The Agora of Halai Aixonides
Ruins near Athens may be an ancient market
Archaeologists have discovered extensive remains of what is believed to be an ancient marketplace with shops and a religious center at the southern edge of Athens, the Culture Ministry said Friday. The finds, in the coastal neighborhood of Voula, date from the 4th or 5th century B.C.
“It is a very large complex,” the ministry said. “It was a site of rich financial and religious activity, which was most probably a marketplace.”
Marketplaces — or agoras — teemed with shops, open-air stalls and administrative buildings, and were the financial, political and social center of ancient Greek life. Archaeologists believe the complex belonged to the municipality of Aexonides Halai, among the largest settlements surrounding ancient Athens. The main building was a hollow square with a rock-cut reservoir in the center. The building had 12 rooms — probably shops — and a small temple with an open-air altar. Finds included large quantities of pottery, coins and lead weights that would have been used in transactions by traders.
During classical times the area was the deme of Aixonides Halai (Greek: Αιξωνίδες Αλαί), i.e. the Saltfields of Aixone (modern day Glyfada), a fairly obscure place, otherwise known only from a play by Menander and a few inscriptions.
As far as the coin goes, it is a spectacular find. But Yahoo News captioned the coin obscurely, noting that the photo of it was released by the Greek government on March 2, 2007. It might merely be an impressive ancient Greek coin, representative of the finds at Halai Aexonides (a name with at least four variations in English, all used here). It looks like Apollo on the coin to me.
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