From the Trojan War to the sack of Rome, from the fall of Constantinople to the bombings of World War II and the recent devastation of Syrian towns, the destruction of cities and the slaughter of civilian populations are among the most dramatic events in world history. But how reliable are literary sources for these events? Did ancient authors exaggerate the scale of destruction to create sensational narratives? This volume reassesses the impact of physical destruction on ancient Greek cities and its demographic and economic implications. Addressing methodological issues of interpreting the archaeological evidence for destructions, the volume examines the evidence for the destruction, survival, and recovery of Greek cities. The studies, written by an international group of specialists in archaeology, ancient history, and numismatic, range from Sicily to Asia Minor and Aegean Thrace, and include Athens, Corinth, and Eretria. They highlight the resilience of ancient populations and the recovery of cities in the long term.

The numerous rescue excavations conducted in Athens and Attica by the Archaeological Service during and after the major construction projects of the 2004 Olympic Games brought to light significant new prehistoric finds which have transformed our understanding of the region in prehistory. However, despite their importance, the new discoveries had remained mostly unnoticed by the international community, as the results were scattered in various publications, and no synthesis was ever attempted. The goal of the 2015 international conference Athens and Attica in Prehistory, which was organized by the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, the University of Athens (Department of Archaeology and History of Art), the Museum of Cycladic Art and the Ephorate of Antiquites of East Attica (Hellenic Ministry of Culture) was to gather scholars working in the region and present for the first time a survey of Attic prehistory which would include the most recent discoveries and integrate over a century of scholarship. The 668- page conference proceedings include over 66 papers in Greek and English with sections dedicated to topography, the palaeo-environment, the Neolithic, the Chalcolithic transition, the Early Bronze Age, the Middle and Late Bronze Age, as well as the contacts between Attica and its neighbouring regions. A series of new detailed maps, derived from an exhaustive GIS-related database, provide the most up to date topographical and archaeological survey of Prehistoric Attica. Athens and Attica in Prehistory provides the most complete overview of the region from the Neolithic to the end of the Late Bronze Age. Its importance goes beyond the field of Aegean prehistory, as it paves the way for a new understanding of Attica in the Early Iron Age and indirectly throws new light on the origins of what will later become the polis of the Athenians.