the athenian agora

By: Jelle Zeilinga de Boer and John R. Hale

According to Strabo and other sources, the Pythia who gave prophecies on behalf of Apollo was inspired by mysterious vapors. Is there evidence that intoxicating gases actually drifted through the Temple of Apollo at Delphi?

By: Theodore Feder

A wall painting found in the House of the Physician in Pompeii contains the earliest known depiction of a Biblical scene. Two onlookers in the crowd appear to be the Greek philosophers Socrates and Aristotle, according to author Theodore Feder. What do the onlookers reveal about the place of Biblical culture in the Greco-Roman world?

By: J. Harold Ellens

Ptolemy’s grandest project, begun in 306 B.C.E., was the Library of Alexandria, a research center that held one million books by the time of Jesus.

By: Harrison Eiteljorg, II

The rebuilding of the Acropolis in the fifth century B.C.E. was the inspiration of the leader Pericles (c. 495–429 B.C.E.), who appointed the sculptor Phidias to supervise the entire project.

By: Abby VanderHart

Virtual Reality technology has been helping tourists understand ancient sites by allowing them to view a simulated 3D environment through a headset.

By: Tim Whitmarsh

In this blog post, Tim Whitmarsh explores the evidence for the location of the Garden of Epicurus in Athens, arguing that its physical position was an expression of Epicureans’ “atheistic” views about death.

By: Biblical Archaeology Society Staff

On May 22, 2016, Dr. Diane Cline of the George Washington University will deliver the lecture “Six Degrees of Pericles: Social Networks in Classical Athens” in the Washington, D.C. area.

By: Noah Wiener

The seats of Messene’s grand theater in the south-western Peloponnese have remained empty since 300 C.E. After 20 years of excavation and restoration, the theater will be reopened—as both an archaeological site and a contemporary cultural institution.

By: Noah Wiener

The Stoa Poikile, or Painted Portico, was one of the major structures in Athens’ Classical Agora, the center of political and public life. In the early third century B.C.E., philosopher Zeno of Citium, the founder of Stoic philosophy, used the Stoa Poikile to teach his students. Centuries later, the philosophy came to life again in New Testament letters.

By: Noah Wiener

Last week, excavations for the construction of a new subway system in Thessaloniki uncovered a 2300-year-old golden olive branch wreath in a Macedonian cist tomb.