WHOLE CLOTH 175
by Harris (2002a) in his study of the epigraphical and textual evidence for
occupations in Classical Athens.
More puzzling in Athens is the great number of loom weights recovered inthe German excavations of Building Z, in the area beside the Sacred Gate, a
neighborhood identified by the excavators, citing Isaeus (6.20), as a red light
district in the Classical period. The German archaeologists identify the two
earlier phases of Building Z as a large house (Knigge 2005 : 6, 28), although its
plan is rather unlike those of contemporaneous houses elsewhere in Athens. In
phase three, the configuration of the rooms was altered and there is consider-
able evidence for textile work. At least 153 loom weights were found in Bau
Z^3 (Knigge 2005 : 71), with distinct clusters of them appearing in at least eight
rooms. The excavators have recognized certain intriguing objects such as a sil-
ver pendant of Cybele or Astarte as foreign imports, belonging perhaps to the
workers toiling in the building. Knigge identified Building Z as a brothel cum
textile factory in its third phase, explaining that the textile work would have
occupied the prostitutes when they were without customers to service. Loftus
( 1998 : 17) has offered the somewhat less salacious identification of the build-
ing as a commercial textile factory and credits the eastern cultural influences
evident in the finds such as the silver medallion as due to the influx of eastern
textile workers into Athens in the Late Classical period. What is indisputable
here is that cloth production was going on in Building Z beyond the needs of
a single household.
7. 5 Athens, Agora Deposit U 13:1, Select Loom Weights
(Courtesy of Agora excavations, ASCSA).