Over the course of the last 15 years numerous sanctuaries have been excavated in Attica. Some of these cult places provide us with additional information on important Athenian state cults, such as the cult of Athena Pallenis, while others offer new information about deme or rural cults. Eleven sanctuaries are presented in this article, along with the quarry that provided the building material for the Sanctuary of Artemis Brauronia. These range from extensive sanctuaries with numerous buildings, to humble open-air shrines with no permanent structures other than a peribolos wall. They mostly date to the Archaic and Classical periods, although some appear to have operated from the Geometric period. Only two of the sanctuaries are Roman. Finds from these cult places attest to the dedication of offerings and/or communal feasting. Unfortunately, it is not possible to identify the deities worshipped at all of the sanctuaries presented.

The deme of Acharnai belonged to the Oineis tribe and was the largest deme in Attica, represented in the boule by 22 bouleutai (Trail 1975: 65; Osborne 1985: 44; Platonos 2013: 137). Acharnai not only had a larger population than the other Attic demes, but it also appears to have extended over a particularly large area: over Neapoli, Agios Athanasios, the centre of modern Menidi, Lathea, Auliza, Pyrgouthi, Agia Anna, Charaugi, Kokkinos Mylos, Agia Soteira, Loutro, part of Gerovouno and possibly northern Lykotrypa (Fig. 125).

Both Maria Platonos (2013: 139; 2004: 31–32) and Danielle Kellogg (2013: 10–26), who have studied this deme in depth, agree that there would have been more than one settlement within its limits. Kellogg (2013: 32–33) also notes that the settlement pattern in most areas would have been scattered: that is, there would have been numerous farmsteads dotted across the landscape. This is a very attractive suggestion, since Acharnai was known for its fertile fields, and it is supported by the archaeological evidence, since numerous Classical walls delimiting properties have been excavated in the broader area of the SKA Rail Centre (ID4852; Platonos 2004: 430).

The ancient deme of Aixone coincides with the area of the modern Athenian suburb of Glyphada. An extensive, comprehensive study on this deme was published in 1990 by Eleni Konsolaki-Giannopoulou. Since then, new excavation data have come to light which support the conclusions of this study and provide us with even greater insights into the life of the deme. Another monograph on Aixone will be published by Delphine Ackermann in 2017, entitled Une microhistoire d’Athènes. Le dème d’Aixônè dans l’Antiquité.

Aixone, along with neighbouring Halai Aixonidai, belonged to the Kekropis tribe. In Classical and Hellenistic times the settlement extended from the west of Pirnari to the east of modern Leoforos Dimarchou Aggelou Metaxa, thus coinciding for the large part with the area of modern Glyphada. The deme centre lay near the Church of Agios Nikolaos, west of modern Vouliagmenis Avenue (Eliot 1962: 21). To the east of the settlement lay the deme's agricultural lands and to the west the port, salt lake and the salt pits.

Numerous archaeological finds have come to light in the Piraeus in the last 15 years. These finds enrich our knowledge of the deme's city planning, domestic architecture, water system, quarries, ports and walls in the Classical, Hellenistic and Roman periods.

Since Klaus-Valtin von Eickstedt's (1991) seminal study on the Hippodamian development of the Piraeus, which was based on excavation data for houses and roads, more evidence has become available. Numerous new domestic complexes have been excavated on the Akte (ID1718, ID4907, ID4908, ID4909, ID4935, ID4981, ID4982, ID4983, ID4984, ID4985; ADelt 56-59 [2001-2004] B1: 441-42) and on the rest of the peninsula (ID4877, ID4910, ID4914, ID4915, ID4932). New roads and sections of roads already included in Höpfner and Schwandner 1994 (fig. 14) have been revealed in several areas (ID1718, ID2438, ID4907, ID4908, ID4909, ID4921, ID4935, ID4937; ADelt 56-59 [2001-2004] B1: 442). Amongst these is the road that ran between the Long Stoa and the walls of the Piraeus (ID4937). Additionally, a horos stone, marking the limits of the Emporion and its adjacent road, was found in Akte Miaouli. The inscription had been built into the wall of a small rubble structure; the date of the structure has not been identified, but it is thought to postdate the Classical period (ID4935).

In his recent book The Ancient Harbours of the Piraeus I.1, Bjorn Lovén notes that archaeological investigation of the Classical naval installations in the Piraeus goes back almost as far as the discipline of archaeology in the modern Greek state (Lovén 2011: 15). This enduring archaeological interest in the Piraeus installations is not some ungrounded fascination, but rests on the importance of these facilities not only for the Piraeus, but for the whole of Classical Athens. The commission of these installations was an integral part of a Classical building programme that saw the construction of triremes and the fortification of the Piraeus peninsula. As Vincent Gabrielsen (2007: 256–57) has shown, the building of warships is not necessarily synonymous with the construction of a navy. The latter implies the centralization of war reserves by the city-state and the provision of infrastructure (naval facilities and walls to protect both these facilities and the ships stationed in them), and it would be essential for the state to maintain and operate these resources. Investigations of the Piraeus shipsheds therefore shed light not only on the size of Athenian triremes, but also on the overall planning and works undertaken by the Athenian state in Classical times, in order to command and sustain a large navy.