Recently the Acropolis Museum opened up the archaeological site underneath it

I’d walked over it countless times before, looking down on this vibrant ancient neighborhood from Athens in the Roman period

I finally visited, so let’s thread it up with the highlights!
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Most people head to the Acropolis Museum for its art in bronze, clay, and marble

Beautiful relics from ancient Athens most sacred rock, the Acropolis towering above the city
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And definitely make sure to check out the museum first, it’s got some things worth seeing

I especially love the pathos seen on the faces scattered throughout the Museum
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I’ve always vibed with these gorgons
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As a zooarchaeologist who studies animal remains, the animals also stand out
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And who says animals can’t have pathos? The faces of this horse and calf being devoured by various lions cry out with emotion rarely shown in human faces of the period
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And what museum is complete without a quick dick pic?

This bronze anatomical votive was dedicated at a healing shrine in honor of the god who’d healed his afflicted member
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But OK, so once you’ve had your fill of ancient art, Athena commands you to get dirty with the plebs below
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The neighborhood presented under the museum is equally impressive, if for very different reasons.

It was lived in for over a thousand years. One construction obscures another, walls and floors and layers jumbled together. As is the nature of urban archaeology…
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Walking around a city, we mostly see the superstructure. Elaborate architecture, the decorations on the walls, floors, or ceilings…

Some of these features were present in the site below. “A series of small walls” as @EddieIzzard hilariously described archaeology
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This andron shows up quite nicely. This was the room where drinking parties took place

See how the decorated floor is limited to the center of the room?

The undecorated floor beside the walls would've had couches where guests would drink the night away in a reclined pose
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But what really stands out in this underground neighborhood is the substructure of these buildings

Wells and cisterns appear in the archaeological cityscape as dark voids. They show the importance of water and the effort the ancient Athenians made to access it in their homes
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But what impressed me the most was the elaborate drainage pipes seen everywhere, diverting dirty water out to the sewers below the streets
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The superstructure respected the substructure, with walls carefully built around these humble drains, allowing waste to flow from the homes
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While we’re missing the cramped group toilet seat famous from other Roman latrines, a set of public latrines is identified from the dense layout of drains near the entrance.

It’s like the andron above: the drains along the walls show where the toilet seats would’ve gone
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From above, you can really only get a glimpse of walls and a distant birds-eye perspective on these houses
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But from below, the perspective shifts to full 3D. You can see the slope that the intricate maze of drains used to harness gravity’s flow
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Check out this elaborate bathroom from one of the houses

The upper pipes flowed in running water from an aqueduct, allowing it to settle in a tank for use. The soiled water flowed down connecting with other drainage pipes from deeper in the house to flow out to the sewer
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The video display at the end gives a sense of discovered artifacts and contexts that can’t be displayed. From all the ceramics to statues and the enormous inside of cistern tanks used to collect rainwater
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But still, as an archaeologist, I’m left awestruck at how we’re left with the trash and the shit pipes of the past with which to piece together our history

I love it!
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I recommend checking out this stunning site

I know this thread sounds silly, but the site is beautifully restored, and the engineering marvels of these substructures are clear to all.

I heard tourists in 4 or 5 languages discussing drainage!

That’s a win for archaeology
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Thanks for reading!

For more threads on all sorts of archaeological topics, check out my thread of threads below https://twitter.com/FlintDibble/status/1115585805597270017