Solving the Mystery of the Acropolis’s Vanished Temple

Credit: George E. Koronaios / CC-BY-SA-4.0 / Wikimedia Commons

A caller work successful the American Journal of Archaeology tells a humanities detective communicative of a mislaid temple connected Athens’ Acropolis. It each began with the find of past graffiti.

By Janric van Rookhuijzen

The past graffiti was recovered connected a marble stone outcrop astatine Vari, 20km southeast of Athens. It is portion of a larger radical of much than 2,000 graffiti made by shepherds and goatherds, discovered and studied by Merle Langdon successful caller years. They diagnostic substance arsenic good arsenic drawings that see ships, horses, and erotic scenes. They each day to the sixth period BC.

The recently discovered enactment is simply a unsmooth rock-cut drafting of a building. Though the details of the drafting are not afloat understood, it tin beryllium identified arsenic a temple owed to the columns and steps.

The past graffiti points to the mislaid temple connected the Acropolis. Credit: Janric van Rookhuijzen/ American Journal of Archaeology

Snaking astir the gathering determination is simply a Greek inscription speechmaking To Hekatompedon … Mikonos (The 100-foot gathering … of Mikon). Mikon is not different known, but helium was astir apt a shepherd who made the graffito portion grazing his flocks. The mentation of the Greek alphabet utilized is precise ancient, making it wide that the drafting was made arsenic aboriginal arsenic the 6th period BCE.

Of large archaeological value is the inscription’s connection Hekatompedon, a Greek sanction meaning “100-footer”, referring to a operation of tremendous size. The word is known to beryllium the authoritative past sanction of the celebrated temple dedicated to the Greek goddess Athena – aboriginal known arsenic the Parthenon.

It is apt that Mikon wanted to picture a gathering connected the Acropolis of Athens. However, due to the fact that the alphabet helium utilized tin beryllium firmly dated to the 6th period BCE, the drafting indispensable beryllium astatine slightest 50 years older than the Parthenon, which was begun astir 450 BCE.

The mislaid Greek temple connected the Acropolis

The Parthenon whitethorn beryllium a precise past temple, but it was not the first. It has agelong been thought that adjacent older temples formerly stood connected the Acropolis – though archaeologists person fiercely debated their dates, appearance, and nonstop locations connected the hill. There is besides a humanities calamity that impedes our understanding: successful 480 BCE, during the Greek-Persian wars, a Persian service arrived successful Athens and destroyed each the buildings that past stood connected the Acropolis.

In fact, the Acropolis Museum successful Athens is location to ample breached sculptures portraying scenes of Greek myth, arsenic good arsenic bulls being devoured by lions. They were erstwhile portion of temple decorations but were severely damaged, possibly successful the Persian onslaught of 480 BCE, if not before. Could 1 of the mislaid temples beryllium the Hekatompedon drawn by Mikon?

A temple for storing treasure

A important portion of the puzzle is an Ancient Greek antiauthoritarian decree dating from the clip earlier the Persian onslaught and the gathering of the Parthenon. This decree besides mentions a Hekatompedon connected the Acropolis, which was utilized for the somewhat ambiguous intent of “treasure storage”. The decree has been known for a agelong time, but archaeologists had debated what the Hekatompedon mentioned successful it could person been.

Some deliberation the Hekatompedon mentioned successful the decree was a temple, arsenic Greek temples usually served arsenic the retention of treasures offered to the gods. But galore others reason that the connection Hekatompedon cannot notation to a temple astatine all, and indispensable person been an unfastened courtyard connected the Acropolis.

The recently published graffito of Mikon’s drafting is significant. If Mikon called his drawn temple a Hekatompedon, past it is apt that the word Hekatompedon successful the decree referred to a temple too. Indeed, the Parthenon that stands connected the elevation contiguous was erstwhile called the Hekatompedon.

Even though the Hekatompedon drawn by Mikon has disappeared, it is apt that immoderate of the temple sculptures successful the depository beryllium to it, arsenic it erstwhile stood connected the tract wherever the Parthenon stands today.

Graffiti shows shepherds’ literacy

The inscription is besides important due to the fact that it shows that, contrary to what is usually thought, shepherds could work and write, adjacent astatine this aboriginal day erstwhile literacy successful the Greek satellite was inactive spreading. Why the shepherds produced truthful galore graffiti is not known – it whitethorn person simply been a signifier of escapism during the dull moments of their job.

However, the graffiti made by Mikon shows however a tiny scribble whitethorn beryllium the cardinal to tackling the humanities riddles down 1 the world’s astir iconic archaeological sites.

Janric van Rookhuijzen is simply a Classical Archaeologist and Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Radboud University

The nonfiction was published successful The Conversation and is republished nether a Creative Commons license.