the excavation of the athenian agora twelfth season: 1947

EXCAVATION OF ATHENIAN AGORA, 1947 151
moulds for the making of figurines. The collections of coins, of weights and measures,
of lamps and of various other small finds were augmented, the new material in many
cases making the old more intelligible, and the statistics more reliable.
In the account of the season's work that follows I have drawn freely on the
written summaries prepared at the end of the season by those in charge of areas of
excavation and I have profited also by discussion with my colleagues on most of the
problems raised by the new finds.
THE SOUTHWVEST CORNER OF THE MARKET SQUARE (Fig. 1)
The work of clearing the west end of the Middle Stoa, which had been resumed
in the season of 1946, was continued in 1947 under the direction of Mr. Eugene
Vanderpool assisted for a time by Miss Margaret Thomson.2 Although the exploration
has not yet been carried below the level of the Roman period the results are
already of considerable interest.
The actual west end of the Stoa has been exposed throughout its length and
proves to be better preserved than mnost other parts of the building, thanks to the
protection of the late road which ran over its ruins (P1. 38, 1). The massive core
of the foundations consisting of coarse conglomerate was here faced with hard gray
poros carefully jointed and dressed. The euthynteria, the orthostates (0.96 m. high)
and the string course above the orthostates are still in place near the southwest corner
of the building. The road drainage of Roman times was carried in a large terracotta
channel laid close in at the foot of this wall. The terrace wall to the north of the Stoa
has also been cleared to its west end and proves to consist of a facing of well-dressed
poros supported by a backing of miscellaneous blocks.
In the destruction debris above the ruinous foundations of the Stoa were found
many fragments fromn the superstructure of the building, all of poros and many with
their original color: scraps of Doric columns and capitals, architrave, triglyph frieze
and cornice. From here, too, come fragments of a terracotta sima with plastic
rinceaux, highly realistic lion-head spouts and palniette antefixes, clearly belonging
to the Middle Stoa (P1. 38, 2).
The plan of the small building to the north of the terrace has now been completely
exposed (P1. 38, 3). Although the building has not yet been studied in detail, it is
now seen to consist of three principal rooms set side by side against the face of the
terrace wall and so graduated in size as to cause the least possible interference to traffic
through the southwest exit from the Agora. Only the eastern room had a porch,
facing north; the middle room had a simple doorway in its north wall; the western
room seems to have been accessible only through the middle room. In the angle
2 Section O.