East Building (Athenian Agora)

The East Building was a rectangular structure at the south end of the Agora in ancient Athens.

It was built in the mid-second century BC as the east side and main entrance to an enclosed complex called the South Square, which may have served as a commercial area or as lawcourts.

The structure was damaged in the Sullan Sack of 86 BC and used for industrial purposes until the early second century AD when it was rebuilt.

[1] In the late Hellenistic period it formed the east side and main entrance of a long rectangular courtyard, known as the South Square, which was built in stages in the mid-second century BC.

The west side was closed off by the pre-existing Aiakeion and Southwest Fountain House, which also set the orientation for the rest of the complex.

The northern end of the East Building was separated from the Middle Stoa by a narrow gutter.

The middle room contained a stairway leading down from the eastern hall to the level of the South Square.

[10][11] Before excavation of the East Buildings, Wilhelm Dörpfeld suggested that the area was the site of the Gymnasium of Ptolemy, which the second-century AD writer Pausanias states was "near the Agora".

[16] Immediately after the excavation of the East Building in 1952, Thompson believed that the South Square served as a designated area for commerce, but provided no reasoning for this interpretation.

Grace suggested that the marble bedding blocks in the East Building could have been used for the tables of merchants or bankers.

[20] The 1962 edition of the Agora site guide proposed that the South Square had been used as court buildings.

[21] The East Building was demolished along with South Stoa II some time before the first century AD, probably because it had been damaged during the Sullan Sack of Athens in 86 BC.

Marble dust from the sawing was washed off to the west, where it formed a 0.75 metre thick layer of sludge in the ruins of the eastern end of South Stoa II.

[24] The remains of the East Building were uncovered during the American School of Classical Studies' excavations of the Agora.

[26] At that time, the structure was referred to as the East Stoa,[1] but the name was changed since subsequent analysis showed that the foundations could not have supported colonnades.