Editing Acropolis of Athens (section)

===Early settlement===
The Acropolis is located on a flattish-topped rock that rises {{cvt|150|m|ft}} above sea level in the city of [[Athens]], with a surface area of about {{cvt|3|ha}}. While the earliest artifacts date to the Middle [[Neolithic]] era, there have been documented habitations in [[Attica]] from the Early Neolithic period (6th millennium BC).

There can be little doubt that a [[Mycenaean Greece|Mycenaean]] [[megaron]] palace stood upon the hill during the late [[Aegean civilization|Bronze Age]]. Nothing of this structure survives except, probably, a single limestone column base and pieces of several sandstone steps.<ref name="Castleden">{{cite book |last=Castleden |first=Rodney |date=2005 |title=Mycenaeans |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Kfi0dAlfJaoC&pg=PA64 |publisher=Routledge |pages=64– |isbn=978-1-134-22782-2}}</ref> Soon after the palace was constructed, a [[Cyclopean]] massive circuit wall was built, 760 meters long, up to 10 meters high, and ranging from 3.5 to 6 meters thick. From the end of the [[Helladic chronology|Helladic IIIB]] (1300–1200 BC) on,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Iakovidis |first=Spyros |title=The Mycenaean Acropolis of Athens |publisher=The Archaeological Society at Athens |year=2006 |location=Athens |pages=197–221}}</ref> this wall would serve as the main defense for the acropolis until the 5th century.<ref>Hurwit 2000, pp. 74–75.</ref> The wall consisted of two [[parapet]]s built with large stone blocks and cemented with an earth mortar called ''emplekton'' (Greek: ἔμπλεκτον).<ref>[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3De%29%2Fmplektos ἔμπλεκτος] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210610052406/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3De%29%2Fmplektos|date=2021-06-10}},
Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, ''A Greek-English Lexicon'', on Perseus Digital Library.</ref> The wall uses typical Mycenaean conventions in that it followed the natural contour of the terrain and its gate, which was towards the south, was arranged obliquely, with a parapet and tower overhanging the incomers' right-hand side, thus facilitating defense. There were two lesser approaches up the hill on its north side, consisting of steep, narrow flights of steps cut in the rock. [[Homer]] is assumed to refer to this fortification when he mentions the "strong-built house of [[Erechtheus]]" (''[[Odyssey]]'' 7.81). At some time before the 13th century BC, an earthquake caused a fissure near the northeastern edge of the Acropolis. This fissure extended some 35 meters to a bed of soft marl in which a well was dug.<ref>Hurwit 2000, p. 78.</ref> An elaborate set of stairs was built and the well served as an invaluable, protected source of drinking water during times of siege for some portion of the Mycenaean period.<ref>[http://www.hydriaproject.net/en/cases/athens/acropolis_hill/mycenaean.html "The springs and fountains of the Acropolis hill"] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130728143221/http://www.hydriaproject.net/en/cases/athens/acropolis_hill/mycenaean.html |date=2013-07-28}}, Hydria Project. Retrieved 2 December 2012.</ref>
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