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The ancient temple of Athena on the Acropolis.
(Article originally published in 1886 in Communications of the German Imperial Archaeological Institute, Athenian Department vol.XI [Ath.Mitt, XI], pp.337-351.)
A provisional report on the temple found between the Parthenon and the Erechtheion was given to this journal (Ath.Mitt.
X, p. 275), before it was excavated in 1885. Since then, the ephor
general Dr. Kavadias at the expense of the Greek archaeol. Company and
with the cooperation of the architect Kawerau and the undersigned, the
whole temple was excavated and all the foundation walls uncovered down
to the rock. We are, therefore, now in a position to complete those
preliminary communications by an accurate description and detailed
discussion of the whole structure. A ground plan of the temple in its
current state, a site plan showing the restored ground plan and the
position of the temple in relation to the Parthenon and Erechtheion, a
reconstructed elevation and special drawings of the entablature appear
on Plates 1 and 11 of the Antique Monuments1886
As only a short explanatory text could be added to the tablets, we
intend to give the more detailed description and discussion of the
temple in connection with those plans and with the addition of further
drawings in these Mittheilungen.
1. Description of the building.
a)
Floor plan and structure. The site of the castle where the temple is
built was not horizontal by nature, but a rock face sloping from S. 0.
to N-W. It was prepared by heaping up earth to accommodate the temple
(p.338), taking the height of the castle rock at the S. 0. corner of
the temple as the starting point and filling the entire building site
up to this height. To the north and west, the terrace created in this
way had to be supported by lining walls; the same have unfortunately
disappeared without a trace. The foundation walls of the building
itself ran all the way down to the rock and therefore had very
different depths. At the S.E th corner its height = 0, here the
stylobate lies directly on the rock; at the S. W. corner and especially
at the N. E. corner they already have a considerable height, and at the
N. W. corner, where the rock is deepest, they reach the greatest height
of about 3 m. The different depths correspond to the preservation of
the found foundation walls. To the south and east we find the walls
very much in ruins (cf. the ground plan of Ant. Denkm.
taf. I and Supplement A attached to that article) [1], and only small
remains and the working of the rock prove their former existence; in
the north and west the walls in their upper layers have also suffered
multiple damage, but here at least the lower layers are almost
completely preserved because of the great depth.
Fig.1:
View of foundation of the old temple of Athena with the Erechtheion
directly behind, looking south from the Parthenon across the Acropolis (photo by Walter Hege, undated; possibly Nov. 1887 [DAI-ATH-Hege-2269].)
The
remains of the walls found, despite their fairly severe destruction,
are sufficient to determine the direction and dimensions of all the
walls of the temple and thus to restore the ground plan, at least in
the picture. First one clearly recognizes a large wall encircling the
whole temple, 2.10 - 2.25 m wide, which undoubtedly supported the outer
pillars of the temple, although there are no longer any traces of these
pillars. Inside this wall one sees a second, somewhat smaller square,
which is divided into individual sections by several transverse and
longitudinal walls. Of the latter (p.339), the two narrow rooms (B and
G in the plan) located at the eastern and western ends are immediately
recognizable as narrow vestibules (pronaoi). A large, almost square
hall (C in plan, 10.50 m by 10.65 m) adjoins the eastern pronaos, from
which two narrow side rooms are cut off by 2 longitudinal walls: it is
obviously a cella, a naos in the narrower sense, which divided into
three naves by two inner rows of columns. Next to the western vestibule
we also find a somewhat smaller hall (F in plan, 6.20 m by 10.65 m)
without inner rows of columns. Finally, between it and the east cella
there are two more chambers (D and E), the purpose of which is not
immediately clear because, given the lack of upper walls, it seems
uncertain whether they were accessible from the east or from the west.
But if one considers that the antae of the two inner rows of columns of
the east cella stood on its east wall exactly where one would have to
look for the two entrance doors, then there can be no doubt that the
two rooms had their doors in the west wall and so two special chambers
belonging to the western room F formed.
WILH. DÖRPFELD.
1.
The floor plan accompanying this essay contains in some places remains
of walls which are missing in the large plan because they only came to
light after the completion of the latter when Byzantine installations
(cisterns, etc.) were demolished.
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