The Topography of Eleusis
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T HE SOUTH side of the great Eleusinian plain is for the most part open to the sea. The western end of the plain, however, is cut off from the water by a long and moderately high range of hills, the so-called Eleusinian Mountain, which runs from east to west at a very slight distance from the coast.2 In this ridge two separate peaks stand out, one toward the eastern end with a rather gentle, flat top, and the other toward the west more abrupt and with only a small level area on its summit (Fig. 1 and P1. 10). On the western hilltop no traces of ancient habitation have been found except for the remains of a building of the Hellenistic period which was most likely of a military nature. The settlement of Eleusis, from the earliest prehistoric times in which it was founded, was established on the eastern eminence and, in the beginning, more especially on the southern and eastern side of the hill. Only at the beginning of the first millennium before Christ, in the Geometric Period, did it extend also to the north side. This area too was included within the extensive fortified enceinte which appears from that time onward to have protected the settlement. High on the summit of the eastern eminence was the acropolis of Eleusis, fortified, at least from Mycenaean times, by a special wall. On the eastern flank of the hill, low"rer down and outside this fortification wall, was founded in very early times the Sanctuary of Demeter, to which reference is made in the Homeric Hymn to Demeter and which my late teacher, Konstantine Kourouniotes, had the good fortune to locate when he excavated the Telesterion.3 Private habitations began to disappear from the east slope even in the Geometric Period and their places were taken by the expanding Sanctuary of Demeter, which by the time of Peisistratos extended up to and beyond the foot of the hill. In this period the sanctuary was surrounded with a very strong fortification wall which enclosed the settlement as well, in this way serving Athenian political purposes since through this stronghold Athens sought to control a point that was vital to her defence and to dominate the roads which provided communication with the Peloponnese, with Thebes, and indeed with the whole of northern Greece. In the same way the sanc-