History and Timeline


ca. 3000 B.C. Earliest recorded habitation in Athens on the Acropolis slopes (Neolithic)

1550–1100 B.C. Mycenaean period tombs in the area of the Agora

1100–600 B.C. Iron Age (Protogeometric, Geometric, and Orientalizing Periods) cemetery

ca. 600 B.C. First democratic city organization, under Solon (594 B.C.)

560–510 B.C. Rule of Peisistratos and his sons. First public buildings erected.

508/507 B.C. Democratic reforms under Kleisthenes. More public buildings and boundary stones erected.

480/479 B.C. Sack of Athens by the Persians

460–429 B.C. Age of Perikles. Repairs and new buildings.

431–404 B.C. Peloponnesian War (Peace of Nikias 421–415 B.C.)

399 B.C. Death of Sokrates

338 B.C. Battle of Chaironeia marks beginning of supremacy of Macedon

323 B.C. Death of Alexander the Great

322 B.C. Macedonian occupation of Athens

3rd–2nd centuries B.C. Hellenistic Period. Philosophical schools flourish

159-138 B.C. King Attalos II of Pergamon. Builder of the Stoa of Attalos.

146 B.C. Corinth sacked by Mummius. Ascendancy of Rome begins.

86 B.C. Siege of Athens by Sulla after misjudged alliance of Athens with Mithridates of Pontus.

27 B.C.–A.D. 14 Reign of Augustus

A.D. 117–138 Reign of Hadrian

A.D. 138–161 Reign of Antoninus Pius (Pausanias visits Athens ca. A.D. 150)

A.D. 267 Buildings in the Agora burned by the Herulians

A.D. 396 Invasion by the Visigoths under Alaric

4th–5th centuries A.D. Large villas built in the area of the Agora

A.D. 529 Closing of the pagan philosophical schools by the Christian emperor Justinian.

A.D. 582/3 Devastation probably caused by Slavs

7th–10th centuries A.D. Area of the Agora abandoned

1204 Lower city of Athens devastated by Leon Sgouros from Nauplia

1456–1458 Capture of Athens by the Turks (lower city, 1456; Acropolis, 1458)

1821–1828 Greek War of Independence

1834 Athens becomes the capital of modern Greece

1859-1912 Explorations around the Stoa of Attalos, the Odeion, and the West Side of the Agora by the Archaeological Society of Athens

1890s Explorations in the area of the Temple of Hephaistos by the German Archaeological Institute

May 25, 1931 Commencement of systematic excavations by the American School of Classical Studies at Athens

January 4, 1954 Inauguration of the project to landscape the Agora

September 3, 1956 Dedication of the rebuilt Stoa of Attalos and the restored Church of the Holy Apostles

2006 Celebration of 75 years of American excavations in the Athenian Agora