After 1100 BC, the area of the Agora continues to be inhabited. Some graves from the Sub-Mycenaean period have been excavated, but the finds yielded are scarce. This phase is generally characterised by a deterioration of the standard of living and an acute decline in population size.The burials, however, are rather fine: these are pits, which were tilled with slates on the inside and covered with irregular stones. The funerary gifts comprised of one or two pots, placed close to the deceased person’s feet. During this period we have the early stages of the Kerameikos cemetery, which will substitute the Agora as a burial ground, though individual burials do not cease before approx. 700 BC. Indicative of the peaceful life led by the Athenians of this period is the general absence of weapons from the burials, already from the beginning of and throughout the 8th century.
During the Protogeometric and the Geometric Periods (1100-700 BC), the Agora area is systematically inhabited for the first time. The burials from the two periods are not many (80 in total). New funerary customs are observed: the internment of the dead is discontinued between approx. 1100 and 800 BC, and cremation is being used instead. From 800 to approx. 700, the custom of inhumation returns and the two practices coexist.
The last phase of the Geometric Period (760-700) marks a golden age: the population increases, habitation becomes more extended in Attica, while the use of writing is fairly widespread.
Two clusters of graves are demarcated by a surrounding wall and have been interpreted as family cemeteries. The first one is located at the foot of the Agoraios Kolonos hill. It encompasses 22 burials in total, 20 out of which are dated to between the mid-8th and the early 7th cent. On the three sides of the precinct there is a wall of sturdy stones, while its fourth side is barred up by the natural rock. An irregularly shaped space is thus created, measuring 6 Χ 17.5 m. The second precinct lies on the western slope of the Areios Pagos; it included 22 internments, 22 cremations and two children’s burials, while there are also three graves the burial practice used in which could not be clarified by the excavation. These burials are slightly later than the ones in the previous precinct, beginning in the late 8th and continuing until the end of the 6th cent. The enclosure demarcated an area of 16 Χ 36 m in the shape of an irregular parallelogram.
At the same time, numerous pottery and bronze working workshops are established in the area of the Agora.
The pottery workshops lend their name to the Agora area and the wider locality in which it belongs (Kerameikos). Finally, there is evidence for the existence of residences, as testified by the abundant wells that have been excavated and contained Geometric pottery (35 wells in total containing material from the Protogeometric and Geometric Periods). The number of the wells suggests that habitation must have been relatively dense, but the remains of these residences under the monuments of later periods are so insubstantial that we are hardly capable of making out even their general layout.
