Athens is one of the oldest named cities in the world, having been continuously inhabited for perhaps 5,000 years. Situated in southern Europe, Athens became the leading city of ancient Greece in the first millennium BC, and its cultural achievements during the 5th century BC laid the foundations of Western civilization.
The earliest evidence for human habitation in Athens dates back to the Neolithic period. The Acropolis served as a fortified center during the Mycenaean era. By the 8th century BC, Athens had evolved into a prominent city-state, or polis, within the region of Attica. The 7th and 6th centuries BC saw the establishment of legal codes, such as those by Draco, Solon and Cleisthenes, which aimed to address social inequalities and set the stage for the development of democracy.
In the early 5th century BC, Athens played a central role in repelling Persian invasions and subsequently established its hegemony over other city-states through the formation of the Delian League. Under the leadership of Pericles, the city experienced a period of prosperity and cultural flourishing known as the Golden Age. This era saw the construction of significant architectural works, such as the Parthenon, and advancements in philosophy, drama, and the arts, establishing Athens as a center of classical civilization. The Peloponnesian War against Sparta ended in Athenian defeat and marked a decline in its political power. Nevertheless, under Hellenistic and Roman rule, Athens retained its status as a center of learning, attracting students and philosophers from across the empire.
During the early Middle Ages, the city experienced a decline, then recovered under the later Byzantine Empire and was relatively prosperous during the period of the Crusades (12th and 13th centuries), benefiting from Italian trade. Following a period of sharp decline under the rule of the Ottoman Empire, Athens in the 19th century as the capital of the independent and self-governing Greek state.
Name The name of Athens, connected to the name of its patron goddess Athena, originates from an earlier Pre-Greek language. The origin myth explaining how Athens acquired this name through the legendary contest between Poseidon and Athena was described by Herodotus,Herodotus, The Histories, 8.55 Apollodorus,Bibliotheca, 3.14 Ovid, Plutarch,Plutarch, Themistocles Them. 19 Pausanias and others. It even became the theme of the sculpture on the west pediment of the Parthenon. Both Athena and Poseidon requested to be patrons of the city and to give their name to it, so they competed with offering the city one gift each. Poseidon produced a saltwater spring by striking the ground with his trident,Instead of a spring, Ovid says Poseidon offered a horse. symbolizing naval power.
Athena created the olive tree, symbolizing peace and prosperity. The Athenians, under their ruler Cecrops, accepted the olive tree and named the city after Athena. (Later the Southern Italian city of Paestum was founded under the name of Poseidonia at about 600 BC.) A sacred olive tree said to be the one created by the goddess was still kept on the Acropolis at the time of Pausanias (2nd century AD).Paus. 1.27.2 It was located by the temple of Pandrosus, next to the Parthenon. According to Herodotus, the tree had been burnt down during the Persian Wars, but a shoot sprung from the stump. The Greeks saw this as a symbol that Athena still had her mark there on the city.
Plato, in his dialogue Cratylus, offers an etymology of Athena's name connecting it to the phrase ἁ θεονόα or hē theoû nóēsis (ἡ θεοῦ νόησις, 'the mind of god').Plato, Cratylus, Plat. Crat. 407b
Geographical setting
There is evidence that the site on which the Acropolis ('high city') stands was first inhabited in the Neolithic period, perhaps as a defensible settlement, around the end of the fourth millennium BC or a little later.Schneider, Lambert & Christoph Hoecker (2001). Die Akropolis von Athen, Darmstadt, pp. 62–63. The site is a natural defensive position which commands the surrounding plains. It is located about inland from the Saronic Gulf, in the centre of the Cephisian Plain, a fertile valley surrounded by rivers. To the east lies Mount Hymettus, to the north Mount Pentelicus. Ancient Athens, in the first millennium BC, occupied a very small area compared to the sprawling metropolis of modern Greece. The ancient walled city encompassed an area measuring about two kilometres (1.5 mi) from east to west and slightly less than that from north to south, although at its peak the ancient city had suburbs extending well beyond these walls. The Acropolis was situated just south of the centre of this walled area.
The Agora, the commercial and social centre of the city, lay about 400 m (1,300 ft) north of the Acropolis, in what is now the Monastiraki district. The hill of the Pnyx, where the Athenian Assembly met, lay at the western end of the city. The Eridanus (Ηριδανός) river flowed through the city.
One of the most important religious sites in ancient Athens was the Temple of Athena, known today as the Parthenon, which stood on top of the Acropolis, where its evocative ruins still stand. Two other major religious sites, the Temple of Hephaestus (which is still largely intact) and the Temple of Olympian Zeus or Olympeion (once the largest temple in mainland Greece but now in ruins), also lay within the city walls.
Neolithic Athens has been inhabited from Neolithic times, possibly from the end of the fourth millennium BC, or over 5,000 years.Immerwahr, S. (1971). The Athenian Agora XII: the Neolithic and Bronze Age. Princeton.
Late Bronze Age In the Late Bronze Age (c. 1600/1550-1200/1150 BCE), Athens emerged as one of the main centers of Mycenaean culture.
By 1412 BC, the settlement had become an important center of the Mycenaean civilization and the Acropolis was the site of a major Mycenaean fortress whose remains can be recognised from sections of the characteristic Cyclopean walls.Iakovides, S. (1962). E mykenaïke akropolis ton Athenon. Athens. On the summit of the Acropolis, below the later Erechtheion, cuttings in the rock have been identified as the location of a Mycenaean palace. Between 1250 and 1200 BC, to feed the needs of the Mycenaean settlement, a staircase was built down a cleft in the rock to reach a water supply that was protected from enemy incursions,Broneer, Oscar (1939). "A Mycenaean Fountain on the Athenian Acropolis", Hesperia VIII. comparable to similar works carried out at Mycenae.
Fortified settlement. In Late Helladic III (LH III), Athens evolved from a regional settlement into a fortified Mycenaean palatial center. By LH IIIB (c. 1250 BCE), Athens had a massive fortification system with walls built of "Cyclopean" stones - similar to those found at Mycenae and Tiryns. The wall was roughly 4.5-6 m thick, built using massive unworked limestone blocks with a core of rubble and earth. The wall enclosed the entire acropolis with the main gate on the west side and a smaller postern gate to the northeast (Iakovidis, 1962).
Megaron Palace. Much of the Mycenaean layer was destroyed by later 5th-century BCE construction (the Parthenon and Erectheion). Structural remnants confirm the existence of a Megaron Palace. South the Erectheion there are two column bases identified as belonging to this palace. This implies a centralized bureaucracy managed by a wanax (king), supported by a military elite. There are also "Warrior Graves" found in the nearby Areopagus and Agora regions, containing bronze weaponry and prestige goods (Montjoy, 1995).
Unlike Mycenae, Pylos, or Tiryns, there is no archaeological evidence of a catastrophic fire or violent destruction at the Athens Acropolis during the transition from LH IIIB to LH IIIC. It is unclear whether Athens suffered destruction in about 1200 BC, an event traditionally attributed to a Dorian invasion (though now commonly attributed to a systems collapse, part of the Late Bronze Age collapse). The Athenians always maintained that they were 'pure' Ionians with no Dorian element. However, Athens, like many other Bronze Age settlements, went into economic decline for around 150 years following this.
Iron Age Iron I Iron I (1200/1150-950 BCE) represents the post-palatial Submycenaean period, Late Helladic IIIC (LH IIIC), or the Greek Dark Ages. While the Bronze Age Collapse triggered abrupt end and abandonment for many Mycenaean centers, evidence at Athens show a more gradual transition into the next phase. Athens appears to have been a "refugee" center. The Kerameikos cemetery shows a transition from Mycenaean chamber tombs to individual cist graves, suggesting a shift in social structure rather than a total societal wipeout (Snodgrass, 1971).
At the end of the Late Bronze Age, climate change (drought) and political turmoil caused many city-states to collapse. At Athens, in the late 13th century BCE and early 12th century BCE, there was intense building activity to withstand a siege. Apparently, Athens successfully withstood this period of turmoil as there are no burnt layer or signs of siege warfare leading to breaches in the city fortifications.
Late Helladic IIIC1 The Northeast Postern Gate. During LH IIIB/C, the small secondary entrance to the Acropolis was blocked with massive masonry. This is a classic archaeological indicator of a high-threat environment where the defenders prioritized security over accessibility (Iakovidis, 1962).
The Fountain House (Northwest Descent). The secret fountain as evidence for siege preparation. A deep shaft was cut 35 m down through the rock to reach a natural spring at the northwest descent. This is one of the most significant engineering feats of the LBA. It featured a series of wooden stairs supported by ceramic and stone sockets. Carbon-14 and ceramic dating of the pottery in the shaft (LH IIIC Early) prove it was constructed in a hurry and used for a short period (25-30 years) before collapsing. The fact that it was used for less than a generation suggests a period of acute, localized crisis. Once the immediate threat of a prolonged blockade passed, the risky, deep-access shaft was abandoned (Gauß, 2003).
Late Helladic IIIC2-3 Following the peak tension of the early 12th century BCE, the settlement pattern shifted to the slopes of the acropolis. Analysis of pottery shards and foundation remains, shows a "de-palatialization" of the city. While the walls remained, the formal administrative functions of the palace likely dissolved. The elite no longer lived exclusively atop the rock in a centralized palace structure. Excavations by the American School (ASCSA) revealed a cluster of houses on the North Slope of the Acropolis dating to LH IIIC. These were simpler, multi-roomed dwellings built over earlier Mycenaean remains. Below the citadel, the area that would later become the Classical Agora saw an increase in domestic activity. This indicates a transition from a "citadel-and-subject" model to a more integrated, proto-urban community living on the slopes and in the valley (Mountjoy, 1995).
Iron II Iron Age burials, in the Kerameikos and other locations, are often richly provided for and demonstrate that from 900 BC onwards Athens was one of the leading centres of trade and prosperity in the region; as were Lefkandi in Euboea and Knossos in Crete.Osborne, R. (1996, 2009). Greece in the Making 1200 – 479 BC. This position may well have resulted from its central location in the Greek world, its secure stronghold on the Acropolis and its access to the sea, which gave it a natural advantage over inland rivals such as Thebes and Sparta.
Founding myths