p>The following two centuries (7th and 6th centuries BC) were defining for Athens. During this time, the structures of the city-state take shape, social relationships are transformed, rapid economic and cultural development begins, and democracy is born. The Acropolis, the city’s official religious centre, acquires monumental temples and is flooded with great dedications.

This prime is not, however, reflected in the excavation area. The streets, of course, are still in use, while four new wells are opened -with one being next to a possible workshop- and some buildings are constructed, as indicated by the concealment of a vessel containing iron objects under the earthen floor of a room. But, even so, the absence of evidence of a coherent urban plan, as well as the three burials of the period, suggest that this site is still on the city’s outskirts, perhaps at the base of the fortifications surrounding a small area around the Acropolis, that were destroyed by the Persians in 480 BC.

Many of the artefacts exhibited here are covered with plain black paint. Nonetheless those bearing figurative scenes reveal that vase-painting draws unlimited inspiration that will affect it for centuries initially from mythology and afterwards from daily life.