Agora Publication: Agora XXVII
Title:   The East Side of the Agora: The Remains beneath the Stoa of Attalos
Author:   Townsend, R. F.
Abstract:   The Stoa of Attalos now covers the remains several centuries of previous occupation. Mycenaean and Protogeometric burials represent the early use of the area. By the Late Geometric period, the presence of a few wells indicates a shift to domestic occupation; others containing 6th-century material suggest the presence of workshops and commercial activity as well as houses. The earliest physical remains are those of an Archaic altar; some rubble structures may have been hastily built by refugees during the Peloponnesian War. At the end of the 5th century, a group of public buildings was constructed, perhaps to house some of the lawcourts. About 300 B.C., these were replaced by an imposing structure, the Square Peristyle, which could have housed four lawcourts simultaneously, each with a jury of 500. Still unfinished when it was dismantled in the first quarter of the second century B.C., its materials were carefully reused in other projects, especially in South Stoa II.
The evidence for these centuries is now limited to the meticulous records of the excavators and the finds now stored in the Stoa of Attalos, where some few remains still in situ are visible in the basement. The author’s success in making a coherent and orderly presentation rests on the care and diligence of the excavators as well as his own painstaking search through the records. The physical reconstruction is accompanied by a catalogue of archtitectural blocks; the discussion of the chronology is supported by the stratigraphic evidence and a catalogue of pottery.
Series Title:   The Athenian Agora: Results of Excavations Conducted by the American School of Classical Studies at Athens
Publication Place:   Princeton
Publisher:   American School of Classical Studies at Athens
Volume:   27
Date:   1995
Page:   iii-v+vii-ix+xi-xxi+1-5+7+9-133+135+137-207+209-233+235-239+241-248
ISBN:   978-0-87661-227-9
Jstor:   http://www.jstor.org/stable/3602005
Google:   http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN9780876612279
DOI:   10.2307_3602005
    10.2307_3602006
Oxbow URL:   http://www.oxbowbooks.com/bookinfo.cfm/ID/20336
References:   Publication Pages (368)
Plans and Drawings (32)
Images (134)
Objects (363)
Deposits (105)
Lots (25)