ABSTRACT
ATHENS Like Mycenae, late Bronze Age Athens centres on a heavily fortified citadel.1
It was similar in size, and chosen because with steep sides to north, east and south it was easily defendable, the only feasible approach being from the west. It was a good position for a centre of population, since the rock itself was the source of quite copious springs, particularly on its north side. At the foot of the slopes there began a good, extensive area of excellent agricultural land, difficult to visualise now that it is submerged under concrete and tarmac as far as the eye can see, but once supporting extensive olive groves, which can still be seen in photographs taken in the nineteenth century, before the modern redevelopment of the Greek capital.
