\u201cMost people are familiar with the Parthenon, this majestic temple on the Acropolis that dates back to the 5th<\/sup> century B.C.,\u201d Klein said. \u201cIt figures very large in our understanding and appreciation of Greek culture because it survives. But before that temple was built, there was a sanctuary on the Acropolis that began about 150 years before the Parthenon.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Klein said the real beginnings of monumental architecture in Athens started on the Acropolis, where the Athenians built temples and a variety of sanctuary structures to honor their patron goddess Athena. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe reason we don\u2019t know much about these is because in the 6th<\/sup> century B.C., the Greeks began a series of battles against the Persians,\u201d Klein said. \u201cThey fought an important battle, the Battle of Marathon in 490 B.C., where they defeated the Persian army, which was unheard of. If you\u2019ve seen the movie \u2018300\u2019 you know that the Persians were this seemingly invincible force. But the Greeks won.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Klein said the Greeks took the riches left by the Persians and tore down one of their own temples to build a newer, bigger one. But then just ten years later, in 480 B.C. the Persians returned and defeated the Greeks. In revenge for their earlier defeat, the Persians burned and destroyed all the sanctuaries on the Acropolis. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Later, when the Greeks defeated the Persians again, they rebuilt on the ruins of their previous temples, reusing what they could and burying the rest in the ground to honor their history. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThey built into the fabric, the foundations and the walls, objects from earlier buildings,\u201d Klein said. \u201cThen they built the Parthenon and all the beautiful structures that remain today.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Fast forward to the 19th<\/sup> century: Greece gained its independence from the Ottoman Empire and made the Acropolis the symbol of their new nation. They began removing older, non-classical Greek remains and excavated down to the bedrock, finding all these old sculptures and pieces of architecture buried in the 5th<\/sup> century B.C. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt made international headlines,\u201d Klein said. \u201cPeople were amazed as they pulled up these marble statues of women who still had vivid paint on them because they were buried after only a couple of decades. Those are now in the Acropolis Museum.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Klein said some of the architecture that was unearthed is on display, but much of what was uncovered \u2014 thousands of stone blocks and fragments \u2014 is in storage. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI describe this project to people like if someone threw dozens of puzzle boxes full of pieces on the ground and then threw out the box lids with the pictures on them,\u201d she said. \u201cWell if you know that one is a picture of a garden and one is of a house; you can start separating them out.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n She describes her approach to processing the blocks as \u201cmind-numbingly slow.\u201d It involves inspecting each piece to observe the size, characteristics and dimensions, calculating scale from known Greek architecture and using her knowledge of what type of features buildings from different eras had, and other innovative approaches to document and interpret the fragments to recreate the buildings. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cRemember, we probably lost a couple pieces when vacuuming the floor, so we don\u2019t have the whole thing,\u201d joked Klein. \u201cBut we have enough.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Supported at Texas A&M with funding from the Melbern G. Glasscock Center for Humanities Research, the Department of Architecture, and external grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Fulbright Foundation, she\u2019s traveled annually to Greece, with an exception during COVID-19 in 2020-2022, to continue her work. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Klein said she has to navigate a complex permit system every time she goes to Greece to conduct her research and has to be monitored while in the Acropolis storerooms as a foreign scholar at work. Combined with the meticulous task of individually measuring, inspecting and attempting to fit pieces together, that\u2019s why the research has taken so long. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI have to take the fragments and make a compelling argument for how they go together and then fit in to the building to which they probably belong,\u201d Klein said. \u201cI also have to make sure that I\u2019m reassembling the building in a way that allows other scholars of architecture to follow my line of reasoning and the evidence that I have to support it. I then create the reconstructions.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Klein is combining her discoveries and research into a single-author book currently set to be completed in 2023-24 that\u2019s tentatively titled \u201cThe Architecture of the Acropolis before the Parthenon.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIn addition to the history of pre-Parthenon monuments, it will cover the early foundations of architecture and the exploratory steps and experiments taken in early monumental stone buildings,\u201d Klein said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Meant to serve as a primary and functional contribution to Greek architectural history, it will also explore ancient Greek religion and the history of scholarship, building on the work of earlier generations, she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI think anyone who is interested in those subjects will be able to pick up the book and find a new understanding that isn\u2019t possible without this work,\u201d Klein said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Once it\u2019s published, Klein says she has dozens of other architectural research projects waiting in the wings to pursue. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI\u2019m not sure I have another 20-year research project in my future just in terms of complexity,\u201d Klein said. \u201cBut as you\u2019re researching one topic, you end up reading widely and find a lot of things that catch your attention. You have to tell yourself not to fall down the rabbit hole. But I\u2019m looking forward to following up on some things I wanted to explore further.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A handful of years after Indiana Jones inspired a new generation of adventure-driven archaeologists, Nancy Klein was a young college student in Greece, excavating ancient settlements.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":69,"featured_media":13801,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[86,63],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n![\"Ancient](\"https:\/\/www.arch.tamu.edu\/app\/uploads\/2022\/11\/GettyImages-521801503-1024x683.jpg\")
Lost and found<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Detective work<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
![\"Athens,](\"https:\/\/www.arch.tamu.edu\/app\/uploads\/2022\/11\/GettyImages-531842776-1024x683.jpg\")
The final product<\/h3>\n\n\n\n