Steps Of The Stoa: Archaeologists uncover a cornerstone of democracy

So far, little is visible: a few steps and some foundation stones. But those seemingly insignificant remnants of a long-gone building resonate still and represent the most important such archaeological find to come out of Greece in the last decade. American and Greek scholars are now certain that they have found Athens' famous Painted Stoa—one of the buildings in which democracy was born 2,500 years ago. "There are no doubts in our minds that this is it," said on-site Archaeologist John Camp last week.

Built around 460 B.C., the Painted Stoa—or Stoa Poikile, as it is also called—was the first...