Mar 2, 5:18 PM EST
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Ruins in Athens May Be an Ancient Market*

ATHENS, Greece (AP) -- Archaeologists have discovered extensive remains
of what is believed to be an ancient marketplace with shops and a
religious center at the southern edge of Athens, the Culture Ministry
said Friday. The finds, in the coastal neighborhood of Voula, date from
the 4th or 5th century B.C.

"It is a very large complex," the ministry said. "It was a site of rich
financial and religious activity, which was most probably a marketplace."

Marketplaces - or agoras - teemed with shops, open-air stalls and
administrative buildings, and were the financial, political and social
center of ancient Greek life.

Archaeologists believe the complex belonged to the municipality of
Aexonides Halai, among the largest settlements surrounding ancient Athens.

The main building was a hollow square with a rock-cut reservoir in the
center. The building had 12 rooms - probably shops - and a small temple
with an open-air altar.

Finds included large quantities of pottery, coins and lead weights that
would have been used in transactions by traders.

Last month, archaeologists discovered an ancient theater in the
northwestern Athens suburb of Menidi.