We propose now to give a survey of the principal localities in which the fictile products of the Greeks have been discovered, and the excavations which have taken place on these sites. It need hardly be said, however, that it is quite impossible to detail all the places where specimens of common pottery have been found. [Illustration: FIG. 5. MAP OF GREECE.] I. GREECE We naturally begin with Greece, following the geographical order observed by Jahn,[81] as the mainland and centre of Hellenic civilisation; and since Athens was not only the principal, for many years the only, centre of the manufacture of Greek vases, but has also been the most prolific source of recent discoveries, it is to Athens that we first turn our attention. =Athens= was duly celebrated in ancient times as the chief home of the ceramic industry.[82] The clay of Cape Kolias is eulogised by Suidas for its excellent qualities, and the extent of the Κεραμεικός, or potters’ quarter, is still visible beyond the Dipylon gate. One of the earliest painted vases found on Attic soil was the famous Panathenaic amphora discovered by Burgon in 1813 outside the Acharnian gate, and now in the British Museum.[83] The tomb in which it was found also contained remains of burnt bones, a lekythos, and other small vases. The subjects are: on one side Athena brandishing a spear, with the inscription [ΤΟΝ] [ΑΘΕΝΕΘΕΝ] [ΑΘΛΟΝ] [ΕΜΙ], “I am a prize from the games at Athens”; on the other, a man driving a _biga_, or two-horse chariot. The date is usually considered to be about 560 B.C. It was rightly identified by the early writers as one of the prize-vases described by Pindar in the passage we have quoted elsewhere (p. 132), and was the means of identifying many other vases similarly painted and inscribed, but found on other sites, as belonging to the same class. A considerable number of vases found on Greek soil, mostly at Athens, were published by Stackelberg in 1837,[84] but little was done for many years in the way of systematic excavation. The National Museum was opened shortly after the declaration of Greek independence, and assisted by royal benefactions. The law forbidding the export of antiquities has now been in force for many years, but unfortunately has had a bad as well as a good effect, in that the vendors of surreptitious finds are wont to give imaginary accounts of the circumstances of their discoveries, in order to screen themselves.