Architectural Office and Drawing Archive

From its inception in 1931 the Agora Excavation team has always included an "architect" who is responsible for recording, interpreting and presenting the finds of an architectural nature that appear during the course of the excavation. This position reflects the highly architectural nature of digging in an extremely complicated urban environment on a site where the underlying ancient remains frequently exhibit an architectural quality and importance that is seldom found elsewhere in the world.

The primary task of the architect is accurately surveying and drawing structural remains as they appear in the excavation to produce a durable three dimensional record of what has been found. The superimposition of many generations of buildings, ancient to modern in as much as eight meters of archaeological context inevitably requires the dismantling of later structures to reveal earlier ones, consequently the drawn architectural record assumes a unique importance as a record of the evolving human built environment of Athens. A remarkably small group of people have shouldered the responsibility of this task since 1931, the giants among them are John Travlos who worked in six decades, and William Bell Dinsmoor, Jr. who recorded from the mid-sixties until his death in 1988.

The most vital and architectural nature of the office is actually secondary to the primary archaeological recording. This aspect is to interpret the sometimes scanty archaeological remains and to attempt to reconstruct in thought, on paper or in reality the structures that once existed on the site. This process gives shape to the urban architectural environment of Athens throughout history and is an integral part in the understanding of the archaeology.

Finally and not less important is the presentation of this information to other archaeologists and to a wider public through books, journals, site and museum displays and now, various electronic media. Dissemination of the knowledge that is derived from the destructive process of archaeological excavation remains as the ultimate and essential goal. Understanding and presenting the architectural material from the excavations in the Athenian Agora is as important a part as any in the study of the creative achievement of Greece and one which continues--but with much work still to do.

Richard C. Anderson,
23 Nov. 1998