The Restoration of the Acropolis

Welcome back! First off I want to apologize for my first post to anyone who’s actually gotten to read it. I published a post on the restoration of the Queen Anne’s revenge, only to find out the next day that some information included was incredibly inaccurate. I have fixed those mistakes, but I’ve been too lazy to repost the article. It will be up soon. I am deeply sorry for this, and I will keep note to pay better attention to detail in this next post.

Disclaimer: I’m not an actual Archeologist, just an interested hobbyist.

Today, I will be talking about the the history of the Acropolis in Athens, and the current restoration that has been underway for the past few decades.

The Acropolis in Athens. Its most notable structure is the Parthenon.

The word Acropolis comes from the Greek word Akron meaning “edge” and the word Polis meaning “city”. There are many Acropolises around the world, but the most notable of all is the one in Athens, Greece. Upon the Parthenon and a number of other ancient greek structures now rest.

The majority of structures on the Acropolis are temples dedicated to various gods of ancient greek mythology. The Parthenon, the greatest of them all, was dedicated to the Greek goddess of war and wisdom, Athena. The first temples were erected in the 4th Century B.C., and the Parthenon itself was constructed over the period of roughly 10 years (447 B.C. to 438 B.C.) although earlier versions of a temple to Athena existed in its spot before. The Acropolis is primarily constructed of limestone and marble from the surrounding mountains. From the time of its completion, the entire Acropolis had been sacked, burned, blown up, and eventually reconstructed  multiple times over. The most notable damage-inducing event in history was during the 1687 Siege of Athens by the Venetians, as part of the Morean War. The Parthenon was being used to store gun powder, and as fate would have it, it was struck by a cannonball.

A re-imaging of the Acropolis as it would have been in its glory days.

Aerial shot of the Acropolis today

 

The acropolis visualized in its former state – and intended post restoration look.

In 1975, reconstruction efforts began to fully restore the Acropolis and its artifacts (which now reside in the Acropolis Museum in Athens). Supported by the Greek State and the European Union, efforts have been underway to stabilize, conserve, and prolong the life of the Acropolis and the Parthenon. Two organizations exist within the Greek Ministry of culture that help coordinate, direct, and study the renovation program. They are the Committee for Conservation of the Acropolis Monuments (ESMA [the acronym stands for its greek name]) and the Acropolis Restoration Service (YSMA).

The program aims to restore damage caused to the Acropolis by three different means: Mechanical damage, caused by earthquakes, explosions, fires, and freezing; Chemical damage, a result of acid rain and air pollution which has eroded the marble; and Biological damage, caused by plant roots, molds, and bird dropping etc.

Restoration has included attempts to restore pieces of the buildings spread around the Acropolis and piece them back together -using new materials from the surrounding mountains as sparingly as possible.

Here’s a video showing some of the reconstruction being done and discussed by the program director

The Parthenon has undergone some of the most reconstruction and preservation efforts. Damage from the 1981 earthquake was cause for major renovations of the east-side pillars. Many of which have since been either partially or fully restored. Other parts of the temple like the Pronaos, Opistanaos, and the North Colonnade have required almost complete dismantling in order to replace certain ground work and to restore more pillars.

The restoration of the Parthenon, as it can be seen today

The restoration of the Temple of Athena Nike has been completed since 2010. Renovations included completely dismantling the original structure, reworking and replacing the ground work, reshaping and restoring the marble, moving original pieces to the Acropolis museum, and resetting it all in place.

The Erechtheion was one of the first structures to be completely restored. Between 1979 and 1987, interventions were made to previous attempts at restoration. The work began by removing the caryatids to the Acropolis museum, and then dismantling over 720 pieces of the structure. Old iron fittings used in previous restorations that were not starting to rust were replaced with Titanium ones. Along with these efforts, pieces of the structure that were set in the wrong position were corrected to its original state of antiquity.

The Circuit Wall – the wall of limestone that surrounds the Acropolis also has undergone major repairs. Along with basic repairs to cracks and erosion damage, main efforts are devoted to monitoring the stress levels of the walls with special fiber optic cables and 3D graphic rendering and monitoring software.

It is easy to see how technology has devoted such a role in the restoration of such a historically and archeologically significant site. In this video, we can see how the curators at the Acropolis Museum use lasers to restore the caryatids.

 

 

It just amazes me how intimate a connection we can make between the technologies of the past and the technologies of the future.

There could be no argument against these renovations in the academic world. Possessing the technological capability to accurately restore these priceless wonders of the world and carrying it out without reservation is part of our contribution to civilization. The greeks built these structures to serve their gods, but today they represent culture, civilization, and the great feats of mankind. And our efforts to keep those symbols around for future generations is just as valuable a contribution.

 

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4 Responses to The Restoration of the Acropolis

  1. Brad Morabito says:

    I am interested to know, what are the arguments made by those who oppose restoration? Is there even such a movement? I certainly would prefer to see such historical architecture brought back to its original glory, but I am by no means informed on the issues surrounding the matter.

  2. Nathan Larkin says:

    First, I would like to compliment you on the aesthetics of your blog. Very pleasing. I had not realized that such reconstruction efforts were underway to restore ancient buildings to their prime state. I had always operated under the impression that ancient ruins were, well, just that, ruins, and that they were to be left that way. Now I see that it is our duty to make our contribution to the ancient culture of the Greeks, a culture which, in so many ways, has contributed to our modern culture. This sense of duty to preserve ancient cultural artifacts has actually recently been portrayed in film; The Monuments Men is in theaters now. It is the true story of an army brigade in World War II tasked with obtaining, for the purpose of preservation, art that had been stolen by Nazi forces.

  3. Jordan Klavans says:

    The second video that you posted highlighting the restoration of the caryatids is really fascinating. I didn’t even know that that kind of technology existed. While it’s amazing what we can do today, I wonder how Greeks feel about the various restoration projects. Should we be retouching and rebuilding these pieces of architectural art? Or, should we let history and time take their courses? I’d imagine that tourism is somewhat limited during periods of heavy reconstruction. Given the state of the floundering Greek economy, would some citizens be happy with spending money on these projects? I’m sure that some Greeks would argue that the exorbitant amounts of money being spent on restoring the Acropolis could be better used on saving the country from financial turmoil.

  4. Kamryn Troyer says:

    I completely agree with you that it is our duty to preserve such incredible ancient artifacts! Many would argue that the reconstruction process is not worth the time, effort, or money, but to allow something that was once so sacred crumble before our eyes would be plain stupidity. It is a way for history to be understood in the most accurate sense, and the value in that overwhelms any financial disputes among those who are unappreciative.

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