ACROPOLIS - 2005

Arrephorion. G. Venieri and D. Charalambidis (Α’ ΕΠΚΑ) report. The Arrephorion has long been identified as a rectangular building in contact with the north wall of the Acropolis, with a porch to the south and an enclosed open-air area to the west (Figs 1,2,3). In same area, an underground passage of Mycenaean date led to a well on the North Slope (Fig. 4).

In 2002 a study for the protection of the monument began with two test trenches inside the structure which revealed a large volume of modern fill above a number of marble architectural fragments apparently deposited after the excavations of Kavvadias and Kawerau (Fig. 5). In 2005 it was decided to re-bury the monument for its protection, necessitating the removal of the fill and stone piles covering the area.

The hall’s foundations (8.3 × 4.3m) range from 1.4 to 2m thick, with 17 layers of fill detected, only six of which are securely ancient (four being undisturbed). Dating the walls is hampered by 19th-century trenches which removed much fill inside the room (in places to bedrock), although undisturbed fills were identified below the lower courses of the room’s foundations and the walls of the open area. Fills from the foundations of the transverse wall on the east side of the room date between the fifth and the second century BC, while those in the northwestern corner of the room date from the fourth and third centuries BC.

In total, 2,817 worked stone members and 2,109 amorphous members were recovered from the area, among which a fragment of the Parthenon frieze and two sections of the metopes were identified. In addition, finds of most major groups were discovered: terracotta figurines (Fig. 6), fragments of iron and bronze objects, bone and shell. Among the pottery were fragments of black- and red-figure vases, some of which bear inscriptions (Fig. 7).