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Excavations between the Areopagus and Pynx hills.
(Originally published in 1891-2 in Communications of the German Imperial Archaeological Institute, Athenian Section [Ath.Mitt.] vol. XVI, pp. 443-445, and vol. XVII, pp.90-93 and 439-445)
1. Finds (1891, pp. 443-445)
The
German Archaeological Institute began excavations in Athens at the end
of January [1891], with the aim of trying to find any of the buildings
mentioned by Pausanias on the Athenian Agora. It was first to be built
to the east of the so-called Thieseion and to the north of the new
railway, at a point where, according to Pausanias, the Stoa Basileios
must have been located. However, since the owners of the plots of land
located there have not yet granted (p.444) permission to carry out
excavations, the spade has been used temporarily at a different location
If
one climbs up to the Acropolis on the modern road between Areopagus and
Pnyx, one sees an old water pipe driven through the rock on the right,
which apparently led drinking water to the vicinity of the Areopagus,
i.e. to the old market place. This line was taken as the starting point
of the excavations. On the one hand, the upper course and the origin of
the line should be determined and on the other hand, a water tank and
running well should be sought at its end point. Since Pausanias now
names a fountain in the market place or at least in its vicinity,
namely the famous Enneakrunos, there is the possibility of bringing the
much disputed question about the location of this largest and most
important fountain of the city closer to a decision.
The first
part of the task has already been partially solved. On the left side of
the modern driveway, the upper continuation of the rock line was found
and cleared. It consists of a walk-in canal built from large blocks of
limestone and covered with similar stones. Its direction clearly shows
that it comes from the upper Ilisos valley and runs along the southern
slope of the Acropolis. A rock canal located deep under the Hofgarten
and still carrying plenty of water, which E. Ziller (Ath.Mitt.II p. 112) has already described in detail, can be connected with this pipeline without any hesitation.
The
construction of the newly uncovered section of the pipeline best
confirms the previous assumption that it was a Greek and not a Roman
water pipeline; its size is also a sure sign that in Greek times it was
the main supply pipeline for fresh water for the city.
At the
current end of the line, between Pnyx and (p.445) Areopagus,
excavations have been started, which, however, have not yet brought to
light a running well. But an ancient road, supported by a lining wall
of large stones, has come to light, which led from the area of the old
market in an arc to the Acropolis, its gradient ratio (about 1:20) is
just as great as it is for one is appropriate for such a rise and is
required by the special floor design. Beside the road (to the north)
was a Roman or Byzantine cistern with a clay pipe, and below it a Greek
or Roman building, the floor of which is a marble mosaic. Three Roman
marble heads and a statuette of Hecate came to light as individual
finds.
Between the old road and the end of the rock conduit,
where, judging by the height of the latter, the well might very well
lie, the excavations have not yet penetrated down to the ancient soil.
So there is still hope of finding the ancient fountain here. However,
should nothing of the same be found—so be it. because it is completely
destroyed, or because it lies further to the north or west—then the
discovery of the old road and the Greek aqueduct has already provided a
new and secure basis for the topographical investigations into the
Athens market. [W. D]
2. Finds (1892, pp.90-93)
The excavations
in Athens undertaken by the German Archaeological Institute, about
which I reported in these communications (Att.Mitt. vol. XVI, p. 443), continued
during the months of February and March [1892], but were then
interrupted as a result of the Institute's travels. Their purpose, to
bring clarifications about the most important questions of Athenian
topography and especially about the location of the city well, has not
yet been fully achieved, and the excavations will therefore be resumed
and completed in the course of the summer. A detailed report on the
results obtained and a location plan of the uncovered buildings will
only be published after the excavations are completed; I confine myself
here to a brief listing of the results obtained after my last report.
Fig.1: Area of excavations, 1892-1893 (from Plate XIV, Att.Mitt.XIX [1894]).
The
ancient road found between the Areopagus and Pnyx (p.91) has come to
light for a large stretch farther south. It first crosses today's road
and then gradually climbs up to the east next to it to the Acropolis.
Originally surrounded by polygonal walls, over the centuries it has
increased so significantly that those walls later disappeared under the
floor. Beneath the road is a high drainage canal made of hammered clay,
to which manholes lead down at several points. Of elliptical
cross-section, it was excellently suited for the drainage of all bodies
of water and in fact alone on the stretch we uncovered it contains 13
side canals, which lead to it water from all sides.
On the west
side of the road, between it and the great Greek aqueduct running along
the Pnyx rock, several buildings have been uncovered which, according
to their construction and on the basis of preserved inscriptions, may
be dated to the fifth and sixth centuries BC. Walking up the road, one
first encounters on the right a small sanctuary, surrounded by
polygonal walls, containing two boundary stones with the sixth-century
inscription HOROS: one of the stones is still in its old place. In the
small precinct one notices a chapel-like temple without pillars, in
front of which stands a round altar made of porous. It is not known
which god or hero was worshiped here. The material and technology of
the small temple point to the sixth century as the time of edification.
As early as the next century, the sanctuary was buried under the ground
as a result of its deep location in relation to the gradually higher
path, because in the fourth century there is already another building
above it, which was marked by two boundary stones on the road that were
still in their old place, with the inscription HOROS LESCHAE being
confirmed as Lesche.
On the street above the Lesche there is a
small building, also made of polygonal limestone (p.92), on the outside
of which two inscriptions from the fourth century [BC] are carved,
which indicate that the house was encumbered with several mortgages, so
it was probably a private house.
Further up, on the same western
side of the street, are the remains of a building, carefully erected in
a polygonal style, in which one must recognize a large water reservoir,
because of its interior decoration and its numerous outflows. Its date
of construction is the fifth or sixth century [BC]. Initially we
believed that the reservoir itself formed part of the city well being
sought, but further discovery showed that this was probably not the
case: it may only have been an elevated reservoir above or a basin
below the fountain.
So far nothing has been found of the city
well itself; but that it must have been in the vicinity of the
excavation site, certain indications are the large number of existing
water pipes, then the fact that the large Greek water pipe preserved on
the Pnyx rock seems to end right here and finally the discovery of a
natural spring with a rock gallery between the tank and the large rock
aqueduct. Unfortunately, the point between this spring and the
container could not be completely uncovered because it is covered by
the current road.
I shall not mention here the other
installations, which have come to light in particular on the other side
of the old road. because their basic plan and meaning have not yet been
fully ascertained. In any case, it is certain that the excavations have
brought us close to a place where, in ancient times, there was a
natural spring, probably with a simple fountain: in the same place, in
early Greek times, there is a large aqueduct from the upper Hissos -
Thale, apparently to bring more water to the well, which was no longer
sufficient for the city's needs.
Since now, on the basis of the
reports of Thucydides, Pausanias and others, the main well of Athens,
the so-called Enneakrunos, must have been located below the Eleusinion
on the festive road, which led up from the market to the Acropolis, and
since it, originally a simple structure called Kallirroe, enlarged by
Peisistratos and certainly made into a nine-mouthed fountain by adding
new water, I myself no longer have the slightest scruples about
supposing the Enneakrunos to be at the place we excavated, especially
since they also come from other places. For reasons which this is not
the place to discuss, this very spot of the ancient city for which
Enneakrunos must be claimed.
However, this is only my personal
belief so far. The well itself has not yet been found, and therefore
anyone who thinks he must move the Enneakrunos to another part of the
city is not yet forced by the results of the excavations to give up his
opinion without further ado. We hope from the continuation of the
excavations that even the last doubts will be lifted and that some find
will show with certainty whether the Enneakrunos was located near the
market place where Pausanias places it in his description of Athens, or
whether those who are looking for this fountain at the opposite end of
the city next to the Olympieion on Hissos are right.
3. The Excavations at the Ennearkrunos (1892, pp.439-445)
After
the excavations that the German Archaeological Institute conducted last
year in Athens between Areopagus and Pnyx (cf. above p. 90) have come
to a preliminary conclusion with the discovery of the well complex I
was looking for, I am publishing a short communication here about the
results achieved. A detailed report will appear in one of the next
issues of this journal once the necessary plans and drawings have been
completed.
The old road, which led from the Agora to the west
around the Areopagus up to the Acropolis, has now been determined to be
about 220m long. Several footpaths branch off from it, some of which
lead to the people's meeting place on the Pnyx, some to the main
entrance gate of the Acropolis; they could not be used for wagons
because of their gradients.
On the western side of the street,
that is between it and the Pnyx rock, several Greek private houses have
been discovered in addition to the sanctuary with temple and altar
already described, two of which, according to the inscriptions that
have been preserved, were mortgaged. Across them, between the street on
the one hand and the Areopagus and the Acropolis on the other, there
seem to have been no dwellings, but only sacred precincts, because the
walls uncovered there have a different character than on the opposite
side; they are enclosing and retaining walls, but not house walls.
In
the most northerly district adjoining the Areopagus, which in antiquity
lay lower than the road, I presume was the Dionysion sanctuary in the
swamps; one in the middle we may call Asklepieion, according to the
finds made therein; the southernmost district at the western foot of
the Acropolis, which is surrounded on three sides by the [p.410]
ancient road in an arc, can hardly be anything other than the
Eleusinion.
Only a larger piece of the Asklepieion has been
excavated, with the remains of a marble table in a small chapel, in
addition to the enclosing wall and the entrance gate. several votive
offerings and a large number of foundation stones for stelae and other
votive offerings came to light. The reliefs are votive offerings of the
most diverse forms for healing that has taken place; one of them, on
which a female breast is depicted, bears a dedicatory inscription to
Asklepios.
Since most of the foundation stones and also the
lower part of the marble table decorated with two snakes were found in
their original place, the assumption that the reliefs were all carried
here from the large Asklepieion next to the theater is completely
inadmissible. Next to the small chapel, the mouth of a well has come to
light, which presumably belongs to the well that formed the center of
the cult and contained the healing water. Since the district seems to
be older than the introduction of the Asklepioscultes in Athens,
another healing deity must have been worshiped in it originally
Just
opposite the Asklepieion and in the axis of the Propylaea of the
Acropolis, at the foot of the Pnyx rock, a large fountain has come to
light, in which we may recognize the Enneakrunos, the city fountain of
Athens.
Excavations have shown that just below the People's
Assembly Square, several natural springs emerged from the Pnyx rock. In
order to increase its water and use it for daily use, the water veins
have been followed through tunnels deep into the rocks and several rock
chambers have been created and set up as water tanks. Seven such rock
canals and six water reservoirs of various shapes have so far been
found. Today, these tunnels no longer supply water; but that such
occurred in antiquity [p.441] is proved by the gullies made of clay,
which still lie in and in front of some of them. The
fountain-like vessels, on the other hand, still contain some water. In
the present state of the surface of the Pnyx and Museion hills, one
should not expect any more rich springs at their foot, since the
rainwater runs off easily in all directions and therefore does not
penetrate the ground.
That even in ancient times the water from
the Pnyx springs was sometimes scarce is shown on the one hand by the
laborious rock formations and on the other hand by several deep wells
which have come to light on the spot in front of the rock face, where
we can imagine the oldest well house, and in part still do deliver
water. Even when the springs had almost completely dried up in
midsummer, water could still be drawn from these wells. The
probable often recurring water shortage had to increase the more the
city grew. Nothing could be done with new tunnels and basins. A
thorough remedy was needed. We owe it to Peisistratos, who in the 6th
century conducted copious amounts of water from the upper Ilisso valley
to the old fountain site by means of a magnificent rock pipe.
This
aqueduct, which runs deep under the Court Garden and under the southern
slope of the Acropolis, was already described in the previous volume of
these communications (Ath.Mitt.
XVI, p. 444). Its northern end, which served as the starting point for
our excavations, has turned out to be a Roman-era extension of the
Greek pipeline. The real end of the line was a mighty water reservoir,
which was placed directly above the old well square. Its original size
can no longer be determined exactly; later, after reconstruction, it
covered an area of around 250 square meters, so it was just as large as
the basin of the stately Hadrianic aqueduct at the foot of Lycabettus.
The
place where the pipe emerged from the Acropolis rock has not yet been
determined: it will be one of the tasks (p.442) for the intended
continuation of the excavations. The piece of pipe found between the
Acropolis and the large basin consists of large blocks of porosity,
which formed a walkable underground channel. Two old clay pipes, which
are of special value for the dating of the whole complex, proceed from
the latter. One, which has an inner diameter of 0.19-0.22 m, conducted
the water underground to the large basin; the other, only 0.12-0.14
strong, the end of which has not yet been revealed, seems to have
brought water to the Asklepieion. The individual tube pieces are
0.60 to 0.61 long (not including the beginning of the interlocking) and
consist of a finely ground organic clay. Inside they are covered with
red varnish, outside they have no coating, but only two strips of the
same varnish at both ends and in the middle. Joined together by a cast
of lead, the tubes formed a very tight duct, the cleaning of which was
made possible by the fact that each tube had an elliptical opening
closed with a special cap. These pipes agree in a striking way with the
clay pipes of the famous water pipe, which Polycrates of Samos had
built by Eupalinos of Megara in the 6th century. As far as one can
judge from the description and illustration given by E. Fabricius (Ath. Mitt.
IX p. 175), the tubes appear to be almost identical. I hope to be able
to make a direct comparison soon. Even now there is no reason to doubt
that the clay pipes (and with them the whole system) are ancient Greek
products because of their varnish, the way the individual pipes are
interlocked, and the way they are sealed with lead (fig.3).
Fig.3: Section of clay pipe from Greek pipeline uncovered during excavations [source: Tagebuch der Ausgrabungen 2, p.26 (Daybook of excavations, Areopag., Acropolis and Pynx, 2nd period. 1 Nov 1892- 10 Feb.1893, p.26)]
In order to
locate the old well house, we uncovered the space between the basin and
the old road. The well house itself did not come to light, but several
stones did, which demonstrably belonged to the well house (p.443) of
Peisistratos. As the terrain conditions indicate, this must be set
north of the large basin directly on the Pnyx rock, i.e. at the same
place where the oldest well construction with the natural springs was.
Since the site is just below the current road, which is planted with
trees, only minor excavations could be carried out, which have not yet
yielded a reliable result. It will later have to be excavated next to
today's road and the whole area up to the ancient road will have to be
uncovered. However, we should not expect to find much of the old well
construction after it has been established from the stones of the well
house that were built into a Roman house that at least part of the
facility was later destroyed. But we may hope for further confirming
discoveries, which, in view of the importance of the question to be
decided here, will be welcome to everyone.
The stones of the
well house are partly large blocks of porous limestone, one of which
contains water channels with two mouths and is covered with lime
sinter, as it is still formed in the Athenian water pipes today, partly
from blocks of limestone mined at the foot of the Hymettos near the
village of Kara, which to the stylobates and the lower parts of the
buildings of the 6th century is regularly used. One of the latter
ashlars seems to have belonged to the floor of the fountain ball, while
the other, because of its shape and its washes, probably belonged to
the structure serving as a water channel, which is attached to antique
illustrations of the fountain house below the mouths. Moreover, on this
stone there is precisely that bracket form (Z) which is observed in the
oldest Athenian buildings.
Yet another finding fitted very well
with this determination of the date of the great aqueduct. Two shaft
wells were found between the basins in the Pnyx rock and the ancient
road, which were filled in at the latest in the third century BC
(p.434). They were filled to the brim with rubble containing hundreds
of pottery sherds, exclusively pottery of the Geometric and other
related styles. Black-figure, red-figure or other sherds of recent
times did not occur. If, therefore, the filling took place no later
than the 6th century, it can be linked to the change in water
conditions caused by the construction of the Peisistratic aqueduct.
After good and plentiful drinking water had been channeled from the
Hymettos or Pentelikon to the Agora, the old uncomfortable deep wells
could be filled up.
Thus, finds of the most diverse kinds unite
to the important result that in the oldest times there was a city
fountain consisting of several springs and Tiel fountains on the road
between the Agora and the Acropolis, namely at the foot of the Pnyx,
and that this was the case in the 6th century when a large one was
built The aqueduct coming from the upper Ilisso valley was enlarged and
became a sight of Athens because of its abundance of water, so we must
recognize the famous Enneakrunos in this fountain system on the basis
of the reports of the old writers. This is not the place to go
into literary matters; this is to be done in one of the next
issues of the Communications.
It may only be indicated here for those who have a special interest in
the question that, in my opinion, Thucydides could only be called as a
witness for the situation of the Enneakrunos on the Ilissos because his
statement (11, 15) was misinterpreted. With "touto to meros tes poleo"
he does not describe the part of the old town at the southern foot of
the Acropolis, but that part of the city of his time that was the
oldest city and was officially called "polis" at that time, i.e. the
whole the upper Acropolis and part of the old town at its southern (and
southwestern) foot. Towards this old town, i.e. in front of its gate
(p.435) opposite the Areopagus lay not only the old sanctuaries
specifically mentioned by Thucydides, but also the city well, formerly
called Kalirroe, later called Enneakrunos.
Fig.5: View of a cremation grave in the Eleusinion on the north slope of the Areopagus (photo date: Dec.1892)
In the
planned continuation of the excavations, the correctness of the naming
of our well as Enneakrunos can easily be tested. Above the Enneakrunos,
Pausanias saw the Eleusinion, and after the market, that is, below, a
theater called the Odeion. Both systems must be able to be activated.
The Eleusinion must have been situated on the western slopes of the
Acropolis, south of the discovered small Asklepieion and on the spot
where the three tombs are found. The Odeon, on the other hand, must be
on the west side of the Areopagus. Its search is easily possible and
must lead to the goal soon, since the discovery of a round wall or step
is enough to recognize the building as a theatre.
The less the
location of the found fountain fits the picture which most of the
experts have formed of ancient Athens, the more it is obligatory to
continue the excavations. Reliable results will not fail.
WILHELM DORPFELD.
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