Athens' Place in the Bronze Age:
A Reexamination of the Evidence

Allisa J. Stoimenoff (University of Arizona)

The Acropolis was the heart of Athens’ city even in the Late Helladic period.  Naturally, modern Athenians and scholars are opposed to tearing down the Classical monuments in order to achieve a better understanding of earlier periods.  This lack of knowledge often causes scholars to underestimate Athens’ role in the Late Helladic.  This is often augmented by the fact that Athens plays a limited role in the Homeric epics.  It received little treatment in the literature until the Classical historians, Herodotus and Thucydides, give it its proper due.  I am writing this paper to interpret the archaeological evidence from both Athens and the other centers so that I may show that the construction of the citadel at Athens had enormous implications for the rest of Late Helladic Greece. 

Emily Vermeule has astutely pointed out that the settlements most glorified in historic times were those that were destroyed at the end of the Late Helladic period.  The archaeological evidence, which has been meticulously catalogued by scholars such as Penelope Mountjoy and Jeffrey Hurwit, supports that Athens was one of the settlements that survived.  Subsequent rebuilding on the site doubtlessly covered and destroyed much of what remained. 

Nevertheless, excavation has recently been able to illuminate what appears to have been lacking in the literary record.  By examining the archaeological evidence from Athens and Attica in comparison with the other Late Helladic citadels I am arguing that Athens rose to prominence at the end of the Late Helladic period because its location made it a worthy place to watch for potential dangers.  The archaeological evidence seems to support that the establishment of the citadel at Athens was a Pan-Hellenic effort made by multiple settlements in order to protect themselves from this unknown threat.  Even when the other citadels were destroyed, it was Athens that appears to have served as a refuge for the people of the fallen centers.