A small, sun-drenched plain with a precipitous rock at its centre, a broad platform at its peak and valuable springs with drinking waters at its foot. The people of the prehistoric era could not have ignored such an advantageous site. And indeed, excavations at the top and the slopes of the Acropolis have revealed traces of settlement dating from the late Neolithic period (ca 3500-3200 BC).This habitation continued over the following periods, the Early Bronze Age (3200/3000-2200/2000 BC) and the Middle Bronze Age (2200/2000-1600 BC). In the second millennium BC the population of Attica was reinforced. A new tribe, the lonians, arrived from the north and merged with the indigenous population, which tradition holds were the Pelasgians. From around the middle of the same millennium a brilliant prehistoric civilisation started to flourish on mainland Greece, the Mycenaean civilisation which took its name from its most important centre, the town of Mycenae. During the Mycenaean period (1600-1100 BC) the inhabitants of the Acropolis lived in groups on the slopes and at the peak of the rock. They worshipped their ancient goddess Athena here, on the top of the Acropolis hill, where the palace of the local king also stood. (...)
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