The Kerameikos, i.e. the Potter’s Quarter, is located on the northwest fringes of the city and was one of the largest districts of ancient Athens. This was once the center for the Athenian pottery industry ... the famous Attic Vases were made here but now it is a cemetery. The earliest tombs date from the Bronze Age of the Sub-Mycenaean Period, i.e. 1100-1000 BCE and the cemetery was used continuously until the sixth century CE.
Modern excavation of the cemetery began in 1863 and has continued to this day ... when I visited the Kerameikos in September 2006, there were archeologists digging carefully through the ruins. The exposed ground of the Kerameikos that we see today is essentially at the same level as it was in ancient times.
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