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Work on the “Scattered Members” is focused, to begin with, on recording, cataloguing, documenting photographically and graphically, and on classifying and arranging all the scattered material lying today on the Acropolis Rock. The scattered material comes from all historical phases of the Acropolis. It consists primarily of architectural members, preserved completely or as fragments. There are also various other sorts of stone archaeological remains, such as inscribed stones, fragments of statues or reliefs, marble vessels, small altars, trays, dedicatory bases, and so forth. One of the primary objectives of the project is to identify and attribute pieces of architectural members to individual monuments of the Acropolis and its surroundings; also connecting and joining them to previously known members of the various monuments, so that the material can be utilized in the anastelosis being carried out on and around the Sacred Rock. The same principle is applied to other categories of ancient works of art, for example the attribution of fragments to already known pieces of sculpture. The final goal of the project is to organise the scattered material so that it will be close to its position in the ultimate arrangement, use and display of the archaeological site of the Acropolis. |
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Scholarly research and publication of the material or part of it is, by definition, an obligation bound to the project of the “Scattered Members”. The amount of material is unquestionably vast and systematic study and comparison probably requires their removal from the Sacred Rock. This will indeed contribute to the appearance and display of the monuments as well as to the final arrangement of the archaeological site, when the works of restoration have been completed. |
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Systematic research on the “Scattered Members” was started in 1977 by the Committee for Conservation of the Acropolis Monuments, which recognized the urgent need to document and organise the large body of material. From 2000 on, the work on the “Scattered Members” has been included with the programs of the Acropolis Restoration Service and funded by the 3rd Community Support Framework. The team of specialized technicians working on the project is headed by an architect or archaeologist. From 1977 to 1994 scholars responsible for the work were the architects T. Tanoulas, D. Giraud and Th. Tsitroulis, followed by the archaeologist K. Kissas and, beginning in 2007, the archaeologist E. Sioumpara. |
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The methodology followed in research on the “Scattered Members” is, briefly, the following: collection of the material or dismantling the stone piles, removal of the fragments to wooden stands. This is followed by initial classification, inventory numbers are assigned, and the fragments are catalogued and documented photographically and graphically. Pieces without original surface are collected in separate stone piles. Attribution, in close collaboration with the civil engineers responsible for the work-sites of the monuments, and delivery of the architectural members to the anastelosis works. After being catalogued, the fragments of sculpture, inscriptions, many selected architectural members and all the archaic architectural members are handed over to the 1st Ephorate of Prehistoric and Classical Antiquities, where possible joins with known and already published works are explored. This is followed by grouping and arranging the members on stone piles according to category (for example, Doric, Ionic or Corinthian column capitals, column bases, perirhanteria, sarcophagi, etc.). The remaining members are gathered in newly formed stone piles. The catalogues, with photographic and graphic documentation are then handed over to the YSMA Archive (Documentation Office) where their entry in the Archives is completed. |
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Programmes completed |
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| From 1977 to the present, over 20.000 worked pieces, preserved as fragments, and whole members, which lay scattered around the Acropolis monuments or had been collected, as early as the end of the 19th century, in 25 large stone piles at various places on the Sacred Rock, have been recorded, described and photographed and, in special cases, documented with drawings. Over 10,000 pieces without original surface have likewise been recorded and separated from the rest of the material. |
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Examples of the identification and attribution of some of the scattered members to architectural monuments are the attribution of 197 stones to the Parthenon, 65 to the Propylaia, 4 to the Erechtheion, 91 to the pre-Parthenon, 30 to the so-called Urparthenon, 500 to the “Old Temple”, 64 to the Stoa of Eumenes, 7 to the stoas of the Asklepieion and 3 to the Odeion of Herodes Atticus, between 1995 and today.
Among the sculptural fragments that have been joined is a fragment belonging to the back of the horse of the Persian Horseman, which has restored the length of the horse along the spine. |
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Included also in the work on the Scattered Members of the Acropolis is the recording and description of ancient stones from the Old National Printing Press and the Arsakeion. 128 fragments were found built into the walls of the first as re-used material. These were taken out and transferred to the Acropolis where they were listed. The importance of this operation is evident from the fact that, among other things, 27 of the fragments belonged to the Parthenon.
After the plaster was removed from the exterior of the Arsakeion, it was evident that ancient material from the Acropolis monuments had been used extensively. Photographs to scale were made of 482 stones, after careful cleaning of the visible surfaces and circumferential joints. |
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Programmes in process |
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It is expected that by the end of 2008 the recording, describing and arranging of all the poros members and fragments on the Acropolis Rock will have been completed. Most of this material comes from the archaic monuments of the Acropolis.
At the same time, beginning in 2007 in the framework of the program of electronical management of the Y.S.M.A. documentation works, the Documentation Office is proceeding with the digitization of the conventional scholarly archive of the scattered members. |
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Future programmes |
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| When the backfilling of the foundations of the House of the Arrephoroi had been completed, two large stone-piles remained, numbering around 3000 members. Inventory, description, classification and arrangement will begin in 2009. |
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