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• Vrysaki: A Neighborhood Lost in Search of the Athenian Agora by Sylvie Dumont
• Fotini Kondyli (bio)

Between 1931 and 1939, more than 348 houses were demolished, and 5,000 people were evacuated from the neighborhood of Vrysaki to create an archaeological zone that would feature Athens’ ancient Agora. In her book Vrysaki: A Neighborhood Lost in Search of the Athenian Agora, Sylvie Dumont seeks to reconstruct this lost neighborhood, following its various stages of transformation from a residential area to a world-renowned archaeological site. Inspired by the interest of people whose families had lived there and their desire to reconnect with their families’ past, Dumont writes about Vrysaki’s residents and explores their life experiences and places of work, socialization, and worship.

As Dumont establishes early on, the idea of an archaeological site in the Agora coincided with the foundation of the Greek state and the search for a Greek identity in line with European political and intellectual desires. The political and economic conditions of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries hindered the realization of this idea until the beginning of the excavations by the American School of Classical Studies at Athens (ASCSA) in 1931. Dumont focuses on the complex and lengthy negotiations involved in such an undertaking, examining such issues as property expropriations, how the limits of the excavations were defined, and the interactions between the Greek government, ASCSA, and the excavations’ patrons. The author is equally attentive to the reception of these negotiations, presenting petitions and court proceedings to highlight some of the residents’ severe financial difficulties and their opposition to the proposed compensations. Emphasis is also placed on the way in which these negotiations were presented in the public sphere and used as political means to criticize the government.

As the Agora excavations’ secretary and registrar, Dumont is both the steward of the excavations’ archives as well as their interpreter, and she focuses on the detailed records of the expropriated and demolished properties at Vrysaki. With great clarity and insightfulness, she presents excavation notes, photos, letters, drawings, and architectural plans and offers a stark visual testimony of the changes that took place in that part of Athens, altering people’s experiences in ways both small and large. Her extensive use of the excavation’s black-and-white photographs make for a stunning book, with many photos published here for the first time even though they can now also be found in the Agora’s [End Page 234] online catalog (ASCSA 2020). Dumont must thus be commended for making this archival material widely available and for producing a beautifully illustrated book that addresses a wide range of people who connect and interact with the city of Athens.

The book is divided into two distinct sections. In the first part (Chapters 2–7), Dumont provides a historical context for the negotiations surrounding the expropriations and details the steps that led to the Agora excavations. The second part (Chapters 8–15) is a thorough presentation of the neighborhood’s social, economic, and architectural makeup, as well as of its gradual transformation into an archaeological site.

In Chapter 2, Dumont makes great use of late nineteenth and early twentieth century maps of the city in an effort to define the neighborhood’s geographic boundaries and discover the origins of its name. Chapter 3 discusses the role of antiquities and Athens’ classical past in the city’s redesign and bid to become the modern Greek state’s capital. Here Dumont contrasts the consistency of a plan for an archaeological zone in the Agora with the numerous and frequently changed ideas about the city’s development. In Chapter 4, the author highlights some key steps that facilitated the later excavations, including the founding of the Archaeological Society at Athens (Αρχαιολογική Εταιρεία) and the establishment of the foreign archaeological schools, as well as the gradual discovery of monuments and their reintroduction into the urban fabric.

Chapters 5, 6, and 7 explore the complexity of the...

审核人：

• Vrysaki：西尔维·杜蒙（Sylvie Dumont）寻找雅典集市的邻里失落
• Fotini Kondyli（生物）

从1931年到1939年，超过348栋房屋被拆除，从Vrysaki附近疏散了5,000人，建立了一个以雅典的古代集市为特色的考古区。西尔维·杜蒙（Sylvie Dumont）在她的著作《弗里萨基：寻找雅典集市的邻里失落》中，尝试了从住宅区到享誉世界的考古遗址转变的各个阶段，重建这个失落的邻域。受到家人居住在那里的人们的兴趣以及他们渴望与家人的过去重新建立联系的启发，Dumont撰写了有关Vrysaki居民的文章，并探讨了他们的生活经历和工作地点，工作地点，社交和崇拜。

随着杜蒙（Dumont）的早期建立，在集市上建立考古遗址的想法与希腊国家的建立以及寻求符合欧洲政治和知识欲望的希腊身份相吻合。直到1931年雅典雅典美国经典研究学院（ASCSA）进行挖掘工作之前，十九世纪末期和二十世纪初的政治和经济状况都阻碍了这一想法的实现。杜蒙特（Dumont）着眼于参与其中的复杂而漫长的谈判这项工作，研究诸如财产征收，挖掘界限的定义以及希腊政府，ASCSA与挖掘赞助人之间的相互作用等问题。作者同样注意接受这些谈判，提出请愿书和法院诉讼程序，以突出一些居民的严重经济困难以及他们对拟议赔偿的反对。还强调在公共领域进行这些谈判的方式，并将其用作批评政府的政治手段。

作为Agora发掘的秘书和注册服务商，Dumont既是发掘档案的管家，也是他们的翻译，而且她专注于Vrysaki被没收和被拆毁财产的详细记录。她非常清晰和有见地，提供了发掘笔记，照片，信件，图纸和建筑平面图，并对雅典那部分发生的变化提供了鲜明的视觉见证，从而以各种方式改变了人们的体验。她大量使用了挖掘的黑白照片，这本书令人赞叹不已，尽管在Agora的[End Page 234]中也可以找到很多照片，但该照片还是第一次在此发布。在线目录（ASCSA 2020）。因此，必须赞扬杜蒙（Dumont）广泛使用这种档案材料，并制作精美的插图书籍，以解决与雅典市联系和互动的广泛人群的问题。

这本书分为两个不同的部分。在第一部分（第2-7章）中，Dumont为围绕征用进行的谈判提供了历史背景，并详细介绍了导致进行Agora挖掘的步骤。第二部分（第8-15章）详细介绍了邻里的社会，经济和建筑构成，以及其逐步转变为考古遗址的过程。

在第2章中，Dumont充分利用了19世纪末和20世纪初的城市地图，以定义社区的地理边界并发现其名称的由来。第3章讨论了古物和雅典古典历史在重新设计和争取成为现代希腊国家首都时的作用。在这里，杜蒙（Dumont）将集市中考古区规划的一致性与关于城市发展的众多且经常变化的想法进行了对比。在第4章中，作者重点介绍了一些有助于后期发掘的关键步骤，包括在雅典成立考古学会（AρχαιολογικήΕταιρεία）和建立外国考古学派，以及逐步发现古迹并将其重新引入城市结构。

第5、6和7章探讨了...的复杂性