Archaeologists uncover a cornerstone of democracy

By Gerald Clarke

So far, little is visible: a few steps and some foundation stones. But those seemingly insignificant remnants of a long-gone building resonate still and represent the most important such archaeological find to come out of Greece in the last decade. American and Greek scholars are now certain that they have found Athens' famous Painted Stoa--one of the buildings in which democracy was born 2,500 years ago. "There are no doubts in our minds that this is it," said on-site Archaeologist John Camp last week.

Built around 460 B.C., the Painted Stoa--or Stoa Poikile, as it is also called--was the first important new structure to rise from the ashes of the great Persian invasion, two decades before. It was set in the northwest corner of the Agora, Athens' civic center and marketplace, and soon became a site where all classes, including slaves, could mix and discuss the issues of the day. Made of limestone, the building had an open, colonnaded front and was closed on the other three sides, providing shade in summer, shelter in winter. There was always a spectacle to attract an audience. The Roman writer Apuleius once watched a sword swallower who "devoured a hunting spear point first until it penetrated deep into his vitals."

One of six stoas in the Agora, the Painted Stoa received its popular name when the greatest artists of the time were commissioned to decorate it with murals depicting great mythical and historical battles. The Stoa Poikile thus served as a gallery of fine arts, a war memorial and an architectural model that encouraged a free-flowing exchange of people and ideas.

"The style of architecture was ideally suited to the Mediterranean climate and to the personality of the people," says T. Leslie Shear Jr., director of the dig for the American School of Classical Studies at Athens. "All of this works together in a kind of peculiar chemistry that produces great civilizations." The structure also gave its name to a whole school of philosophy, Stoicism. Within its walls, Zeno argued that nothing matters but virtue and calm reason, and that even emotions should be disregarded by rational men.

The American School, which is now celebrating its centenary, began excavating the Agora 50 years ago, when the Greek government, which has collaborated in the venture, expropriated the small private houses that had been built on top of it. They were torn down, and layer after layer of older buildings were slowly removed, revealing finally the foundations of the ancient buildings and monuments. It was only three years ago, however, that the government finally took over a flour mill at the northwest corner. Soon the team began turning up pieces of ancient columns and other fragments. One such find: a splendid 500 B.C. marble head from a herm, the ubiquitous pedestal monuments used in antiquity to guard building entrances. "We knew that we had hit pay dirt, so to speak," says Shear. And indeed just under the herm's head, the diggers' cautious shovels first struck the Painted Stoa in August.

"There are many wonderful things, and nothing more wonderful than man," said Sophocles, and the Painted Stoa is tangible evidence of those days of wonder at the beginning of Western civilization. "Nothing except technology has changed in the 2,500 years since," says Camp. "Athens was the birthplace of everything--Western philosophy, architecture, drama, parts of our legal system and democracy. It was the focal point of civilization, and it all happened right here, in 40 acres." Says Archaeologist Homer A. Thompson, an earlier supervisor of the dig: "We don't have many treasures of gold and silver to show. But we have been able to recover the setting of ancient Athenian life." That is more than treasure enough.

--By Gerald Clarke. Reported by Mirka Gondicas/Athens and Denise Worrell/New York

With reporting by Mirka Gondicas, Denise Worrell

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