The Archaeology of Athens

The director of the Agora excavations of the American School of Classical Studies in Athens, John M. Camp (The Athenian Agora), presents a masterful interdisciplinary compendium, The Archaeology of Athens. Camp, also a classics professor at Randolph-Macon College, draws from Herodotus, Aristotle, Plutarch, Pausanias and inscriptions found at various sites; on the temple on the Acropolis it reads, among numerous details, ""Two leaves of gold were bought for gilding the two eyes of the column, from Adonis, living in Melite: 2 drachmas."" He also describes the men responsible for various building projects (Perikles, e.g., gets his due), the buildings' uses and, in some cases, their destruction parts of the Acropolis were brought down, for instance, during the Peloponnesian War. Though Athenian art and architecture have been paid consistent scholarly attention, perhaps no volume has so successfully mined the riches of literature and history (along with 257 b & w and 19 color illustrations) in pursuit of archeological evidence. (Jan.)