Autopsy in Athens: Recent Archaeological Research on Athens and Attica

This is an exciting time to study in Athens. The “rescue” excavations of recent years, conducted during construction of the Metro system and in preparation for the 2004 Olympics Games, combined with major restoration projects and a new enthusiasm for fresh examination of old material, using new techniques and applications, brings new perspectives and answers on many aspects of the ancient city of Athens and life, politics and religion in Attica.
The 15 papers presented here contribute new findings that result from intensive, firsthand examinations of the archaeological and epigraphical evidence. They illustrate how much may be gained by reexamining material from older excavations, and from the methodological shift from documenting information to closer analysis and larger historical reflection. They offer a variety of perspectives on a range of issues: the ambiance of the ancient city for passersby, filled with roadside shrines; techniques of architectural construction and sculpting; religious expression in Athens including cults of Asklepios and Serapis; the precise procedures for Greek sacrifice; how the borders of Attica were defined over time, and details of its road-system. In presenting this volume the contributors are continuing in a long tradition of autopsy – in the sense of 'personal observation' – in Athens, that began even in the Hellenistic period and has continued through the writings of centuries of travelers and academics to the present day.

Table of Contents

List of Contributors

Introduction, by Margaret M. Miles
1. Architectural Repairs of the Small Limestone Buildings on the Athenian Acropolis in the Archaic Period
Nancy L. Klein
2. Tools From the House of Mikion and Menon
Barbara Tsikirgis
3. More Than the Time of Day: Helios to the Rescue
Jenifer Neils, Rachel Sternberg, Derek Rheinbold
4. Asklepios and Hygieia in the City Eleusinion
Carol Lawton
5. Asklepios in the Piraeus and the Mechanisms of Cult Appropriation
Jessica Lamont
6. Sarapis as Healer in Roman Athens: Reconsidering the Identity of Agora S 1068
Brian A. Martens
7. The Experience of Greek Sacrifice: Investigating Fat-Wrapped Thigh Bones
Jacob Morton
8. The Mutilation of the Herms: Violence toward Images in the late 5th century BC
Rachel Kousser
9. Funerals for Statues? The Case of Phrasikleia and her “Brother”
Angele Rosenberg-Dimitracopoulou
10. Roadside Assistance: Religious Spaces and Personal Experience in Athens
Johanna Best
11. The Monumental Definition of Attica in the Early Democratic Period
Jessica Paga
12. Triremes on Land: First-fruits for the Battle of Salamis
Kristian Lorenzo
13. Routes out of Attica
Sylvian Fachard and Daniele Pirisino
14. How to Look at a Non-peripteral Temple
Marya Fisher
15. The Vanishing Double Stoa at Thorikos and its Afterlives
Margaret M. Miles

Index