An exhibition of movable finds from the excavations conducted prior to the construction of the Athenian Metropolitan Railway was inaugurated on February 29, 2000 at the Museum of Cycladic Art in Athens.
The exhibition is a joint venture of the N.P. Goulandris Foundation - Museum of Cycladic Art and the Greek Ministry of Culture. The Museum of Cycladic Art was hoping to offer to its visitors from Greece and abroad a unique exhibit marking the beginning of the new millennium, an exhibit turning to the past with a view to the future. The excavations undertaken by the State Archaeological Service (3rd and 1st Divisions) over a period of six years on the sites where the Metro Stations and ventilation shafts were to be built, presented such a significant topic. The works unearthed remnants of the long history of the City of Athens, while revealing a multitude of hitherto unknown topographical details. The exhibition presents this new information, and newly excavated material, following the sequence of the new Metro Stations, organised according to subject-matter: public and private life, religion, burial customs. The central theme lies on topography, as the excavations reveal for the first time the underground frame of Ancient Athens, the city beneath the city, which is challenged by the development under way.
The objects in the exhibition were selected on the criteria of their being representative as much of the place of their discovery and their provenance as of their quality, the material of which they are made and, finally, their date. To avoid giving a misleading impression of the excavation finds to the average visitor, the number of exhibits is directly proportionate to the number of finds consistent with the criteria mentioned. In short, we have avoided displaying objects according to their material and kind so as to give prominence to the context of their discovery. In this exhibition, by rule, movable stratified finds do not reflect only their chronological, qualitative and artistic values and their applications; they are exhibited as inseparable from the history of the site where they were discovered. Photographs of excavations, drawings, projections and reconstructions, wall texts with explanatory notes, etc. help the average visitor to a better understanding of the finds.
Bearing in mind the difficulties and the limitations imposed by the internal arrangement of the Stathatos Mansion, two planes of presentation were evolved. On the first are included, on the one hand public and private life, while on the other the cemeteries. On the second, each Station has been presented separately, as a topographically distinct site. The ACROPOLIS, AGIOS IOANNIS, SYNTAGMA, AKADIMIA, EVANGELISMOS and KERAMEIKOS Stations and the PETMEZA, ZAPPEION, HERODOU ATTIKOU, AMERIKIS, ERMOU-ARIONOS, IAKHOU and PALAIOLOGOU ventilation Shafts form separate topographical entities in the exhibition.
To make this distinction even clearer, a different colour scheme was designated to each area, whereas the shape of a case usually denotes the place of origin of its contents. Accordingly, the ochre of the facades recalls the natural hue of Attic bedrock (locally known as the kimilia). The cases with material remains from the private and public life of the ancient Athenians are painted blue, referring to the colour of the horizon and the water. The rectangular cases correspond to architecture (buildings etc.), whereas the semi-cylindrical ones to water wells. On the other hand, the cases referring to the afterlife were painted coral red, corresponding to the underworld. Similarly, two different 'mouldings' decorate the upper part of the cases in the two separate entities within the exhibition, the world of the living and the world of the dead. The former consists of volutes, astragals, and ionic moulding, while the latter is restricted to floral motifs.
Five hundred exhibits made of clay, bronze, marble, glass, ivory, and faience outline the development of human life in Athens from the 17th century BC to the 8th century AD, from the Mycenean to the Byzantine period, through what we know as the Geometric, Archaic, Classical, Hellenistic, and Roman eras. Ancient and modern corners of Athens will be in view, where people lived, traded, debated, fought, worshipped, bore their children and buried their dead over the ages. Works of art, statues in marble and bronze, coarse ware, dinning sets and sacred vessels will be in evidence. Next to them, entire finds will be shown, including the rare tomb of a dog, complete with its glass offerings and dog's collar. History will be also abundantly evident, through finds like the large stone slab listing the dead from three of the battles of the Peloponnesian War, mentioned by Thucydides, or the humble offerings from a communal grave in the Kerameikos, presumably related to the horrific plague that struck Athens twice, in 430/29 and 427/6 B.C. The trivialities of every-day life will not be neglected either - lamps, toys, needles or cosmetic spatulas will be shown, as well as parts of sewerage pipes from different periods.
The exhibition will run until December 2001. It was organised by Dr Liana Parlama (Head of the 3rd Ephorate for Prehistoric and Classical Antiquities, Greek Ministry of Culture) and Professor Nicholas Stampolidis (Director, Museum of Cycladic Art). The architect Bessie Drougga was in charge of design and lighting.

THE CATALOGUE
A detailed, 450-pages strong and fully illustrated catalogue, published by Kapon Editions, accompanies the exhibition according to standard Museum practice. The publication was undertaken by the two Curators of the exhibition, Dr Liana Parlama and Prof. Nicholas Chr. Stampolidis. The entries of the catalogue were contributed by the excavators themselves, 32 members of the staff of the 3rd and 1st Divisions of Antiquities.
The volume includes descriptions and interpretative suggestions for each object in the exhibition. It is fully illustrated with photographs and plates of the objects and selected sites. Architectural plans and drawings complete the documentation in the book. Each section is preceded by introductory chapters, so that the history of the topographical development of Athens may be complete.

Nicholas Chr. Stampolidis
Professor of Classical Archaeology, University of Crete
Director, Museum of Cycladic Art.