Many types of written records are found in the Agora, and this booklet presents a sample of the more than 10,000 inventoried inscriptions written on stone. The texts illustrated include diplomatic agreements, commemorative plaques for athletic victories, records of court judgements, boundary stones identifying different buildings, and fragmentary inscriptions featuring names (over 30,000 individual Athenians are now recorded).

Like fragments of overheard conversations, the thousands of informal inscriptions scratched and painted on potsherds, tiles, and other objects give us a unique insight into the everyday life of the Athenian Agora. Some are marks of ownership, or the notes of merchants, but many are sexual innuendos, often accompanied by graphic illustrations. Using her wide contextual knowledge, the author suggests why these scraps of sentences were written, and what they can tell us about one of the first widely literate societies.

Using archaeological evidence from excavations at the heart of ancient Athens, this volume shows how tribal identity was central to all aspects of civic life, guiding the reader through the duties of citizenship as soldier in times of war and as juror during the peace.

Using evidence from the Athenian Agora, the authors show how objects discovered during excavations provide a vivid picture of women's lives. The book is structured according to the social roles women played: as owners of property, companions (in and outside of marriage), participants in ritual, craftspeople, producers, and consumers. A final section moves from the ancient world to the modern, discussing the role of women as archaeologists in the early years of the Agora excavations.

This book presents the first well-preserved set of sympotic pottery which served a Late Archaic house in the Athenian Agora. The deposit contains household and fine-ware pottery, nearly all the figured pieces of which are forms associated with communal drinking. Since it comes from a single house, the pottery also reflects purchasing patterns and thematic preferences of the homeowner. The multifaceted approach adopted in this book shows that meaning and use are inherently related, and that through archaeology one can restore a context of use for a class of objects frequently studied in isolation. Winner of the 2013 James R. Wiseman Book Award given by the Archaeological Institute of America.