B. BAVANT
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780197264027
- eISBN:
- 9780191734908
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197264027.003.0014
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Archaeology: Classical
Caričin Grad (Justiniana Prima) is an ideal site for studying urbanism in the early Byzantine period. Amongst the numerous early Byzantine sites in the central Balkans, Caričin Grad is one of the ...
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Caričin Grad (Justiniana Prima) is an ideal site for studying urbanism in the early Byzantine period. Amongst the numerous early Byzantine sites in the central Balkans, Caričin Grad is one of the very few that was a city and was founded in the sixth century. Its fortifications include three separate walled areas (the Acropolis, the Upper City, and the Lower City). Contrary to the traditional view, this chapter argues that the walls of the Acropolis were not part of the original plan and that the Upper and Lower Cities were established at the same time. The Church and the army occupied more than two-thirds of the Upper City and the Lower Town contained mainly public buildings. The only known intramural residential area lies in the south-west corner of the Lower City. Houses here were built of stone bonded with clay at ground-floor level, and the upper floor was constructed with a timber frame and cob walls and had tile roofs. It is also very likely that there was an extramural population, protected by a ditch and palisades.Less
Caričin Grad (Justiniana Prima) is an ideal site for studying urbanism in the early Byzantine period. Amongst the numerous early Byzantine sites in the central Balkans, Caričin Grad is one of the very few that was a city and was founded in the sixth century. Its fortifications include three separate walled areas (the Acropolis, the Upper City, and the Lower City). Contrary to the traditional view, this chapter argues that the walls of the Acropolis were not part of the original plan and that the Upper and Lower Cities were established at the same time. The Church and the army occupied more than two-thirds of the Upper City and the Lower Town contained mainly public buildings. The only known intramural residential area lies in the south-west corner of the Lower City. Houses here were built of stone bonded with clay at ground-floor level, and the upper floor was constructed with a timber frame and cob walls and had tile roofs. It is also very likely that there was an extramural population, protected by a ditch and palisades.
Vassilis Lambropoulos
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- September 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199212989
- eISBN:
- 9780191594205
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199212989.003.0010
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Prose and Writers: Classical, Early, and Medieval
Despite its eminence as a physical location and imaginary topos, the Acropolis appears very rarely in modern Greek poetry and fiction. When it does, local writers instead of glorifying it, like their ...
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Despite its eminence as a physical location and imaginary topos, the Acropolis appears very rarely in modern Greek poetry and fiction. When it does, local writers instead of glorifying it, like their foreign counterparts, present it as a haunting and menacing place, and sometimes even wish for its destruction. Thus they question its construction both by nationalism (in support of ethnic continuity) and by Western Hellenism (in support of cultural discontinuity).Less
Despite its eminence as a physical location and imaginary topos, the Acropolis appears very rarely in modern Greek poetry and fiction. When it does, local writers instead of glorifying it, like their foreign counterparts, present it as a haunting and menacing place, and sometimes even wish for its destruction. Thus they question its construction both by nationalism (in support of ethnic continuity) and by Western Hellenism (in support of cultural discontinuity).
Stephen V. Tracy
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520233331
- eISBN:
- 9780520928541
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520233331.003.0004
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Archaeology: Classical
This chapter provides a list of inscriptions assigned. The addressed inscription numbers include IG II2, Agora I, Acropolis museum, Eleusis, EM, Piraeus Museum Inv., ArchDelt 18A 103–105, ArchDelt ...
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This chapter provides a list of inscriptions assigned. The addressed inscription numbers include IG II2, Agora I, Acropolis museum, Eleusis, EM, Piraeus Museum Inv., ArchDelt 18A 103–105, ArchDelt 18A 109–110, SEG II no. 9 and SEG II no. 10. Their page references are given as well.Less
This chapter provides a list of inscriptions assigned. The addressed inscription numbers include IG II2, Agora I, Acropolis museum, Eleusis, EM, Piraeus Museum Inv., ArchDelt 18A 103–105, ArchDelt 18A 109–110, SEG II no. 9 and SEG II no. 10. Their page references are given as well.
William St. Clair
- Published in print:
- 1998
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780192880536
- eISBN:
- 9780191670596
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780192880536.003.0006
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History
Lord Elgin's artists arrived in Athens in August 1800. Aside from offering the usual gifts to those who had authority in the Ottoman Empire, they settled for lodgings and were ready for a long-term ...
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Lord Elgin's artists arrived in Athens in August 1800. Aside from offering the usual gifts to those who had authority in the Ottoman Empire, they settled for lodgings and were ready for a long-term stay while under the protection of the British Consul Logotheti. During that period, Athens was still a small town and was inhabited people from different cultures and religions. Back then, Athens contained only about thirteen hundred houses which were mostly seen on the eastern and northern slopes of the Acropolis. Initially, the town is surrounded by a wall that was ten feet high. This wall had been built in 1778 after the area was attacked by the Muslim Albanians. This chapter focuses on describing the situation of Athens during this period.Less
Lord Elgin's artists arrived in Athens in August 1800. Aside from offering the usual gifts to those who had authority in the Ottoman Empire, they settled for lodgings and were ready for a long-term stay while under the protection of the British Consul Logotheti. During that period, Athens was still a small town and was inhabited people from different cultures and religions. Back then, Athens contained only about thirteen hundred houses which were mostly seen on the eastern and northern slopes of the Acropolis. Initially, the town is surrounded by a wall that was ten feet high. This wall had been built in 1778 after the area was attacked by the Muslim Albanians. This chapter focuses on describing the situation of Athens during this period.
William St. Clair
- Published in print:
- 1998
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780192880536
- eISBN:
- 9780191670596
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780192880536.003.0010
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History
A rich harvest resulted from the first excavations on the Acropolis, since under Parthenon's west end, sizeable figures of the west pediment were found by the diggers which were likely to have been ...
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A rich harvest resulted from the first excavations on the Acropolis, since under Parthenon's west end, sizeable figures of the west pediment were found by the diggers which were likely to have been thrown to the ground and broken because of the 1687 explosion. As such, excavations were then initiated on the southern part of the Parthenon where some fragments of the south frieze and also from the early pediments were recovered. The key to possibly understanding the frieze monument was the central slab found built into the Acropolis' southern wall which exhibits the handing over of the cloth. These frieze sculptures were carved directly out of marble blocks using special saws which could have been acquired from Constantinople. This chapter analyzes how other firmans enabled other purposes for the issuing of the Elgin marbles aside from selling fragments.Less
A rich harvest resulted from the first excavations on the Acropolis, since under Parthenon's west end, sizeable figures of the west pediment were found by the diggers which were likely to have been thrown to the ground and broken because of the 1687 explosion. As such, excavations were then initiated on the southern part of the Parthenon where some fragments of the south frieze and also from the early pediments were recovered. The key to possibly understanding the frieze monument was the central slab found built into the Acropolis' southern wall which exhibits the handing over of the cloth. These frieze sculptures were carved directly out of marble blocks using special saws which could have been acquired from Constantinople. This chapter analyzes how other firmans enabled other purposes for the issuing of the Elgin marbles aside from selling fragments.
William St. Clair
- Published in print:
- 1998
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780192880536
- eISBN:
- 9780191670596
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780192880536.003.0025
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History
After the Greek Revolution, the Acropolis and the town of Athens were held in captivity by the revolutionary forces of the Greeks. The Acropolis however was surrendered to the Turks in June 1827 ...
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After the Greek Revolution, the Acropolis and the town of Athens were held in captivity by the revolutionary forces of the Greeks. The Acropolis however was surrendered to the Turks in June 1827 since the efforts of the Greek forces came to no avail. Some forces were able to put an end to the Ottoman fleet located in Navarino and this and other such actions prevented the reconquest of Greece. Even after the fighting, Athens' Acropolis remained a military fortress wherein the Turks veered away from allowing visitors to view it. Under the protection of Britain, Russia, and France, Greece was proclaimed as an independent nation state in 1833. This chapter looks into the status of the Parthenon after it had undergone several wars and battles, especially after the time that Lord Elgin visited Athens.Less
After the Greek Revolution, the Acropolis and the town of Athens were held in captivity by the revolutionary forces of the Greeks. The Acropolis however was surrendered to the Turks in June 1827 since the efforts of the Greek forces came to no avail. Some forces were able to put an end to the Ottoman fleet located in Navarino and this and other such actions prevented the reconquest of Greece. Even after the fighting, Athens' Acropolis remained a military fortress wherein the Turks veered away from allowing visitors to view it. Under the protection of Britain, Russia, and France, Greece was proclaimed as an independent nation state in 1833. This chapter looks into the status of the Parthenon after it had undergone several wars and battles, especially after the time that Lord Elgin visited Athens.
Peter Green
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520255074
- eISBN:
- 9780520934719
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520255074.003.0001
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Archaeology: Classical
This chapter describes the Parthenon as the most perfect expression of a partial attitude to life, a soaring rejection of the past on which it stood, the Acropolis that reached back in an unbroken ...
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This chapter describes the Parthenon as the most perfect expression of a partial attitude to life, a soaring rejection of the past on which it stood, the Acropolis that reached back in an unbroken cultural sequence to the Mycenaean era and beyond. The Parthenon is a triumph of civic planning, a palace-like home for a larger than life-size but quintessentially human goddess, a testament to imperial pride and ambition, a repository for wealth, a statement of secular faith in which the numinous had, and has, no part whatsoever. The chapter further describes the Parthenon as a tribute to mathematics: a morally neutral science, one of the few disciplines that can function by pure reason, which is why the Athenians were so passionately addicted to it, and showed such brilliance in the field of mathematical theory.Less
This chapter describes the Parthenon as the most perfect expression of a partial attitude to life, a soaring rejection of the past on which it stood, the Acropolis that reached back in an unbroken cultural sequence to the Mycenaean era and beyond. The Parthenon is a triumph of civic planning, a palace-like home for a larger than life-size but quintessentially human goddess, a testament to imperial pride and ambition, a repository for wealth, a statement of secular faith in which the numinous had, and has, no part whatsoever. The chapter further describes the Parthenon as a tribute to mathematics: a morally neutral science, one of the few disciplines that can function by pure reason, which is why the Athenians were so passionately addicted to it, and showed such brilliance in the field of mathematical theory.
Stephen V. Tracy
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520256033
- eISBN:
- 9780520943629
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520256033.003.0003
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Archaeology: Classical
Despite his prominence in Athenian politics and the leading role he played in the expansion of Athens' influence for a generation, Pericles' name has yet to turn up completely preserved on any of the ...
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Despite his prominence in Athenian politics and the leading role he played in the expansion of Athens' influence for a generation, Pericles' name has yet to turn up completely preserved on any of the hundreds of inscriptions to have survived from the fifth century B.C. Only the last two letters of his name are preserved in the fragmentary list of generals who swore to uphold the peace treaty concluded with the inhabitants of the island of Samos in 439 at the close of the bitter conflict that ended their revolt. His name has been restored by editors in another fragmentary inscription, the so-called Springhouse Decree. Two of the largest inscribed marble pillars ever set up in Athens recorded the first twenty-three years of payments to Athena by the members of the Athenian empire; they were placed on the Acropolis—exactly where is uncertain—and are known as the Tribute Lists. This chapter examines archaeological evidence that offers insights into the life of Pericles, including inscriptions and ostraca, portrait busts, and the building program on the Acropolis.Less
Despite his prominence in Athenian politics and the leading role he played in the expansion of Athens' influence for a generation, Pericles' name has yet to turn up completely preserved on any of the hundreds of inscriptions to have survived from the fifth century B.C. Only the last two letters of his name are preserved in the fragmentary list of generals who swore to uphold the peace treaty concluded with the inhabitants of the island of Samos in 439 at the close of the bitter conflict that ended their revolt. His name has been restored by editors in another fragmentary inscription, the so-called Springhouse Decree. Two of the largest inscribed marble pillars ever set up in Athens recorded the first twenty-three years of payments to Athena by the members of the Athenian empire; they were placed on the Acropolis—exactly where is uncertain—and are known as the Tribute Lists. This chapter examines archaeological evidence that offers insights into the life of Pericles, including inscriptions and ostraca, portrait busts, and the building program on the Acropolis.
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- March 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226472478
- eISBN:
- 9780226472492
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226472492.003.0006
- Subject:
- Religion, Philosophy of Religion
Ernest Renan wrote an essay entitled “Prayer on the Acropolis,” in which he reflects on the question of recollection. For him, the practice of history was a bar to the enjoyment of personal ...
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Ernest Renan wrote an essay entitled “Prayer on the Acropolis,” in which he reflects on the question of recollection. For him, the practice of history was a bar to the enjoyment of personal recollection but the power of Athens over his personal memory was inextricably linked to the quality of the civilization. Renan draws self-consciously on an established contrast between Hellenism and Hebraism. Some forty years later, Sigmund Freud wrote an account of his experience on the Acropolis in an essay entitled “A Disturbance of Memory on the Acropolis.” Both Renan's “Prayer on the Acropolis” and Freud's “A Disturbance” were structured around a double experience of memory. On the surface, the two essays represent diametrically opposed reactions, yet both are profound meditations on the link between recollection and philology cut across by the Hellenism/Hebraism antithesis.Less
Ernest Renan wrote an essay entitled “Prayer on the Acropolis,” in which he reflects on the question of recollection. For him, the practice of history was a bar to the enjoyment of personal recollection but the power of Athens over his personal memory was inextricably linked to the quality of the civilization. Renan draws self-consciously on an established contrast between Hellenism and Hebraism. Some forty years later, Sigmund Freud wrote an account of his experience on the Acropolis in an essay entitled “A Disturbance of Memory on the Acropolis.” Both Renan's “Prayer on the Acropolis” and Freud's “A Disturbance” were structured around a double experience of memory. On the surface, the two essays represent diametrically opposed reactions, yet both are profound meditations on the link between recollection and philology cut across by the Hellenism/Hebraism antithesis.
Dimitris Tziovas
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- August 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780199672752
- eISBN:
- 9780191774324
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199672752.003.0001
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, European History: BCE to 500CE
The Introduction outlines the aims of the volume and maps out transitions, debates, and new directions in the reception of antiquity in Greece over the last few decades, thus providing the background ...
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The Introduction outlines the aims of the volume and maps out transitions, debates, and new directions in the reception of antiquity in Greece over the last few decades, thus providing the background against which the chapters in the book should be read. A series of partly overlapping transitions currently taking place in the area of modern Greek classical reception studies are identified, involving shifts from continuity to diversity, elite to popular receptions, texts to performances, traces to uses, and eternal glory to critical history. The range of the volume is also highlighted. Covering a period stretching from the twelfth century ce to the present day, it looks at a variety of cultural practices and aspires to offer new perspectives in re-imagining the past and rethinking the role of antiquity in shaping modern Greek culture and its institutions.Less
The Introduction outlines the aims of the volume and maps out transitions, debates, and new directions in the reception of antiquity in Greece over the last few decades, thus providing the background against which the chapters in the book should be read. A series of partly overlapping transitions currently taking place in the area of modern Greek classical reception studies are identified, involving shifts from continuity to diversity, elite to popular receptions, texts to performances, traces to uses, and eternal glory to critical history. The range of the volume is also highlighted. Covering a period stretching from the twelfth century ce to the present day, it looks at a variety of cultural practices and aspires to offer new perspectives in re-imagining the past and rethinking the role of antiquity in shaping modern Greek culture and its institutions.
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- June 2013
- ISBN:
- 9781846311826
- eISBN:
- 9781846315268
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5949/liverpool/9781846311826.003.0009
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
‘A Disturbance of Memory on the Acropolis’, written by Sigmund Freud, was dedicated to Romain Rolland. This essay addressed the questions of loss and exile that were provoked by Freud's illness and ...
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‘A Disturbance of Memory on the Acropolis’, written by Sigmund Freud, was dedicated to Romain Rolland. This essay addressed the questions of loss and exile that were provoked by Freud's illness and the worsening political situation in Central Europe. It was also written at a time when Nazi censorship was already affecting publishing. Freud mentioned that the ambivalence about traveling comes from leaving the father but not necessarily home behind. For him, the father was a trace of home; the mother was home itself. Even with its history as a producer of exile, Spain was a place and Spanish a language that articulate a reconnection to a lost home.Less
‘A Disturbance of Memory on the Acropolis’, written by Sigmund Freud, was dedicated to Romain Rolland. This essay addressed the questions of loss and exile that were provoked by Freud's illness and the worsening political situation in Central Europe. It was also written at a time when Nazi censorship was already affecting publishing. Freud mentioned that the ambivalence about traveling comes from leaving the father but not necessarily home behind. For him, the father was a trace of home; the mother was home itself. Even with its history as a producer of exile, Spain was a place and Spanish a language that articulate a reconnection to a lost home.
Rosemary A. Joyce
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- March 2021
- ISBN:
- 9780190888138
- eISBN:
- 9780190888176
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190888138.003.0008
- Subject:
- Archaeology, Contemporary and Public Archaeology
This chapter examines the diverse features cited to justify the idea that inscriptions on the surfaces of the monoliths could convey meanings into the future. Experts and government agencies changed ...
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This chapter examines the diverse features cited to justify the idea that inscriptions on the surfaces of the monoliths could convey meanings into the future. Experts and government agencies changed their cited models multiple times, finally arriving at the Athenian Acropolis and Australian aboriginal rock art as unlikely paired models, after considering the tomb at Newgrange and Spanish Levantine rock art. All the archaeological sites mentioned were either named or nominated as UNESCO World Heritage sites, suggesting a shared common sense about archaeological sites. In addressing these varied analogues of the marker, the experts employed specific theories of communication based on presumed universals in the use of pictographs and narratives, understood today to be questionable. The chapter ends with an interlude considering Australian response to plans to place nuclear waste repositories in aboriginal land, and how aboriginal art can be understood in relation to such planning.Less
This chapter examines the diverse features cited to justify the idea that inscriptions on the surfaces of the monoliths could convey meanings into the future. Experts and government agencies changed their cited models multiple times, finally arriving at the Athenian Acropolis and Australian aboriginal rock art as unlikely paired models, after considering the tomb at Newgrange and Spanish Levantine rock art. All the archaeological sites mentioned were either named or nominated as UNESCO World Heritage sites, suggesting a shared common sense about archaeological sites. In addressing these varied analogues of the marker, the experts employed specific theories of communication based on presumed universals in the use of pictographs and narratives, understood today to be questionable. The chapter ends with an interlude considering Australian response to plans to place nuclear waste repositories in aboriginal land, and how aboriginal art can be understood in relation to such planning.
Dora P. Crouch
- Published in print:
- 1993
- Published Online:
- November 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780195072808
- eISBN:
- 9780197560266
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780195072808.003.0008
- Subject:
- Archaeology, Greek and Roman Archaeology
For those who posit that cities began in the nineteenth century, an appropriate methodology for studying them is to run insurance data through computers, generating statistics and calling the ...
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For those who posit that cities began in the nineteenth century, an appropriate methodology for studying them is to run insurance data through computers, generating statistics and calling the results history. But if our interest extends deep into the past, to Roman or Greek cities or to the first cities of the Yucatan, Mesopotamia, or China, then we are forced to find ways to deal with quite different sorts of evidence. In the Old World there are deciphered or decipherable written records in many cases; in the New World little written evidence. In both the Old and New Worlds, the chief evidence for ancient urbanism is the physical remains of the city, with the paraphernalia of daily life. Like other forms of human knowledge, archaeology over the past thirty years has become increasingly conscious of its methodology, goals, biases, and problems. The questions being asked and the solutions being sought today reflect some shifts in consciousness and in method. The identification of one’s assumptions and biases is part of the new mode of research. Nowhere is this shift better revealed than at a site like Morgantina, Sicily, where excavation has extended over more than thirty years, as frequently reported in the American Journal of Archaeology since 1957. This site represents an opportunity for studying ordinary urban settlements of the Greek world, just as a modern sociologist might prefer to study Dayton, Ohio, rather than Los Angeles, as a typical American city. Morgantina is a fine test case for the use of archaeological data as the basis of urban history. Some general conclusions may be drawn from this evidence about the problems and opportunities of cross-disciplinary investigation. Since 1977, I have hunted through thirty years of excavation records from Morgantina, looking for the occasional fact about water system elements. Gradually I have come to realize that the data from Morgantina were gathered to verify certain written records from ancient times. The data collected would be very different if at the beginning the excavators had asked more anthropological or geographical questions, such as, “Since water is essential for human settlement, what features of this site provide for that need? And what human interventions were made; that is, what structures were built?”
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For those who posit that cities began in the nineteenth century, an appropriate methodology for studying them is to run insurance data through computers, generating statistics and calling the results history. But if our interest extends deep into the past, to Roman or Greek cities or to the first cities of the Yucatan, Mesopotamia, or China, then we are forced to find ways to deal with quite different sorts of evidence. In the Old World there are deciphered or decipherable written records in many cases; in the New World little written evidence. In both the Old and New Worlds, the chief evidence for ancient urbanism is the physical remains of the city, with the paraphernalia of daily life. Like other forms of human knowledge, archaeology over the past thirty years has become increasingly conscious of its methodology, goals, biases, and problems. The questions being asked and the solutions being sought today reflect some shifts in consciousness and in method. The identification of one’s assumptions and biases is part of the new mode of research. Nowhere is this shift better revealed than at a site like Morgantina, Sicily, where excavation has extended over more than thirty years, as frequently reported in the American Journal of Archaeology since 1957. This site represents an opportunity for studying ordinary urban settlements of the Greek world, just as a modern sociologist might prefer to study Dayton, Ohio, rather than Los Angeles, as a typical American city. Morgantina is a fine test case for the use of archaeological data as the basis of urban history. Some general conclusions may be drawn from this evidence about the problems and opportunities of cross-disciplinary investigation. Since 1977, I have hunted through thirty years of excavation records from Morgantina, looking for the occasional fact about water system elements. Gradually I have come to realize that the data from Morgantina were gathered to verify certain written records from ancient times. The data collected would be very different if at the beginning the excavators had asked more anthropological or geographical questions, such as, “Since water is essential for human settlement, what features of this site provide for that need? And what human interventions were made; that is, what structures were built?”
David C. Yates
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- July 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780190673543
- eISBN:
- 9780190673574
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190673543.003.0006
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, World History: BCE to 500CE
This chapter builds on Chapter 4 and examines whether the Greeks assigned the same basic meaning to the war. It includes three comparative case studies, each of which pairs popular narratives in ...
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This chapter builds on Chapter 4 and examines whether the Greeks assigned the same basic meaning to the war. It includes three comparative case studies, each of which pairs popular narratives in Athens with others exampled in Plataea, Megara, and Corinth. Each reveals significant differences in the meaning assigned to the war in these states. The chapter additionally examines the motives that lay behind these idiosyncratic recollections of the war. This moves beyond the question of why the Greeks remembered the war differently and considers why the Plataeans, Megarians, and so on remembered the war as they did and not in some other equally distinct way. Yates concludes that different preexisting social memories, actual wartime experiences, and present interests predisposed the Greeks to remember even so elemental a question as the overall meaning of the war in unique ways.Less
This chapter builds on Chapter 4 and examines whether the Greeks assigned the same basic meaning to the war. It includes three comparative case studies, each of which pairs popular narratives in Athens with others exampled in Plataea, Megara, and Corinth. Each reveals significant differences in the meaning assigned to the war in these states. The chapter additionally examines the motives that lay behind these idiosyncratic recollections of the war. This moves beyond the question of why the Greeks remembered the war differently and considers why the Plataeans, Megarians, and so on remembered the war as they did and not in some other equally distinct way. Yates concludes that different preexisting social memories, actual wartime experiences, and present interests predisposed the Greeks to remember even so elemental a question as the overall meaning of the war in unique ways.
Dora P. Crouch
- Published in print:
- 1993
- Published Online:
- November 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780195072808
- eISBN:
- 9780197560266
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780195072808.003.0010
- Subject:
- Archaeology, Greek and Roman Archaeology
Attention to water supply and drainage is the sine qua non for urbanization, and hence for that human condition we call civilization. In fact, development ...
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Attention to water supply and drainage is the sine qua non for urbanization, and hence for that human condition we call civilization. In fact, development of water supply, waste removal, and drainage made dense settlement possible. (In this book, drainage is used to mean the leading away from a site of all sorts of water, whether clean or dirty.) In spite of the importance of this factor for human history, relatively little attention has been paid to the history of water management, more to the histories of food supply and of commerce as determiners of urbanization. To compensate for that deficit, this is a study of the relationship between water management and urbanization. Other factors contributing to urbanization are discussed briefly in Chapter 6. Many of the “working conclusions” in this chapter and elsewhere are my inferences from the physical data discovered by archaeologists. Very little written evidence has come down to us from the Greek period. We are in the position of reasoning backward from the answers to the questions—always a risky business (Pierce, 1965, 5.590). This is not an uncommon problem in Greek history. Mortimer Chambers has pointed out in a talk on travelers to ancient Greece, given at the American Institute of Archaeology meeting, San Francisco, 1990, that if we had to rely on Greek literature for evidence, we would never know that they had ever painted any vases! Yet no one is suggesting that we desist from the study of vases because the surviving ancient Greek writings do not discuss them. No—we go to the vases themselves for the strongest evidence. In this chapter the emphasis will be on what had to be discovered and organized so that there could be a complete system of water management for an ancient Greek city. If we try to put ourselves back into pre-Hellenic centuries when the world seemed “new,” and look about with curious eyes and that great tool the inquiring mind, what will we see? What did “the water problem” consist of? Millennia of observation had enabled the ancient peoples to become expert about many aspects of their environment such as the stars, so that by about 5000 years ago the constellations of the zodiac were recognized and named, and the science of astronomy well begun.
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Attention to water supply and drainage is the sine qua non for urbanization, and hence for that human condition we call civilization. In fact, development of water supply, waste removal, and drainage made dense settlement possible. (In this book, drainage is used to mean the leading away from a site of all sorts of water, whether clean or dirty.) In spite of the importance of this factor for human history, relatively little attention has been paid to the history of water management, more to the histories of food supply and of commerce as determiners of urbanization. To compensate for that deficit, this is a study of the relationship between water management and urbanization. Other factors contributing to urbanization are discussed briefly in Chapter 6. Many of the “working conclusions” in this chapter and elsewhere are my inferences from the physical data discovered by archaeologists. Very little written evidence has come down to us from the Greek period. We are in the position of reasoning backward from the answers to the questions—always a risky business (Pierce, 1965, 5.590). This is not an uncommon problem in Greek history. Mortimer Chambers has pointed out in a talk on travelers to ancient Greece, given at the American Institute of Archaeology meeting, San Francisco, 1990, that if we had to rely on Greek literature for evidence, we would never know that they had ever painted any vases! Yet no one is suggesting that we desist from the study of vases because the surviving ancient Greek writings do not discuss them. No—we go to the vases themselves for the strongest evidence. In this chapter the emphasis will be on what had to be discovered and organized so that there could be a complete system of water management for an ancient Greek city. If we try to put ourselves back into pre-Hellenic centuries when the world seemed “new,” and look about with curious eyes and that great tool the inquiring mind, what will we see? What did “the water problem” consist of? Millennia of observation had enabled the ancient peoples to become expert about many aspects of their environment such as the stars, so that by about 5000 years ago the constellations of the zodiac were recognized and named, and the science of astronomy well begun.
Dora P. Crouch
- Published in print:
- 1993
- Published Online:
- November 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780195072808
- eISBN:
- 9780197560266
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780195072808.003.0016
- Subject:
- Archaeology, Greek and Roman Archaeology
A whole series of questions flows from Loy’s general understanding, such as: Was there a particular sort of land form associated with ancient Greek settlements? Were settlements always located at ...
More
A whole series of questions flows from Loy’s general understanding, such as: Was there a particular sort of land form associated with ancient Greek settlements? Were settlements always located at springs, and did springs always have settlements? Why were there springs in some places and not in others, in what seemed to be the same sort of terrain? How much have the typography and the water resources changed since antiquity? How much did they change in the last 800 years B.C.? What can we tell about the water resources of antiquity from observing the modern situation? What were the relationships between ancient Greek settlements and the occurrence of karst phenomena? Was karst a geological form that had special relevance to water resource management in ancient Greece? Answers to some of these questions will become apparent as we discuss the geological aspects of ancient Greek urban history. Man-environment relations, in the ancient Greek world as elsewhere, were complex interactions of mode, duration, and intensity of human interference with the initial site conditions and with the climatic and biotic flux, affected by the resilience of the ecosystem. To understand these human communities in their physical setting, we need to study a range of features, many complex interactions, and man’s impact on the setting, realizing that our research goals and those of other experts may be widely divergent. Such complex interactions are called socionatural systems by J. W. Bennett (1976, 22). The condition of the watersheds of the hinterlands, in good times and bad, is directly pertinent to the ability of cities to extract water and transport it to municipal users. Hence the problems of erosion are not irrelevant to our topic—the management of water and the process of urbanization (Thrower and Bradbury, 1973, 59 –78; Aschmann, 1973, 362 –66). The thin, barren soil of these rocky peninsulas and islands is the result of climate not man. At the least, the currently observable extensive and permanent deforestation of uplands is locally a very recent phenomena (after the Younger Fill, to be discussed later) and therefore not a cause but a result of existing conditions.
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A whole series of questions flows from Loy’s general understanding, such as: Was there a particular sort of land form associated with ancient Greek settlements? Were settlements always located at springs, and did springs always have settlements? Why were there springs in some places and not in others, in what seemed to be the same sort of terrain? How much have the typography and the water resources changed since antiquity? How much did they change in the last 800 years B.C.? What can we tell about the water resources of antiquity from observing the modern situation? What were the relationships between ancient Greek settlements and the occurrence of karst phenomena? Was karst a geological form that had special relevance to water resource management in ancient Greece? Answers to some of these questions will become apparent as we discuss the geological aspects of ancient Greek urban history. Man-environment relations, in the ancient Greek world as elsewhere, were complex interactions of mode, duration, and intensity of human interference with the initial site conditions and with the climatic and biotic flux, affected by the resilience of the ecosystem. To understand these human communities in their physical setting, we need to study a range of features, many complex interactions, and man’s impact on the setting, realizing that our research goals and those of other experts may be widely divergent. Such complex interactions are called socionatural systems by J. W. Bennett (1976, 22). The condition of the watersheds of the hinterlands, in good times and bad, is directly pertinent to the ability of cities to extract water and transport it to municipal users. Hence the problems of erosion are not irrelevant to our topic—the management of water and the process of urbanization (Thrower and Bradbury, 1973, 59 –78; Aschmann, 1973, 362 –66). The thin, barren soil of these rocky peninsulas and islands is the result of climate not man. At the least, the currently observable extensive and permanent deforestation of uplands is locally a very recent phenomena (after the Younger Fill, to be discussed later) and therefore not a cause but a result of existing conditions.
Dora P. Crouch
- Published in print:
- 1993
- Published Online:
- November 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780195072808
- eISBN:
- 9780197560266
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780195072808.003.0018
- Subject:
- Archaeology, Greek and Roman Archaeology
A city is the locus of both sociocultural and physical-technical elements in a society. To begin to understand the importance of both kinds of factors, ancient cities are convenient examples to ...
More
A city is the locus of both sociocultural and physical-technical elements in a society. To begin to understand the importance of both kinds of factors, ancient cities are convenient examples to study, especially dead ones that do not “wiggle” under the microscope. By isolating one urban system (water management) we can begin to understand the complication and variability that characterize these early cities, and hence gain insight into the development of other urban systems, as well as the role that water management plays in the evolution of all cities. The received wisdom about the placement of cities usually rates defense as the primary factor, with access to arable land and concentration of trade activities being the other two important factors. A hill top, a protruding ridge, a peninsula or an isthmus between two rivers—all were sites easily defended by walls and hand weapons. Even a broad plain could be utilized if there were a slight rise that could be fortified, such as at the Mycenaean city of Tiryns in Greece. A city on a slight rise in the midst of broad fields of arable and irrigable soil was ideal. Such a formulation leaves out the possibility of deliberately choosing as a site a port city that tapped directly into grazing lands, or the importance of a balance of either fish or meat complementing cereals in the diet. It is more accurate to say that two kinds of food were necessary, either crops and fish or crops and meat. This concept broadens the number and kinds of “ideal” sites. Trade routes, the third factor, also are more complex in form and have more varied effects on urban location than early theories would admit. There are at least three kinds: 1. Overland routes (e.g., the Santa Fe Trail, with its two terminals at Independence, Mo., and Santa Fe., N.M., with Santa Fe being a crossroads where routes from Los Angeles and Mexico City also converged) 2. Land and water interchanges (the north-south land route through France crossing at Paris the east-west river route along the Seine) 3. Water-water interchanges such as New Orleans (Gulf of Mexico and Mississippi River) or Amsterdam (Rhine River and Atlantic Ocean)
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A city is the locus of both sociocultural and physical-technical elements in a society. To begin to understand the importance of both kinds of factors, ancient cities are convenient examples to study, especially dead ones that do not “wiggle” under the microscope. By isolating one urban system (water management) we can begin to understand the complication and variability that characterize these early cities, and hence gain insight into the development of other urban systems, as well as the role that water management plays in the evolution of all cities. The received wisdom about the placement of cities usually rates defense as the primary factor, with access to arable land and concentration of trade activities being the other two important factors. A hill top, a protruding ridge, a peninsula or an isthmus between two rivers—all were sites easily defended by walls and hand weapons. Even a broad plain could be utilized if there were a slight rise that could be fortified, such as at the Mycenaean city of Tiryns in Greece. A city on a slight rise in the midst of broad fields of arable and irrigable soil was ideal. Such a formulation leaves out the possibility of deliberately choosing as a site a port city that tapped directly into grazing lands, or the importance of a balance of either fish or meat complementing cereals in the diet. It is more accurate to say that two kinds of food were necessary, either crops and fish or crops and meat. This concept broadens the number and kinds of “ideal” sites. Trade routes, the third factor, also are more complex in form and have more varied effects on urban location than early theories would admit. There are at least three kinds: 1. Overland routes (e.g., the Santa Fe Trail, with its two terminals at Independence, Mo., and Santa Fe., N.M., with Santa Fe being a crossroads where routes from Los Angeles and Mexico City also converged) 2. Land and water interchanges (the north-south land route through France crossing at Paris the east-west river route along the Seine) 3. Water-water interchanges such as New Orleans (Gulf of Mexico and Mississippi River) or Amsterdam (Rhine River and Atlantic Ocean)
Dora P. Crouch
- Published in print:
- 1993
- Published Online:
- November 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780195072808
- eISBN:
- 9780197560266
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780195072808.003.0022
- Subject:
- Archaeology, Greek and Roman Archaeology
Today when the rigors of an arid climate (Arabia) or other constraints on water resources press the limits of water supply, hydraulic engineers have to reconsider the nineteenth century answer of ...
More
Today when the rigors of an arid climate (Arabia) or other constraints on water resources press the limits of water supply, hydraulic engineers have to reconsider the nineteenth century answer of one quality of water for all uses. In places where population density far exceeds the supply of potable water—Hong Kong—or where the scanty spring water is not enough to support the massive tourist industry—Bermuda—(Deb, 1987, 222) there is no choice but to use subpotable or nonpotable water whenever feasible. Absolute scarcity of drinking-quality water is the strongest reason for water managers today to consider alternate procedures, but in some situations the quality not quantity of water is the issue. Heavy metals, long-lasting pesticides, or other carcinogens may require separation of the purest supply for drinking and cooking from the less pure supply for other uses, lest the water itself cause disease during a lifetime of use. Since potable water amounts to a small fraction of use in a modern city—6 percent or less (J. Thapa, personal communication)—alternative delivery systems for that small amount may be feasible, with the main systems delivering subpotable water for bathing, cleaning, watering lawns, and so on, and nonpotable water for industry or irrigation. It is easier to contemplate in theory these logical divisions than to make actual plans for altering the delivery system in metropolitan water districts. Political and economic realities restrict change in built-up areas unless the danger is severe, but in some new suburbs in Florida dual pipelines are laid for potable water inside the house and subpotable outside. Drinking bottled water is becoming more common. Many municipal water systems now supply partially purified (nonpotable) water to industry for cooling or other processes. Still, these new ideas have not been widely implemented to date. It is unexpected, then, to find that the ancient Greeks had just such a triple system of water supply and reuse. Each Greek city had both public fountains and springs supplying flowing water of the best quality, and private cisterns in houses and public buildings to supply still water of good quality, plus a drain system that led used water outside the city.
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Today when the rigors of an arid climate (Arabia) or other constraints on water resources press the limits of water supply, hydraulic engineers have to reconsider the nineteenth century answer of one quality of water for all uses. In places where population density far exceeds the supply of potable water—Hong Kong—or where the scanty spring water is not enough to support the massive tourist industry—Bermuda—(Deb, 1987, 222) there is no choice but to use subpotable or nonpotable water whenever feasible. Absolute scarcity of drinking-quality water is the strongest reason for water managers today to consider alternate procedures, but in some situations the quality not quantity of water is the issue. Heavy metals, long-lasting pesticides, or other carcinogens may require separation of the purest supply for drinking and cooking from the less pure supply for other uses, lest the water itself cause disease during a lifetime of use. Since potable water amounts to a small fraction of use in a modern city—6 percent or less (J. Thapa, personal communication)—alternative delivery systems for that small amount may be feasible, with the main systems delivering subpotable water for bathing, cleaning, watering lawns, and so on, and nonpotable water for industry or irrigation. It is easier to contemplate in theory these logical divisions than to make actual plans for altering the delivery system in metropolitan water districts. Political and economic realities restrict change in built-up areas unless the danger is severe, but in some new suburbs in Florida dual pipelines are laid for potable water inside the house and subpotable outside. Drinking bottled water is becoming more common. Many municipal water systems now supply partially purified (nonpotable) water to industry for cooling or other processes. Still, these new ideas have not been widely implemented to date. It is unexpected, then, to find that the ancient Greeks had just such a triple system of water supply and reuse. Each Greek city had both public fountains and springs supplying flowing water of the best quality, and private cisterns in houses and public buildings to supply still water of good quality, plus a drain system that led used water outside the city.
Dora P. Crouch
- Published in print:
- 1993
- Published Online:
- November 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780195072808
- eISBN:
- 9780197560266
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780195072808.003.0025
- Subject:
- Archaeology, Greek and Roman Archaeology
The agora fulfilled a complex role in the life of Greek cities. In Greek agoras, nearly the whole range of public activities was accommodated: ...
More
The agora fulfilled a complex role in the life of Greek cities. In Greek agoras, nearly the whole range of public activities was accommodated: governmental, religious, commercial, military, and social. The market function of the agora was essential to the survival of the city, with the availabilty of everything from imported grain to locally grown lettuce. Services, from haircutting to the teaching of Stoic philosophy, were available. Government offices and officers were readily at hand. Temples, shrines, and monuments to heroes iterated religious, cultural, and moral values from every corner. The agora at Athens is probably the most thoroughly studied of the early ones. In shape it is an irregular quadrilateral, eventually monumentalized with stoas and other public buildings along all four sides. The buildings were placed at the edges of the large open space which therefore was available for many activities. Cisterns and wells of the pre- and postclassical periods were scattered over the surface. Only one well is known, however, from the classical period, that in the shrine in the northwest corner (Athenian Agora Guide,3) suggesting that the sixth century aqueduct was supplying enough water for the population during the fifth and early fourth centuries. Fountains marked important points of entry, and drains led the excess water northwestward toward the city gates (Figs. 16.15, 17.11). As the agora changed over time, being filled in with additional structures, the sources of water and the drains were continually adapted to the new demands. The organic form at Athens contrasts with the more regular but even earlier surviving form—eighth or seventh century B.C.—at Posidonia (Paestum), where a broad strip of public space for temples and agora was set aside at the center of the town (Fig. 5.1B). On this flat site, two sacred precincts flanked the agora (later Forum). The long and varied history of the site precludes our easy understanding of the design of the Greek agora here. Regularity at Posidonia is a function of its status as a colonial city—a city that was planned and laid out all at one time. Careful attention was given to the provision and use of water.
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The agora fulfilled a complex role in the life of Greek cities. In Greek agoras, nearly the whole range of public activities was accommodated: governmental, religious, commercial, military, and social. The market function of the agora was essential to the survival of the city, with the availabilty of everything from imported grain to locally grown lettuce. Services, from haircutting to the teaching of Stoic philosophy, were available. Government offices and officers were readily at hand. Temples, shrines, and monuments to heroes iterated religious, cultural, and moral values from every corner. The agora at Athens is probably the most thoroughly studied of the early ones. In shape it is an irregular quadrilateral, eventually monumentalized with stoas and other public buildings along all four sides. The buildings were placed at the edges of the large open space which therefore was available for many activities. Cisterns and wells of the pre- and postclassical periods were scattered over the surface. Only one well is known, however, from the classical period, that in the shrine in the northwest corner (Athenian Agora Guide,3) suggesting that the sixth century aqueduct was supplying enough water for the population during the fifth and early fourth centuries. Fountains marked important points of entry, and drains led the excess water northwestward toward the city gates (Figs. 16.15, 17.11). As the agora changed over time, being filled in with additional structures, the sources of water and the drains were continually adapted to the new demands. The organic form at Athens contrasts with the more regular but even earlier surviving form—eighth or seventh century B.C.—at Posidonia (Paestum), where a broad strip of public space for temples and agora was set aside at the center of the town (Fig. 5.1B). On this flat site, two sacred precincts flanked the agora (later Forum). The long and varied history of the site precludes our easy understanding of the design of the Greek agora here. Regularity at Posidonia is a function of its status as a colonial city—a city that was planned and laid out all at one time. Careful attention was given to the provision and use of water.
Dora P. Crouch
- Published in print:
- 1993
- Published Online:
- November 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780195072808
- eISBN:
- 9780197560266
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780195072808.003.0031
- Subject:
- Archaeology, Greek and Roman Archaeology
Persons with some knowledge of the Athenian acropolis are likely to be aware of the very early Mycenaean spring in the north-northwest quadrant, and of the still flowing Klepsydra Spring at the ...
More
Persons with some knowledge of the Athenian acropolis are likely to be aware of the very early Mycenaean spring in the north-northwest quadrant, and of the still flowing Klepsydra Spring at the northwest corner, as well as remember stories about Poseidon’s salt spring adjacent to the Erechtheum. Yet to connect the presence of water on the Acropolis with the urban history of Athens has not been explicitly done to date, even though the Acropolis has been the focus of settlement from earliest times until today. It is the purpose of this section to set out what is known about water utilization at the Athenian Acropolis, thereby suggesting firm ecological reasons why settlement should have taken place on and near the Acropolis (Fig. 18.1). Travlos’ map series of the city of Athens (1960) centered on the Acropolis show us that this hill has always been the focus of settlement, a fact well known to the ancient Athenians themselves (Thucydides, 2:15.3– 6). I suggest that not only the defensive capabilities of the Acropolis but specifically its water supply made it the logical choice of location for groups who intended to live securely and to dominate the region. The number and diversity of water sources here is impressive. In each era it has been necessary to cope with the water that occurred naturally and to save for later use the rain and spring waters that drew settlers to this rocky outcropping. Let us note the locations of water on the Acropolis at several levels, with references to published accounts of some of the features and descriptions (based on surface reconnaissance and discussion with experts) of those for which I have not been able to find such accounts. Discussion of the geology of the Acropolis will be found with the paragraphs about the salt spring. After this topographical discussion, we will look briefly at the chronology of water on the Acropolis, followed by a concluding discussion of urban history. Immediately to the left of the Propylaea, inside the Acropolis wall, are rectangular cisterns dug into the rock of the surface, with rock-cut drainage channels leading to them from the central pathway.
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Persons with some knowledge of the Athenian acropolis are likely to be aware of the very early Mycenaean spring in the north-northwest quadrant, and of the still flowing Klepsydra Spring at the northwest corner, as well as remember stories about Poseidon’s salt spring adjacent to the Erechtheum. Yet to connect the presence of water on the Acropolis with the urban history of Athens has not been explicitly done to date, even though the Acropolis has been the focus of settlement from earliest times until today. It is the purpose of this section to set out what is known about water utilization at the Athenian Acropolis, thereby suggesting firm ecological reasons why settlement should have taken place on and near the Acropolis (Fig. 18.1). Travlos’ map series of the city of Athens (1960) centered on the Acropolis show us that this hill has always been the focus of settlement, a fact well known to the ancient Athenians themselves (Thucydides, 2:15.3– 6). I suggest that not only the defensive capabilities of the Acropolis but specifically its water supply made it the logical choice of location for groups who intended to live securely and to dominate the region. The number and diversity of water sources here is impressive. In each era it has been necessary to cope with the water that occurred naturally and to save for later use the rain and spring waters that drew settlers to this rocky outcropping. Let us note the locations of water on the Acropolis at several levels, with references to published accounts of some of the features and descriptions (based on surface reconnaissance and discussion with experts) of those for which I have not been able to find such accounts. Discussion of the geology of the Acropolis will be found with the paragraphs about the salt spring. After this topographical discussion, we will look briefly at the chronology of water on the Acropolis, followed by a concluding discussion of urban history. Immediately to the left of the Propylaea, inside the Acropolis wall, are rectangular cisterns dug into the rock of the surface, with rock-cut drainage channels leading to them from the central pathway.