Excavations in the Athenian Agora: 1950

F IELD work carried out during the first six months of 1950 constituted the fifteenth campaign of excavation devoted by the American School of Classical Studies to the exploration of the Athenian Agora. The project, begun in 1931, has now passed its twentieth year, but of these four lustra one was made fallow by World War II. In 1950, as in the previous year, a large proportion of the whole effort went to the exploration and study of the Stoa of Attalos and its immediate environs with a view to the reconstruction of the building for use as an Agora museum. This preparatory work has now been completed. An interesting by-product of the work on the Stoa of Attalos was the elucidation of the scheme of a small colonnade, the Northeast Stoa, that closed the eastern part of the north side of the Agora square. The removal of a maze of house foundations of the Byzantine and Turkish periods in the north central part of the Agora brought to light the altar of Ares and, incidentally, yielded a number of interesting marbles both inscribed and sculptured. A beginning was made on the systematic conservation of the ancient buildings in the area, starting with the Tholos, the Civic Offices, and the Odeion. Field work in and around the Stoa of Attalos was supervised by Mr. Eugene Vanderpool, assisted for a time by Miss Evelyn B. Harrison, while the clearing of the north central area was in charge of Mr. Gerald J. Sullivan and Miss Margaret Crosby. Miss Lucy Talcott has continued to be responsible for the records and the museum; in this department she now enjoys the assistance of Miss Barbara Philippaki who comes fresh from her studies under Professor Beazley at Oxford and whose book on the Attic stamnos is soon to appear. Miss Alison Frantz has again filled all our photographic needs and Mr. John Travlos has devoted his whole time to our architectural problems. Miss Marian Welker has produced many drawings an1d water colors of vases, lamps, and architectural details. Miss Giulia Hitsanides, a grandniece of Professor Gorham P. Stevens and a recent graduate from the School of Architecture in the Athenian Polytechneion, has also been of great help in this department. In addition to the field work with which the present report is largely concerned, good progress has been made in the course of the year on the study of various groups of material. Thus Eugene Vanderpool, working in close correspondence with Professor A. E. Raubitschek of Princeton University, has been systematically digesting the collection of ostraka that now numbers well over 1500. Miss Lucy Talcott, in the little time left to her by the demands of colleagues, has resumed her study of RedFigure. Miss Margaret Crosby, having completed her publication of the silver-mine