The Parthenon
Building the Parthenon was a greater feat than they ever would have known. Work on the Parthenon began in 477 BC. A much smaller shrine already stood on this site, one to which we can attribute various pieces of surviving decorative material--lions and snakes, a cornice incised with flying birds, and a blue-bearded trinity that may conceivably represent Cecrops, Erechtheus, and Poseidon. If such an edifice in fact existed, it was torn down to make way for a huge limestone platform, roughly 252 by 103 feet in size, that was built as a base for the new temple. The slope of the Acropolis was such that while on the north side the foundations rested directly on bedrocks, the southeast corner needed to be built up with no
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The blocks had to be maneuvered on sleds down a paved quarry road (parts of which still survive), and only the smaller ones could be eased along on rollers. At intervals, there were stout posts, carrying rope and tackle, which were used to help brake the sleds downward momentum. Accidents were not unknown, and one rough dresses column drum, probably destined for the Parthenon lies in a nearby ravine to this day.
Even when the plain was safely reached, difficulties still abounded. Shifting a total of 22,000 tons of marble across ten miles of level plain to the Acropolis proved a major operation itself. These drums, blocks, and architraves were so enormously heavy that special methods of transport had to be devised for them, and the existing road had to be rebuilt so that it was strong enough to support their weight. Traffic was restricted to the dry summer months for fear that the blocks would bog down in the mud, and the largest blocks of all seem to have baffled the wagonmakers. Axles had to be inserted directly into their end sockets, and these were then equipped with wheels no less than twelve feet in diameter. The whole was fitted to a frame of four-inch timbers and drawn by up to thirty teams of oxen. Shifting a block of marble from the quarry to the Acropolis took at least two days and
Archeologists suggest that the large stones used in building the pyramids were transported by rolling them over logs or a wet, slippery, clay surface. These methods may have been effective in moving the blocks close to
Phsical strength was greatly need in the city to build and assemble it. According to the passage Building A Roman City, "The skilled laborers cut, polished, or carved inscriptions into stong. The unskilled workers seperated and lifted the huge blocks of from the earth." Without people collecting or cutting the stones, the city would not have been able to use those reasorces. Also according to the passage Building A Roman City, "The wood used for scaffolding and roof framework came from a forest
Joseph Davidovits discovered a simple chemical process that turned a putty mixture into stone and argues that this method was used in the construction of the Great Pyramid. Joseph Davidovits explains that the pyramid blocks were simply stone casted instead of being cut and hauled from the quarry. This is a very probable answer because all the needed materials are available. Davidovits indicates that the use of a ramp, as Clifford Wilson suggests, must have been larger than the pyramid in order to allow a slight angle for the workers to drag the blocks up. Another problem with the use of the ramp is that three are no murals at the time showing the ramps and sleds that were supposedly used to move the blocks. Davidovits demonstrates a unique method of the construction of the pyramids, but this is not as well as Wilson’s theory because there are problems with Davidovits’ theory.
Archeologists suggest that the large stones used in building the pyramids were transported by rolling them over logs or a wet, slippery, clay surface. These methods may have been effective in moving the blocks close to the building site, but do not explain how the massive
The Athenian Greeks at the height of their power built a temple called the Parthenon which was a monument to their core values of perfectionism, humanism, and rationalism. It is important to understand that the human eye has imperfections which deceive the mind, so one can understand the unique steps that were taken to achieve the illusion of perfection to the human eye. The Greeks loved perfection, and as seen in the Parthenon, the Greek architects purposely made the Parthenon imperfect to account for the imperfections in the human eye. This was done so that when one views the Parthenon with the naked eye, it appears to be perfectly symmetrical, straight, and proportional. The entire Parthenon does not have a single right angle. An example of the Greeks compensating for the imperfections of the human eye is seen in the base of the Parthenon, which from a picture or in real life looks perfectly straight, but in reality it is actually curved slightly upward. It is curved because the Greeks knew that if you have a perfectly flat base for a building, it appears curved to the human eye. To account for that, the Greeks made it so that the base was already curved. The Greeks also curved the columns of the Parthenon inward, because if the columns were straight, it would appear to be curving outward. Again, the Greeks knew about how the human eye deceives the mind, and decided that they must trick the eye to please the mind. This was all done because the Greeks strived for
Each wagon was designed for hauling heavy loads over rough terrain. They could carry 6 tons of freight. The wagons were hand crafted. The floor of the wagon flat with a rope to keep cargo in place while transporting, which would be good for carrying your possessions or hauling
the acropolis, the central hill of the Greek city –state which was used for defensive and religious purposes, then in seventeen years, Ictinus and Callicrates completed the decorations of the Parthenon (Harper OL). The Parthenon is made entirely of a marble from Mount Pentelicus called Pentelic marble and stands approximately eighteen meters high. The selections made for the material of the Parthenon were chosen with many points considered to ensure a strong and sturdy future.
It says in the passage, "The unskilled workers separated and lifted the huge blocks from the Earth." It also says, "The stone was usually cut with a saw. when the stone was very hard, the blade used in the saw had no teeth; sand and steel filings were placed under the blade and the back and forth motion of the saw ground away the stone." This proves workers used a lot of physical stregth in their job but also had to be smart enough to figure out that sand and steel helped to cut the rocks.
There is much debate on how the Ancient Egyptian Pyramids in Giza were built. King Khufu’s pyramid, from the Old Kingdom, stands at 146 meters high, has a base of 230 meters, while using 2.4 million stone blocks; each block averaging between 2.5 to 15 tons (Van Der Mieroop). These extreme numbers force researchers to try and create hypotheses on how the Ancient Egyptians were able to construct such colossal monuments. Although we have an idea of where and how the Egyptians obtained the materials used for their creation, it is still unclear how they were able to take stone blocks that weighted several tons so high up, have such precision that not even a credit card could slip through the blocks, and was capable of pointing the pyramids
Fun Fact! Did you know that paving stones were preferred because of their durability, and the Romans had two different methods of paving a road? The first method involved shaping the paving stones into polygons and connecting them together. In the second method, the Romans formed rectangles out of the stones and joined them at right angles.
The inexperienced workers would lift rocks from the earth, while the skilled laborers carved, cut, or polished the stones. They would cut the rocks with saws, and if the rock was too dense for saws to be used, they would drill holes into where the rock had to be cut, and stick wood down the holes, then get the wood wet so that it would expand and break the rock. They also found clay in large pits in the ground, and they would send them to the factories, where they were made into tiles and
The Parthenon’s construction began in 447 BC, and was finished in 438 BC. The exterior decoration continued until 432 BC. The Parthenon was dedicated to Athena, the Athenian’s patron goddess. This ancient building was constructedbuilt under the sculptor, Phidias. Phidias put a gold and ivory statue
One of the reasons that intellect and strength are both equally contributing to the city is that intelligent engineers developed plans and carved inscriptions into the stone while the brute force of man power and a few clever contraptions like the pulley and the groma were used to move and place the huge stone blocks. The materials put into the blocks other than stone are including but not limited to are, "...Clay, mortar, wood, and stone". The stone came from quarries owned by the government.
Then it was left in the sun to dry. The goal was to bend the wood into a V shape. After bending six pieces of wood they were glued together. Leather and rope was also used to hold the wooden V’s to each other. The spokes were composed of two halves, this would form a hexagonal star. While most wheels consisted of four pieces of wood bent into V’s the Egyptians developed the six V wheels. This was not as strong but was faster and lighter. Which proved to be more efficient in the sandy lands. While the chariots were not in used the wheels were removed because the weight of the chariot would bend them into ovals. The process of creating the chariot took much longer than the wheels. They would use light but strong wood on the platform and sometimes leather. The sides were then composed of wooden bars and wrapped in leather and stucco. This would make the outer rim strong and able to resist and arrow. Like the modern car today the chariot had an axle that connected it to the horse and the chariot. It was attached to a wooden plate in between the two horses. The axle attached the horse was similar to a trailer hit today. It was attached to a ball allowing it to swivel and move. Allowing the chariot to turn and adjust to uneven land faster. It also reduces the stress on the horses.
There are many different theories about why and when Stonehenge was built with rocks that weight 50 tons each impossible for us to put together using only deer antlers and rope to pull the rock into the ditch or hole for it to stand up and to build Stonehenge with only tools that people used back