Chapter 2: Notes from Underground. Excavations in the Athenian Agora have revealed the most important site in the classical world for evidence from more than twenty metalworking establishments. All the bronze statues that Pausanias noted after his visit to Athens are gone, but some of the clay molds that were broken up and discarded in casting pits can be identified: a sixth-century-BC kouros, and a standing male wearing Classical drapery, the casting dated by fourth-century-BC pottery buried in the same fill. Processes and materials remained the same over the centuries. To corroborate the evidence from foundries, and to search for clues to wax, the lost ingredient in the lost-wax process, we examine not only the molds but also fragmentary bronze body parts. To judge from lead curse tablets recording adverse reactions to a few Athenian bronze-workers, there was rivalry between workshops. Finally, we investigate a Roman statue recovered in modern times from a riverbed in Syria.