traditionally defined as 'Submycenaean' overlaps with the earliest 'Protogeo­
metric' (this phase she labelled PG 1). Her PG II-III phases roughly coincide 
with what is elsewhere defined as earlier and Middle Protogeometric. Her PG 
IV represents late Protogeometric. In addition to Protogeometric I-IV, she 
discerned a 'Submycenaean' phase, which she often referred to as -Final 
Mycenaean." At the time of her death in 1992 she was happy with the 
discerned subdivisions of Early and Middle Geometric, but was still 
concerned about those of the earlier period, especially the relationship 
between her PG I and Final Mycenaean. Although the Agora graves of the 
period are not as numerous as those of the Kerameikos Excavations of the 
German Institute (see Agora XIV 9-18), the well deposits of the period are 
unique, inasmuch as non-funerary deposits of this period are exceedingly rare. 
They provide, moreover, quantitatively substantial groups of pottery not 
matched in size by grave groups. 



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120 THE ORIGINAL KERAMEIKOS OF ATHENS 

Well P 8:3 
Well L 6:2 
Well M 13:1 
Well N 11:5 
Deposit G 15:5 
Kiln Deposit H 12:17 
Pit S 17:2 

Early Geometric 
Middle Geometric 
Middle Geometric 
Late Geometric 
Mixed Protogeometric-Late Geometric 
Late Geometric and Protoattic 
Protoattic35 

Of the large quantity of potters' debris from these deposits, 
only three pieces were published by Marie Farnsworth in 
1%0;36 two years later Eva Brann presented a few additional 
Protoattic test-pieces (Agora VIII 103f, pI. 40; cf XIV 186, pI. 
92b); most of these, as well as a few more, appeared as part of a 
neutron-activation study of material from the Athenian Agora 
conducted by Dominique Fillieres and her collaborators. 37 The 
material from these deposits pertaining to potters' activity will 
be published and illustrated in detail in a forthcoming study.38 
For the moment it is important to note that this evidence 
suggests, contrary to the prevalent view, that a great part of this 
area was devoted to potters' activity. This industry would have 

35 There are, in addition, a number of poorly fired vessels in various other 
deposits of the period. For potters' marks on Early Iron Age pottery from 
some of these deposits, see J. K. Papadopoulos, -Early Iron Age Potters' 
Marks in the Aegean," Hesperia 63 (1994) 437-507. 

3& -Draw Pieces as Aids to Correct Firing," AJA 64 (1960) 72-75, pI. 16, in­
cludes a catalogue of ten test-pieces found in the excavations of the Athenian 
Agora, the Pnyx, and the Potters' Quarter at Corinth. Of these, nos. A, D, 
and E are Early Iron Age from the area of the later Agora; several more pieces 
from the Agora are Classical, being test-pieces cut from red-figure vessels (nos. 
G., H, I); one piece of Hellenistic date comes from the Pnyx (no. C); the 
remainder are from Corinth (B, F, J). It should be noted that the red-figure 
test-pieces discovered as part of the Agora excavations by the American 
School all derive from Deposit 0 17:2; this deposit, along with K 14:1, rerre­
sents caches of material stored in cellars in modern times that were part 0 the 
stock in trade of dealers of antiquities. Although found in the area, the 
material has nothing to do with the ancient Agora; for a summary of these 
contexts see A. D. Ure, -Boeotian Pottery from the Athenian Agora," 
Hesperia 31 (1962) 369-77, esp. 369. 

37 D. Fillieres, G. Harbottle, and E. V. Sayre, ·Neutron-Activation Study of 
Figurines, Pottery, and Workshop Materials from the Athenian Agora, 
Greece," /FA 10 (1983) 55-69. The Protogeometric and Subgeometric potters' 
debris accounted for only a small portion of this study, a total of sixteen 
pieces. 

38 J. K .. Papadopoulos, ·Ceramicus Redivivus," which will provide, among 
other things, important information about the firing of Attic painted pottery, 
especially the prehistory of the three-stage firing described by Joseph Noble, 
The Techniques of Painted Auic Pottery2 (London 1988) 148-65, esp. 155f. 



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JOHN K. PAPADOPOULOS 121 

been well watered by a combination of the Eridanos, numerous 
wells, and several natural lines of drainage, in a low area of the 
town prone to flooding. 39 As for the evidence of the tombs, 
from the Mycenaean period through the Early Iron Age and 
later,40 it is evident that, contrary to popular belief,41 the 'Sub­
mycenaean', Protogeometric, and Geometric graves are mostly 
not arranged in small, discrete plots but are part of large ceme­
teries. Bearing in mind considerable destruction of earlier 
burials by building activity in the Classical period and later, as 
well as the fact that many earlier tombs are now located-and 
effectively hidden-beneath later monuments, it is nevertheless 
remarkable how extensive these cemeteries are. There are at 
least three, and probably four, fully-fledged Early Iron Age 
cemeteries in the area of the later Agora: one on the north slope 
of the Areopagus, another centered on and around the Kolonos 
Agoraios, and a third along the south bank of the Eridanos, 
concentrated in the area beneath and around the later north end 
of the Stoa of Attalus. 42 A fourth possible cemetery, thus far 
attested by only three tombs, is located in an area currently 
under excavation north of the Eridanos. 43 The location of 
potters' workshops-and particularly kilns-on the site of an 
earlier cemetery, or the establishment of a burial ground on the 
site of earlier potters' activity, is well-known at a number of 
sites, including Argos, Sindos in Macedonia, Rhodes, Atalanta, 

H For the importance of a ready water supply to a potter's establishment, 
see Cuomo di Caprio (supra n.21); for the procurement of water and the 
elaborate later waterworks, see the useful overview of M. Lang, Waterworks 
in the Athenian Agora (=Agora Picture Book 11 [Princeton 1968]). 

40 Late Bronze Age tombs: Agora XIII; Early Iron Age burials: Agora VIII; 
for later burials see R. S. Young, "Sepulturae intra Urbem," Hesperia 20 (1951) 
67-134; whether intra or extra urbem depends, in this case, on the chronology 
of the burials and the nature and extent of the city wall of Athens at any 
given time: see nn.59-60 infra. For much later burials in and around the 
Hephaisteion see W. B. Dinsmoor, Observations on the Hephaisteion 
(=Jlesperia Supp!. 5 [Princeton 1941]) 6-30. The earliest burial in the area is a 
solitary Middle Helladic grave: Agora XIII 92f. 

41 Most recently, I. Morris, Burial and Ancient Society: The Rise of the 
Greek City-State (Cambridge 1987); J. Whitley, Style and Society in Dark Age 
Greece: The Changing Face of a Pre-literate Society 1100-700 B.C. 
(Cambridge 1991). 

42 See Agora VIII pI. 45 for a plan of tombs known up to 1962; more graves 
have since come to light. 

43 It should be noted that this area is still under excavation and that the 
known tombs were located in those limited places where the natural bedrock 
was reached. 



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122 THE ORIGINAL KERAMEIKOS OF ATHENS 

Torone in Chalcidice and, of course, the German excavations in 
the (later) Kerameikos of Athens, to mention only a few. 44 The 
primary reason why kilns and tombs are so often found in close 
proximity is that both are usually sited outside the main area of 
habitation of any settlement. It is worth adding that the term 
"potter's field" in English tradition has come to mean a public 
burial place for paupers, unknown persons, and criminals. 
Although this usage ultimately derives from the passage in 
Matthew 27:7, which refers to the purchase of a potter's field 
for use as a graveyard, the association of potters' quarters and 
burial grounds has a much older ancestry. 

The extent of both the potters' activity and the cemetery 
grounds northwest of the Acropolis and east of the Kolonos 
Agoraios was so great in the Early Iron Age that it left es­
sentially no room for any real form of concentrated habitation. 
This conclusion is diametrically opposed to the widely-held 
belief that the area saw substantial settlement at this time. This 
has been a strongly held tenet that has never been seriously 
questioned and its general acceptance has been equally upheld 
by prehistorians whose work shows a concern for social 

44 At Argos, Proto geometric kilns (or industrial furnaces not necessarily of 
potters) were found in close proximity to Submycenaean and Protogeometric 
tombs: see P. Courbin. ·Stratigraphie et stratigraphie. Methodes et per­
spectives," in P. Courbin, ed., Etudes areheologiques (Paris 1963) 59-102, esp. 
71f. For the kilns of the late Classical period at the Archaic and Classical 
cemetery at Sindos see A. Despoine, • KqXlfLEtlOOt "A.l~(lVOll:lvOou," A reh Eph 
(1982) 61-84; for Torone and references to Rhodes, Atalanta, and other 
examples see J. K. Papadopoulos, • An Early Iron Age Potter's Kiln at 
Torone," MeditAreh 2 (1989) 9-44, esp. 13 nn.8ff, 43f, App. 1-2. For the kilns 
in the area of the German excavations in the Kerameikos see Cook (supra 
n.20) 64-67: Kilns GI-6, H2-6, JI-4; W. Hoepfner, Das Pompeion und seine 
Naehfolgerbauten (=Kerameikos 10 [Berlin 1976]) 142f, 173ff; many more 
kilns, particularly of the Late Roman period, have been recently excavated: see 
Papadopoulos (this note). When comparing the pattern of distribution of the 
potters' deposits with that of the tombs in the area of the later Agora (Figg. 1, 
3), it is clear that it was not a random distribution. The potters' deposits tend 
to be concentrated in the central portion of the area, which was relatively, if 
not totally, free of tombs, and there are also diachronic factors at play. 
Protogeometric potters' deposits, for example, are rarely sited in close 
proximity to contemporary burials, but tend to cluster in those areas where 
there were earlier Mycenaean graves. 



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JOHN K. PAPADOPOULOS 123 

archaeology, as well as by more traditional classical scholars. 45 It 
is most succinctly stated by the current excavator of the Agora: 

To the Dark Ages should be dated the beginning of regular 
and extensive habitation in what was later to become the 
Agora. The evidence is indirect but clear that starting in the 
years around 1000 B.C. and continuing down to 600 B.C. the 
area was used for houses as well as burials. Later quarrying and 
levelling of the Agora have removed all trace of actual struc­
tures from these early periods, but the shafts of wells sunk 
into the bedrock remain. The assumption is that each well 
stood in the courtyard of a private house and that they can be 
used to indicate the probable location and density of prehis­
toric houses now lost. Together with the burials they show a 
pattern of increasing population in this part of Athens from 
1000 to 700 B.CY' 

45 See, among others, V. R. d'A. Desborough, Protogeometric Pottery (Ox­
ford 1952) 1, and The Greek Dark Ages (London 1972) 261-65, 362; A. M. 
Snodgrass, The Dark Age of Greece (Edinburgh 1971) 363, and Archaic 
Greece: The Age of Experiment (London 1980) 29-34, 154-57; Coldstream 
(supra n.26) 315; Morris (supra n.41) 63-69, esp. 65, where it is stated: ·Young 
wished to believe that this area had been given over entirely to burials after 
900 B.C., but this was obviously not so. The settled area north of the 
Areopagus included small type A plots, scattered along the paths, between 
houses and wells." Morris' comments are closely echoed by Whitley (supra 
n.41) 61-64. See also R. S. Young, «An Early Geometric Grave near the 
Athenian Agora," Hesperia 18 (1949) 275-97, esp. 275-79; Camp (supra n.5) 
24,33; Agora XIV 9-18, XXVII IH. 

'" Camp (supra n.5) 33; elsewhere (24) he states: "the wells which reflect the 
positions of early houses were dug deep into bedrock and give some idea of 
the density of habitation when the area was being used as a residential district 
from about 1000-600 B.C." The assumption of the importance of wells as 
denoting evidence for habitation is most recently argued by Rhys Town­
send. In discussing the history of the area on the east side of the Agora he 
states (Agora XXVII 11): "from the Proto geometric through Late Geometric 
periods, the Agora came to be used more and more for habitation. Again, no 
actual structures remain in the section to the east of the Panathenaic Way." 
Elsewhere (12) he notes that the total absence of wells from one very large 
area "is exceptional and may signal that the land was considered to be not 
particularly desirable real estate." Although no domestic structures of the 
Early Iron Age have actually been found in the areas, Townsend concludes 
(12): "Nevertheless, for a time in the second half of the eighth century, when 
the land further west grew increasingly crowded with houses, habitation 
necessarily spread eastward. The area did not long remain settled, however; 
around 700 B.C., a drought closed the wells and forced abandonment of the 
structures they served, both here and throughout the region of the Agora." For 
this drought see J. McK. Camp II, "A Drought in the Late Eighth Century 
B.C.," Hesperia 48 (1979) 397-411. 



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124 THE ORIGINAL KERAMEIKOS OF ATHENS 

This assumption can no longer be maintained, and the evi­
dence of the wells in this case is best interpreted as serving pot­
ters' establishments rather than private dwellings; it is telling 
that so many of these wells were filled with debris from pottery 
workshops. The source of this fill is debatable; it should be 
noted, however, that although fill elsewhere in the area has 
been shown occasionally to have been hauled in from a dis­
tance, that distance is rarely greatY In addition to the evidence 
of wells, the only other possible evidence offered in support of 
early habitation in this area was the so-called "Geometric 
House" excavated in the early 1930s and promptly published by 
Dorothy Burr. 48 The identification of this oval structure as a 
house has more recently been dismantled by Thompson and 
reinterpreted as an early shrine. 49 The substantial evidence of 
potters' activity in this area, previously overlooked by scholars, 
has important ramifications for the nature of habitation and the 
use of the area in the Early Iron Age. 

In short, this was the original Kerameikos-the Potters' Quar­
ter-of Athens from at least as early as the Proto geometric 
period; and the area continued to be used for both burials and 
potters' activity well into the Archaic period. In time, both the 
burial grounds and potters were moved further to the north­
west of the city, occupying the area now generally referred to 
as the Kerameikos (Thompson [supra n.12] 8). This may explain 
why the name was applied to such a large area of the ancient 

.7 One of the two instances known to me is the case of the dumped road fill 
of the mid-seventh century beside the Tholos cemetery, which contained 
sherds that joined fragments in the Proto attic votive deposit on the 
Areopagus, about 100 m. to the southeast: Deposit H 17:4. See R. S. Young, 
Late Geometric Graves and a Seventh Century Well in the Agora (=llesperia 
Suppl. 2 [Princeton 1939]) 10. The other case is that of sherds joining pyre 
debris in Grave H 16:6-the celebrated tomb of the rich Athenian lady­
which were found in fourth-century B.C. dumped filling above that deposit, 
15 m. to the south: see E. L. Smithson, "The Tomb of a Rich Athenian Lady, 
ca. 850 B.C.," Hesperia 37 (1968) 77-116, esp. 79. In both cases the distance 
involved is not substantial. 

48 "A Geometric House and a Proto-Attic Votive Deposit," Hesperia 2 
(1933) 542-640; cf. Agora VIII 109f. 

49 H. A. Thompson, • Activity in the Athenian Agora: 1966-1967," II esperia 
37 (1968) 36-72, esp. 58ff, and ·Some Hero Shrines in Early Athens," in 
Childs (supra n.H) 96-108. 



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JOHN K. PAPADOPOULOS 125 

city.50 Nevertheless, the name as applied to the original Potters' 
Quarter was never lost and continued to be used for the area of 
the later Athenian Agora. Nowhere is this more explicit than in 
the discovery of a Kerameikos horos inscription at the 
northwest corner of the Classical Agora (PI. 1; Fig. 3).51 The 
stone, which is dated to the fourth century B.C., was found in 
situ in March 1939, facing north onto the ancient street that led 
to this point from the Dipylon Gate (Agora XIX 28). The stone 
is located precisely where Pausanias is likely to have entered 
'the Agora' (Fig. 3), perhaps inspiring him to write that upon 
entering the 'Kerameikos', the first building on the right is the 
so-called Stoa Basileios. 52 A second Kerameikos horos 
inscription, albeit a small fragment, was found out of its original 
context near the Classical Agora in 1959 (Agora XIX 28, pI. 2, 
H31). This fragment, as noted by Gerald Lalonde, represents 
the fifth known example of a distinctive series of opistho­
graphic horoi of the Kerameikos (Agora XIX 28 with referen­
ces). 

One important implication of these conclusions is that, what­
ever date one advocates for the establishment of the Classical 
Agora, this was one of the few areas of ancient Athens that was 
never heavily built up. It was close to the Acropolis, large 
enough and sufficiently free of substantial building to have been 
appropriated as a commercial and civic area. When exactly this 
occurred will remain an issue of contention, though I believe 
the arguments presented by Miller for the establishment of this 
area as an Agora after the Persian destruction of Athens in 480 

50 Paus. 1.3.1: Tb OE ~wpiov b KEpa~Ellco~ 'to )lEV Qvo)la (XEt alto ijpcoo~ 
KEpa~ou, 6tOVUOou 'tE dvat lCal 'ApuIOVll~ lCal 'tou'tou AE"(ojJivOU' ItPWtll OE 
to'tw tv OE~t~ lCaAou~Evll o'tQ(J: ~aOlAEto~, (Vea lCaeisEl ~aOtAEU~ tVt(lUOlaV 
apxwv apxi]v lCaAou~EvllV ~aotAEiav. As Wycherley notes (Agora III 221), 
some ancient commentators state that there was a deme called Kerameikos, 
though the name of the dcme was more properly Kerameis; see further Camp 
(supra n.5) 21 fig. 6. For the deme Kerameis, see D. Whitehead, The Demes of 
Attica 508/7-ca. 250 B.C. (Princeton 1986) 475 for full references. For other 
boundary stones of land held by demes, phratries, and gene, see A. E. 
Raubitschek, *Kolieis," in D. W. Bradeen and M. F. McGregor, edd., <l>OPOl:: 
Tribute to B. D. Meritt (Locust Valley [N.Y.] 1974) 137f. 

51 T. L. Shear, *The American Excavations in the Athenian Agora, 
Eighteenth Report: The Campaign of 1939," Hesperia 9 (1940) 267f, fig. 4, 299; 
Agora III 223, XIX 28 pI. 2 no. H30. 

51 Paus. 1.3.1; see further E. Vanderpool, "The Route of Pausanias in the 
Athenian Agora," Hesperia 18 (1949) 128-37; cf Vanderpool (supra n.l). Note 
also the comments in J. E. Harrison, Mythology and Monuments of Ancient 
Athens (New York and London 1894) 14f, 23,113. 



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126 THE ORIGINAL KERAMEIKOS OF ATHENS 

are cogent and deserve attention;53 it is worth adding that an 
early fifth century B.C. date would also accord nicely with the 
systematic exploitation of the Piraeus as the main harbor of the 
city, thereby increasing traffic through the west and northwest 
part of Athens. In this scenario, the relocation of the Lithos, the 
establishment of the Stoa Basileios, and, more importantly, the 
erection of the Agora hoyos inscriptions would date shortly 
after 480, rather than 500.54 

One question remains: if the area of the later Agora was not 
inhabited during the Protogeometric and Geometric periods, 
where was the Early Iron Age settlement of Athens? The most 
elegant answer would be that it was where it always was: on, 
and immediately around, the Acropolis. I hope to explore this 
more fully elsewhere, but there are several important pieces of 
evidence that support this conclusion, despite the small quan­
tities of Early Iron Age material found on the hill itself. 55 It is 
significant that Early Iron Age burials are located on all sides of 
the Acropolis, as if emanating from the center, just as the tombs 

53 Miller (supra n.15). Such a conclusion does not necessarily query the sig­
nificance of some of the important monuments in the area, such as the Altar 
of the Twelve Gods, the Southeast Fountain House, and Building F, among 
others. For these monuments see Camp (supra n.5) 40-45. These buildings 
may well have been constructed at an earlier time, but this in itself does not 
establish that the area was formalized as the civic center. 

54 It is worth emphasizing that this is exactly the period-that is, from the 
time of Cleisthenes to 480-about which we know very little, as Badian 
(supra n.l0: 1) reminds us: 

Athenian history of the fifth century B.C. has, on the whole, become a battle­
field where only the trained hoplite can compete. By contrast, the period from 
Cleisthenes down to 480 is one where the mere peltast still has an honest chance. 
There arc-at least in internal history-practically no facts known, and ingenu­
ity and imagination have been limited only by what the audience has been ready 
to believe. The limits have traditionally been generous. And the state of affairs 
has tended to permit and to encourage what philosophers call the ·conspiracy 
theory" of history. 

See also J. Ober, "Greek Horoi: Artifactual Texts and the Contingency of 
Meaning," in D. B. Small, ed., Methods in the Mediterranean: Historical and 
Archaeological Views on Texts and Archaeology (Leiden 1995) 91-123. 

55 B. Graef, with P. Hartwig, P. Wolters, and R. Zahn, Die antiken Vasen 
von der Akropolis zu Athen 1.1 (Berlin 1909); see also F. Brommer, • Antiken 
des Athener Instituts. 2. Scherben von der Athener Akropolis," AthMitt 87 
(1972) 281-85; note also the Early Iron Age material found in the fill of the 
fountain: Broneer (supra n.7) 401-05. 



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JOHN K. PAPADOPOULOS 127 

of the Mycenaean era surround the Acropolis. s6 The most im­
portant evidence, however, is that of Thucydides (2.15.3), 
which agrees well with the archaeological evidence £>resented 
above: to O£ n:po tOU it (LK:p01tOA.t~ it VUV ot><Ja 1tOA.t<; TtV Kat to 
im' autiJv n:po<; vOtov l,uIA.t<Jta t£tpa~~Evov. S7 

Without embarking on an analysis of the evidence for the 
exact size and location of the Pelasgikon IPelargikon,S8 or its 
relationship to a real or mythical Archaic peribolos wall, 59 

56 Mountjoy (supra n.19). This might also account for the enigmatic Delphic 
response at the time of the Persian Wars (Hdt. 7.140) that described Athens as 
&wheel-shaped" (ltOA.tOo; 'tpoXOtlO£Oo;). This led Gardner ( supra n.6: 45f) to 
support the existence of a fortification wall around the city at the time of the 
Persian invasion (see below). 

57 See further A. W. Gomme, A Historical Commentary on Thucydides II 
(Oxford 1956) 49-61; cf J. E. Harrison, Primitive Athens as Described by 
Thucydides (Cambridge 1906) esp. 7f; W. Dorpfeld, Alt-Athen und seine 
Agora. Untersuchungen uber die Entwicklung der aitesten Burg und Stadt 
Athen und ihres politischen Mittelpunktes, des Stadtsmarktes I (Berlin 1937) 
5-22; see also Il. 2.546-56; Od, 7.8t. 

58 E. Curtius, Die Stadtgeschichte von Athen (Berlin 1891) 47; Harrison 
(supra n.57) 22-36; Dorpfeld (supra n.58); see especially S. E. Iakovides, 'H 
~'\)KTlV(ltri) UlCp01tOA.l<; trov 'A61,vrov (Athens 1962) esp. 179-99, 231-35, and Ai 
~'\)KTlv(ltlC(ll UlCPOltOA.£lo; (Athens 1973) 113-40; L. Beschi, -11 monumento di 
Telemachos, fondatore dell' Asklepieion ateniese," ASAtene 45-46 (N.S. 29-30 
[1967-68]) 381-436, esp. 390-97 (with references to earlier literature); most 
recently, J. McK. Camp II, &Water and the Pelargikon, .. in Studies Presented 
to Sterling Dow on his Eightieth Birthday (GRBM 10 (Durham [NC] 1984) 
37-41. Whatever the precise nature and extent of the Pelargikon, Harrison 
Eiteljorg reminds us that the Acropolis before the Periclean building program, 
which truly transformed it, was not remarkable in size or grandeur. In his 
study of the west end of the citadel he also points out how 'Mycenaean' the 
Acropolis was in its appearance as late as the first half of the fifth century: 
The Entrance to the Athenian Acropolis before Mnesicles (Boston 1993) esp. 
85f; cf E. D. T. Vermeule, • 'Priam's Castle Blazing': A Thousand Years of 
Trojan Memories," in M. J. Mellink, ed., Troy and the Trojan War. A 
Symposium held at Bryn Mawr College, October 1984 (Bryn Mawr 1986) 
77-92, esp. 78. See further J. A. Bundgaard, The Excavation of the Athenian 
Akropolis, 1882-1890 (Copenhagen 1974), and Parthenon and the Mycenaean 
City on the Heights (Copenhagen 1976); J. C. Wright, &Mycenaean Palatial 
Terraces," AthMitt 105 (1980) 59-86, esp. 64f n.18, and &The Mycenaean 
Entrance System at the West End of the Akropolis of Athens," Hesperia 63 
(1994) 323-60. 

59 The evidence has most recently been gathered by R. G. A. Weir, &The 
Lost Archaic Wall around Athens," Phoenix 49 (1995) 247-58. Although 
presenting a strong case for the existence of an Archaic fortification wall, 
Weir's arguments are not without problems, and some of the evidence mus­
tered by the disbelievers in the wall is still compelling, especially Dorpfeld 
(supra n.57) 25-29: A. von Gerkan, Griechische Stadteanlagen (Berlin 1924) 



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128 THE ORIGINAL KERAMEIKOS OF ATHENS 

Thucydides' statement that at an earlier time what is now the 
citadel was the city, together with what is below it toward the 
south, deserves to be taken at face value and is, in itself, com­
pelling evidence. (,0 

THE J. PAUL GETTY MUSEUM 

April,1997 

esp. 26; Harrison (supra n.57) 31. Weir's paper uses much of the evidence 
already discussed by Judeich (supra n.7) 120-24; H. Lauter-Bufe and H. 
Lauter, "Die vorthemistokleische Stadtmauer Athens nach philologischen und 
archaologischen Quellen,n AA 90 (1975) 1-9; Travlos (supra n.6) 40ff; E. Van­
derpool, "The Date of the Pre-Persian City Wall of Athens," in Bradeen and 
McGregor (supra n.50) 156-60; O. Walter, "Zur Frage der vorthemistoklei­
schen Stadtbefestigung Athens,n AnzWien 86 (1949) 518-27; F. E. Winter, 
Greek Fortifications (T oromo 1971) 61-64, and "Sepulturae intra urhem and 
the Pre-Persian Walls of Athens," in Studies in Attic Epigraphy, History and 
Topography (=Hesperia Suppl. 19 [Princeton 1982]) 199-205; R. S. Young, 
"Burials within the Walls of Athens," AJA 52 (1948) 377f, and (supra nA~) 
132. 

60 I am grateful to three successive directors of the Athenian Agora Excava­
vations: Homer Thompson for inviting me to take on the study and publica­
tion of the Early Iron Age material from the area of the later Agora following 
the untimely death of Evelyn Lord Smithson; and Leslie Shear, Jr, and John 
Camp for facilitating my work in the Stoa of Attalus. The latter two have 
shared their great knowledge of the topography and early history of Athens. I 
have also benefited greatly from discussion with many colleagues and friends, 
especially Richard Anderson, Eve Harrison, Margaret Miles, and Susan 
RotroH. I am particularly grateful to Walter Gauss and to my wife, Sarah 
Morris, for repeatedly questioning the soundness of my thought process. 



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PAPADOPOULOS PLATE 1 

Kerameikos boundary stone (4th century B.C.) 
found in situ in the northwest corner of the Classical Agora 

(courtesy American School of Classical Studies, Agora Excavations).