The volume under review collects essays on a topic that has previously received insufficient attention in architectural history. As this publication makes evident, architectural restoration was not an uncommon practice in the ancient Greek world, but happened often and in various degrees of scale. Yet in the study of Greek architecture restoration is usually discussed in small sections or chapters of monographs. Gathering methodologies and interpretations from multiple disciplines on the theme of architectural restoration, this collection is the product of a workshop held in Oxford at Wolfson College in 2019. Given the geographical and temporal situation of the volume, it is appropriately the fourth book in the Costruire nel Mondo Antico series edited by J. Bonetto and C. Previato.
The editors introduce the publication with a recognition that ‘architectural restoration’ is not only a modern phenomenon, but is also valid for the study of ancient architecture. But there is a challenge in defining ‘restoration’ in the ancient context, as modern understanding has been greatly influenced by witnessing nineteenth-century interventions as well as responses such as the Venice Charter of 1964. Few surviving pre-Roman sources address architectural interventions. Vanden Broeck-Parant and Ismaelli arrive at a working definition of architectural restoration as ‘not an unrelated set of repairs, but a coherent intervention which denotes a systematic approach based on an architectural project and enabled by economic and logistical choices’, but they recognise that there is a flexibility to the term and associated terminologies used both in antiquity (see A. Perrier in this volume) and in the present.
Ismaelli begins his chapter by discussing the range of interventions encompassed by the term ‘architectural restoration’, spanning original construction to reuse. He follows this with a brief history of previous approaches to the study of restoration in Greek architecture. Ismaelli gives two principal reasons for the importance of a common typology for restoration work. The first is that it facilitates evaluation of the representative methods in both geographical distribution and temporal duration. The second is that it helps the production of building biographies. Ismaelli proposes that building biographies include the context of broader social, cultural and economic factors. He then examines context through three factors: authority with an emphasis on administrative and judicial influences, memory, investigated through mimetic approaches stemming from cultural values and technical methods, and, finally, technology, which addresses the connections between crafts, specifically that of carpentry and bronze work.
Emphasising the importance of context, U. Quatember's chapter utilises the methods of ‘archaeological’ or ‘historical building research’ (Bauforschung) for investigating architectural repairs. She uses ‘context’ in two ways, first for the physical location of the repair within the structure and second for its chronology, a determination of the repair within the history of the building. She presents three case studies: the Fountain of Trajan in Ephesos, the Tetrapylon in Aphrodisias and the Bouleuterion of Aphrodisias. Quatember shows how, with stone-by-stone documentation and drawn reconstructions, it is possible to understand precisely where repairs were made and therefore to understand if repairs were isolated incidents or part of a larger programme.
Perrier surveys the literary and archaeological evidence for repairs at the Panhellenic sanctuary at Delphi. She places them in two categories: those belonging to routine maintenance due to the passage of time and the need to maintain the sanctuary, and those due to exceptional events such as earthquakes. Perrier's examination of the Temple of Apollo reveals evidence of architectural restoration in all periods from its sixth-century origin to the fourth-century rebuilding, which incorporated original materials. Reflecting on inscriptions from Delphi that mention building activities, Perrier rightly points out the challenges of considering ‘restoration’ in antiquity, given the ambiguous definitions of terms, especially kataskeua (‘building’, ‘rebuilding’ or ‘restoring’) and episkeua (‘repairing’).
Vanden Broeck-Parant looks to additional textual evidence to consider the role of the seldom mentioned episkeuastai and their role in financial administration in Athens during the fourth century bce. Presenting the four sources that mention episkeuastai, he identifies them as state officials in charge of financial transactions of Attic sanctuaries, with the authority to allocate funds directly from the sanctuary's accounts for pressing restoration interventions outside of regular maintenance funding. Vanden Broeck-Parant concludes that this office reflects a larger political agenda of the Athenian state: to assert its presence throughout Attica by maintaining all its sanctuaries.
U. Weber's contribution looks at assembly marks made for restorations and uses them to ascertain what portions of a building were repaired and/or reused. Analysis of letter forms in these markings helps date the repairs. Assembly marks have previously been examined for their appearance during initial building construction, but much less for their use in understanding restorations. Weber's three case studies (the Altar of the Chians at Delphi, the Hellenistic Naiskos at Didyma and the Rotunda of Arsinoe at Samothrace) are well chosen, highlighting multiple advantages of Weber's approach. The illustrations in this chapter as well as the definitions for terms and their German equivalents are particularly useful for understanding the concepts presented and for future applications.
E. Cantisani, S. Vettori, A. Andreotti and I. Bonaduce's chapter presents a multi-analytical approach to the study of materials used as glues, adhesives and binders in ancient restoration work. Beginning with a brief history of archaeometric studies, the chapter continues with a summary of the inorganic and organic compounds used in antiquity for restoration and the modern analytical techniques, such as X-ray diffraction (XRD) and X-ray fluorescence (XRF), that are used to identify them. The authors use these techniques as tools to study and identify ancient binders from the site of Hierapolis in modern-day Turkey. Looking in particular at material combinations, the authors find parallels in the ingredient combinations in fourth-century ce glue recipes. The site also provides evidence for material importation and the use of protective surface treatments, showing the range of work that restoration encompassed.
J. Pakkanen's chapter employs photogrammetry to examine architectural repairs to the fourth-century bce Temple of Athena Alea at Tegea. Beginning with a brief history of excavations and the current work, Pakkanen explains the working parameters and technique for producing 3D models of two column drums exhibiting repairs. The dimensions, geometry, tool marks and textures of the drum repairs are made easily accessible in the photogrammetric models due to the high accuracy and precision of the models and for their ability to remove lichen growth from imagery. Utilising the information gleaned from the models, Pakkanen assesses why the repairs were necessary, determining that damage to one block's flute was either a flaw in the stone or caused during fluting, and that repair of the other block was made after a determination by the builders that the crack was not structurally significant.
In the final chapter E. Leka provides a thorough descriptive analysis of the restoration work of an Archaic Nike statue originally believed to be from the Old Temple of Athena on the Athenian Acropolis. After an initial discussion of the materials and techniques used for sculptural restoration in the Greek world, Leka notes the multiple points of joins and reworking of the sculpture and concludes that it was likely not an architectural member but rather a free-standing dedication to Athena Nike. She also concludes that the repairs occurred before the Persian sack of 480 bce, when it was damaged again and included in the Perserschutt. While this conclusion should exclude the subject from a volume on architectural restoration, Leka's contribution fits aptly amongst the others as it shows that studying and understanding repairs goes beyond recognition of modifications and can help us to contextualise works within a larger picture.
The volume achieves its objective of bringing together a variety of approaches and methods to examine ancient architectural restoration. As is the case for most edited workshop proceedings, the papers are independent, but they are coherently gathered under a unifying topic, resulting in an interdisciplinary conversation about ways to study ancient architectural restoration. A highlight of this publication is the quality and quantity of images, which greatly aid the presentation and understanding of the papers. A short concluding essay would have been helpful to connect the papers more fully and to collect approaches and future questions rather than having them remain disparate within their individual chapters. Overall, the papers go beyond simple descriptions of the interventions and illuminate the contexts in which restorations were made, enriching our understanding of not just ancient architecture, but also the ancient Greek world.
