Polis Sites and Sightlines: Using Digital Techniques to Trace the Experience of the Built Environment of Hellenistic Athens

Abstract

Utilizing unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) photography and photogrammetry, this project created a digital elevation model of the Agora and Acropolis of Athens in order to understand the evolution of the city’s built environment in the Hellenistic and early Roman period (ca. 300 BCE–50 CE). Populated with 3D block models, the digital elevation model enabled advanced viewshed analyses that clarify which monuments were visible to—and interacted with—one another. This article demonstrates the capabilities and analytical potential of such modeling by examining the monuments dedicated to and by the Attalid dynasty of Pergamon and how these constructions affected the experience of the city’s built environment.