Marble columns rise 34 feet upward - pristine, lustrous, spare, and bulging. Bulging? Each of the 46 columns surrounding the Parthenon - the pinnacle of architectural perfection in the Western world - have extruding waistlines. The steps leading up to the 23,000-square-foot temple display a decidedly imperfect upward curvature. Close inspection reveals no absolute straight lines on the Parthenon. Shoddy workmanship resulting from a rush-job (the temple was built in just eight years)? "Quite the contrary," maintain members of the restoration team laboring on-site for the past 33 years. In the marble "drums" comprising the columns are secrets of a sophisticated 2,400-year-old craftsmanship. Each of the temples 70,000 scattered fragments was part of a one-of-a-kind, custom-honed building-block. The Parthenon builders were more than stone masons, they were sculptors possessing an intimate Pygmalion relationship with marble - carving, caressing, and coaxing life from it. Some experts propose these artists knew the human brain could construe more complicated images than the eye could send, and the intricate trompe l'oeil structural refinements were added to create the sense of a living, breathing presence.
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144: 69326 The patina on the Parthenon and other classical and Roman monuments of Greece. Kouzeli, Kalliopp, Centro Lithou UP.PO, Athens, Greece. Chemika Chronika, Genike Ekdose 2005, 67(1-2), 35-38 (Greek). Two often coexisting patinas of different compn. and structure are obsd. on sculptural and architectural marble surfaces of the Parthenon. Of particular interest is the orange-brown patina which perfectly adheres to the marble. Its phosphatic nature possibly implies the use of surface treatment techniques which are peculiar to the Greek culture and/or biol. activity related to the specific climatic conditions of the area.
118: 6312 Materials analysis of marble from the Parthenon. Williams, W. S.; Trautman, B.; Findley, S.; Sobel, H. Mater. Sci. Eng., Case West. Reserve Univ., Cleveland, OH, USA. Materials Characterization 1992, 29(2), 185-94 (Eng). Marble specimens from one of the worlds most beautiful and famous structures-the Parthenon, on the Acropolis of Athens-have been studied to discover why foundation blocks and column drums have fused together over time. No mortar was used in the original construction, but the stone surfaces were ground smooth. Possible mechanisms for this fusion include plastic deformation of individual calcite grains by dislocation glide, diffusional creep, grain boundary migration, and water transport and redeposition of ions. The investigation utilized light microscopy of thin sections, SEM, and energy-dispersive spectroscopy of fracture surfaces and microindentation hardness evaluation. A comparison was made of this Pentelic marble with another classical Greek material, marble from the island of Thassos.
120: 162881 The iron clamps and dowels from the Parthenon and Erechthion. Varoufakis, G J. Palio Phaliron, Greece. Historical Metallurgy 1992, 26 1-18 (Eng). Twenty double T-clamps taken from the Parthenon and the Erechthion in Athens were subjected to metallurgical anal. The examn. involved the longitudinal sectioning of three clamps and two dowels in order to allow better access to their true macrostructure. Previous studies were limited to a surface investigation of such items thus leading to incorrect conclusions regarding the no. and the quality of the metal strips used to produce them. The present in-depth anal. suggests several important revisions. In addn., the paper puts forward suggestions as to how these items were actually produced, based on attempts to simulate their prodn. under conditions similar to those of antiquity. Chem. anal. showed that the ancients used exceedingly pure iron thus raising questions about the source of such raw materials and the location of smelting sites. The paper concludes with an attempt to illuminate the remarkable capacity of ancient clamps and dowels to withstand corrosion through the ages.
139: 149109 Conservation of the Parthenon. New challenges for chemists and chemical engineers. Giavarini, Carlo. CISTeC, Italy. Chimica e lIndustria 2003, 85(2), 43-47 (Ital). Since 1975 a team of chem. engineers under the direction of Theodor Skoulikidis takes care of the Parthenon and of the other Acropolis monuments. A new model was proposed for the sulphation mechanism of the marble and new, non-conventional protection products were suggested. The conservation work started in 1988 and it is still in progress: it includes the removal of the old steel junctions in favor of the installation of titanium dowels and the use of esp. formulated mortars.
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Updated: 1/26/2009 2:17:05 PM
