The workshops of Classical Athens were normally in one of the rooms or the yard of the craftsman's house. There are however instances of purpose-built workshops to house craftsmen contracted for a particular job - for example, the sculptors working on the pediments of the Parthenon. Excavations in various parts of Athens have turned up leftover building materials and portable objects which suggest that there were workshops there. The types of workshops represented are those of potters, sculptors, specialists in terracotta, metalworkers, blacksmiths, and cobblers.
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Pottery workshops were usually on the edge of residential areas: the craftsmen had to work close to source of raw materials, and besides, a water supply was a basic criterion when choosing a location for the workshop. Remains of potters' quarters at Athens have been found between the Dipylon Gate and the Sacred Gate, in front of the walls of the Classical city in the neighbourhood known as Kerameikos (see Aristophanes, Birds 395 and Thucydides 6.57,1-3)and also at Kolonos-in-the-Agora, Melite, and Kollytos. Even though the potters were not the only craftsmen working there, the area was nevertheless referred to as 'Kerameikos', which is indicative of the strength of the potting tradition of the area. The two things that drew the potters to the site were firstly the plentiful water supply from the Eridanos brook and the fact that clay was ready to hand. |
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The metalsmiths' workshops were clustered around the Agora, as we can tell from the group of foundry pits for bronze statues discovered there. Excavations have also revealed openings in the bare rock where statue moulds were placed. It is most probable that bronze statues were made in the outlying workshops on the slopes of Kolonos Hill. Remains of fourth-century bronze founding workshops have been found to the north and south-west of the Temple of Hephaistos. A bronzefounding pit on the west side of the area in front of the temple is thought to have been the one used to cast the bronze statues of Hephaistos and Athena that stood inside the temple.
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The workshops of the coroplasts were on the north and west slopes of Areopagos hill, from the fourth century B.C. through to the Hellenistic period. Clay moulds (for making statuettes and relief slabs) found in abandoned dumps and domestic water tanks show that terracottas were made in this area. |
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The ruins of a building known as Simon [450-410 B.C.] the Shoemaker's House was found at the south-west corner of the Agora. Although the building was inhabited for two centuries, very little of it survives. The best preserved part is a courtyard on the north-east side. Objects found there included potsherds, clay lamps, and coins - and also a number of little flat headed iron tacks and small bone rings. These are thought to be attachments for leather boots. Another strong indication that the house was a cobbler's workshop is a worn-down stone that must have been used by the craftsman to sharpen his knife on. The name 'Simon' was written in capital letters on the foot of a kylix from the third quarter of the fifth century B.C. that was found on site, which leads us to the conclusion that the owner of the workshop was called Simon. This tallies with references by Plutarch and Diogenes Laertius to a cobbler called Simon: both Pericles and Socrates found him 'an entertaining person'. |
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Between the Hill of the Nymphs and Areopagos hill, fifth and fourth century houses have been identified as workshops of sculptors in marble. There was a family of sculptors in the 'House of Mikion', for example, from 475 B.C. to the end of the fifth century, when the family went out of business. The head craftsman was very probably Mikion himself: he had carved his name on a bone tool that was found when the house was excavated. The last of the generation was perhaps Menon whose name appears on some late-fourth century pots. In general, the finds which have helped us identify various houses as workshops of marble sculptors have been marble chips and whetstones used when the marble was given its final polish. |
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The blacksmiths apparently settled north of the Temple of Hephaistos - where large quantities of scoria were found - and to the north of Kolonos-in-the-Agora.
While industrial activity in Classical Athens was concentrated in the area around the Temple of Hephaistos, there were a large number of workshops between the Hill of the Nymphs and Areopagus hill. The presence of craftsmen in this area, especially of those working in metal, is linked with the worship of Hephaistos, god of metals and metalwork.
Some scholars have claimed that during the boom years for craftsmen in Attica, the businesses established were usually specialist ones. But judging by both the archaeological and literary evidence, most of the businesses were small family concerns employing from five to eight workers, with the craft being passed on from father to son. It could be argued that bigger teams may have been formed depending on the volume of orders and the needs of the consumer. But normally, the permanent work force of the workshop was the craftsman, his family, and the slaves. Further craftsmen could be called in if necessary, and were paid individually.
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