Slavery – the evidence of Laurium

Recent excavations at the town of Laurium, once the industrial heart of ancient Athens, have uncovered a complete settlement of houses and streets. Whilst it resembles other ancient Athenian towns, what makes Laurium different is that the living quarters were not occupied by citizens, but by slaves. Among the ruins archaeologists have also identifed the remains of a watchtower, which would have been used to keep 24 hour guard over the slave workforce.

It's a startling fact that the Athenian intellectuals who for the first time were describing the ideals of justice and freedom were also slave owners. One in three Athenians were slaves. Most slaves began life as free men and women, but were forced into slavery after being taken prisoners of war. Athenians were so worried about the development of a separate race of slaves that they were forcefully sterilised to prevent them having children. Professor Paul Cartledge says: "In ancient Greece liberty has an inflection which it doesn't have in our society…there are an awful lot of unfree people, I mean slaves…we mustn’t forget the dark underside of the democratic achievement."

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