What Happened at Athens

Abstract

IN THE history of the incursions into Greece from the north at the end of the Mycenaean age, known as the Dorian invasion, Athens holds a peculiar place. We learn from ancient writers that Attica was by-passed when the invaders descended into the Hellenic peninsula. The Athenians were forever reminded by their orators of the fact that Athens had never been subject to a foreign power, that its citizens had never seen their properties invaded. It will be my task tonight to show how far the archaeological remains in Athens itself substantiate this tradition. Until a comparatively few years ago, Mycenaean Athens was all but unknown. Sections of the Mycenaean fortification of the Acropolis had been discovered in the earlier excavations, but accurate observation of the stratification associated with these remains were not made at that time, and as a result the wall itself constituted practically all our knowledge of Mycenaean Athens. Then in the nineteen-thirties excavations in various parts of the city brought forth much new evidence which throws light on the period under consideration. The first of these excavations was that of the German Archaeological Institute in the Kerameikos close to the Dipylon Gate. Here a series of graves were excavated, the very earliest of which date from the end of the period which is the subject of our discussion tonight, and later graves in the same area carry the history of the city down to classical times. This discovery was fundamental for an understanding of the role which Athens played in the time of the Dorian invasion and the centuries following. The excavations in the Athenian Agora, beginning about the same time, resulted in the discovery of several Mycenaean tombs belonging to the period preceding the Dorian invasion. Our excavations on the North Slope of the Acropolis, which will be discussed in greater detail below, brought us right into the midst of the era with which we are dealing. These were begun in 1931 and carried on with some interruptions until 1939. About the same time, Mr. N. Balanos, of the Greek Archaeological Service, began dismantling the Athena Nike temple with a view toward a more accurate restoration, and in the course of these investigations the Mycenaean Tower, upon which the temple rests, became exposed. Finally, in 1938 Professor Kolbe, examining the evidence for the date of the earlier Parthenon, was led to an investigation of the Mycenaean wall itself. In the undisturbed fill between the inner and outer face of the wall he discovered some potsherds which must be contemporary with, or earlier than, the construction of the fortification. Some of these are fragments of unpainted kylikes, of a type in common use near the end of the Mycenaean period. This pottery shows conclusively that the so-called Pelasgian or Cyclopean wall around the Acropolis dates from the second half of the 13th century B.C. These five areas of excavation furnished our information regarding Athens in Mycenaean times and throughout the era with which we are dealing tonight. I shall now describe in more detail the Mycenaean remains unearthed in the excavations conducted on the North Slope of the Acropolis by the American School of Classical Studies. In the early campaigns of these excavations we discovered the continuation of the stairway leading from the lower city to the postern gate at the northeast corner of the Acropolis. The upper part of this stairway which had been laid bare in the earlier excavations