For the earliest history of Athens we rely on the results of archaeological exploration, supplemented by the myths and legends familiar to the Athenians of later times.
The land of Attica has been inhabited since at least the Upper Paleolithic period (30,000–10,000 B.C.), when humans hunted and gathered their food. Early traces from this time have been found in the Kitsos cave near Laureion and in chance finds elsewhere of early stone tools.
Sometime around 6000 B.C. the Neolithic period began with the introduction of cultivated grains and domesticated animals. These new advances appear in Greece relatively quickly, and it is usually assumed therefore that they were developed elsewhere, presumably in the Middle East, and imported into Greece. The changes allowed for a larger and more settled population.
Evidence of human activity in the Neolithic period has been uncovered at various sites in Attica, particularly in caves. At Oinoe near Marathon, excavation of one such cave produced large amounts of pottery of the Middle Neolithic period (5000–4000). At Nea Makri, at the south end of the plain of Marathon, excavations have revealed part of a settlement of several very modest houses of Middle Neolithic date, along with a stretch of the earliest known street in Attica.
In Athens itself excavation suggests that the shallow caves and overhangs of the Acropolis rock were used primarily in the latest Neolithic period (3000–2800), a time when the use of caves was widespread throughout Greece. The Klepsydra Spring just below the caves on the northwest slope of the Acropolis hill was also exploited
at this time, when twenty-two shallow wells were cut into the soft bedrock.
