Ancient Greek Graffiti Discovered At The Acropolis Of Athens May Lead To A Lost Temple
At the Acropolis of Athens, an example of ancient Greek graffiti may lead to a lost temple. The graffiti was discovered on a marble rock outcrop at Barako Hill near Vari, which is located about 12 miles southeast of Athens.
It consists of an engraving of a building. Researchers think the crude drawing might depict a temple that once existed within the Acropolis.
The Acropolis is a monumental complex that sits on a steep, rocky hill overlooking the Greek capital. It was built on top of a hill for defense purposes.
The archaeological site is renowned for the ruins of the Parthenon, a marble temple that was built in the 5th century B.C. for the goddess of Athena. The lost temple in the ancient citadel may have been constructed before the Parthenon.
“The inscription [beside the engraving] does not mention the Acropolis of Athens, and so, as we indicate in the article, there is always a margin of uncertainty about the identity of the building. However, that the drawing refers to the Acropolis seems, on current evidence, probable to us,” said Janric van Rookhuijzen, an author of the study and an archaeologist with the Radboud University in the Netherlands.
The drawing is just one of more than 2,000 examples of graffiti that have been discovered on marble outcrops throughout the northern and eastern regions of Vari.
Typically, the graffiti is of simple sketches, including buildings, animals, ships, warriors, and erotic scenes.
Or, there are short inscriptions written in an ancient version of the Greek alphabet, consisting of names, captions, and messages. The shapes of the letters suggest that the graffiti dates back to the 6th century B.C.
In several cases, the artists identified themselves as shepherds and goatherds. It is unclear why these people chose to create these drawings. Possibly, they were trying to break up the days of monotonous work.
milosk50 – stock.adobe.com – illustrative purposes only
The graffiti that was carved on Barako Hill was made by a single person who referred to himself as “Mikon” in an inscription alongside the drawing.
Mikon’s engraving seems to depict a colonnaded structure that is most likely a temple. An inscription next to the building says “the Hekatompedon.”
In ancient Greek, this term means “100-footer” and was used to describe a large structure. The inclusion of the article “the” indicates that the artist was alluding to a specific building at the Acropolis, considering how close the distance is between the graffiti and the citadel.
The phrase “the Hekatompedon” was the official name of the temple at the Acropolis erected in honor of Athena.
Later, it became known as the Parthenon. Construction of the Parthenon did not begin until sometime around 450 B.C. But the graffiti is from the 6th century B.C.
So, the researchers can conclude that the drawing is about a temple that stood at the Acropolis before the Parthenon was built.
For a while now, scholars have believed that there were temples older than the Parthenon at the Acropolis.
However, in 480 B.C., a Persian army attacked Athens, destroying many of the buildings. Mikon’s graffiti offers a look into temples that no longer exist, unveiling information about an ancient interest in architecture and early literacy.
The study was published in the American Journal of Archaeology.
Sign up for Chip Chick’s newsletter and get stories like this delivered to your inbox.
More About:News
Read This Next
