Why Most "Ancient" Buildings are Fakes

[Music] years ago when I was a college student studying in Rome I visited the Abbey of Monte Casino I remember being impressed by my first sight of the building poised on a steep hill against an Amphitheater of snow dusted mountains I walked across the echoing cloy and entered the abbey church which Shone with broke Splendor as I stood by the altar looking up at the Gilded ceiling I had to remind myself that it was all fake in February of 1944 assuming wrongly that German troops were stationed inside the Allies dropped thousands of tons of high explosives on Monte Casino completely destroying the Abbey after the war it was rebuilt so comprehensively that a visitor who didn't know otherwise would assume that the Abbey had remained unchanged for centuries when I returned to Rome I began to notice how many of the city's iconic ancient buildings were also reconstructed the Temple of Vesta in the Roman forum for example was destroyed during the Renaissance when workmen stripped at marble for reuse in St Peter's Basilica the structure we see today was built in 1930 with the few surviving fragments the curia the meeting place of the Roman senate was rebuilt around the same time it had served as a church for 13 centuries and during that time part of the back wall the upper halves of both side walls and a large chunks of the facade had been lost less than 50% of the building we see today is actually ancient even less of the Arch of Titus is original when the monument was incorporated into a castle during the Middle Ages the outer parts of both peers were cut away a tower was built on top and a ramp was cut through the foundations the structure was so badly damaged that it had to be dismantled and painstakingly reassembled in 1822 with travertine replacing its missing marble blocks even the Coliseum has been substantially rebuilt during the 1830s Pope Gregory V 16th remade a large part of the missing South Side in Brick the only section of seating inside the Ampitheater dates to a 1930s reconstruction effort and huge parts of the hypogeum have been demolished and reconstructed perhaps the most remarkable restored monument in Rome home is the arpacas Shattered by earthquakes and buried in water logged soil under the fragile foundations of a Renaissance Palazo This Magnificent Augustine altar seemed impossible to excavate but in 1937 in a colossal feat of engineering that involved raising The overhanging Palazo on concrete pilings and freezing the mud beneath archaeologists dug down to the altar recovered its decorative Elements which had shattered into hundreds of fragments and reassembled them on a modern superstructure the Italian government did not invest millions in this project out of some abstract appreciation for Antiquity the arpacas was reconstructed to serve as the centerpiece of a fascist Exposition that celebrated the 2000th anniversary of augustus's birth and hinted none too subtly that musolini was the new Augustus ancient buildings have often been restored or rebuilt in the service of a political agend agenda among the earliest examples are the Restorations of the theater of pompy Coliseum and other buildings in Rome by theodric in the 6th Century to demonstrate his allegiance to the Roman Elite and Roman tradition during the Middle Ages the citizens of Verona reconstructed parts of their Roman Arena as a symbol of civic pride in 1533 Francis the of France ordered the medieval neighborhood inside the Roman Amphitheater of neem to be cleared so that one of the most imposing Antiquities in this Kingdom would be returned to its original Glory Henry IV of France likewise ordered the clearing of the amphitheater at ARL and commanded a Roman Obelisk found nearby to be erected in its Arena his contemporary Pope 6us I raised and moved a whole series of Roman obelisks making them focal points of new avenues that connected Rome's pilgrimage churches this was just the beginning we'll discuss the Golden Age of historical reconstruction after a brief word about this video's sponsor almost every spring I seem to find myself trying to learn or relearn the language of a country I'm about to visit fortunately I have mandley a language learning app that's currently offering a fantastic 96% discount for Lifetime access as a traveler I appreciate how mindly focused is on practical lessons that you can actually use in everyday life the lessons and audio materials are recorded by native speakers and include a speech recognition program that provides real-time feedback on pronunciation mle offers access to 41 foreign languages from 33 native languages that's more than a thousand language combinations and now with their spring sale you can save 9 6% on Lifetime access to all 41 of those Languages by going to m./ toen Stone that link is on screen and in the description returning to our topic during the late 19th and early 20th centuries the new science of archaeology combined with the rising Spirit of nationalism to drive the Reconstruction of many ruins one example is the Sal ber a Roman Fort near bad Hamburg Germany that was reconstructed at the turn of the 20th century under the opes of Kaiser vilhelm II the Roman baths in bath England excavated and rebuilt between 1878 and 1883 are a product of the same era in their case however the factor behind restoration was not nationalism but tourism a gamble that paid off as the hundreds of thousands who still visit the bads every year ATT test with the Advent of mass tourism in the second half of the 20th century enhancing visitor experience became the single most important factor in the Reconstruction of ancient buildings and sites a well-known early example is the Palace of Minos at kosas restored by its excavator Sir Arthur Evans Evans worked at kosas from 1900 to 1931 uncovering the most impressive Center of what he dubbed the minoan civilization as more and more of the vast Bronze Age Palace came to light it became clear that the newly excavated ruins needed to be Consolidated and protected Evans solution controversially was to rebuild much of the palace in reinforced concrete equally controversially the restored Interiors were painted with Fresco invented on the basis of a few scattered fragments some sites have been even more extensively reconstructed for modern visitors to Athens the most prominent building in the agura is the stoa of Adelis built in the 2 Century BC this long two-story Portico was destroyed by Barbarian Raiders in late Antiquity little more than the back wall and Foundations survived to be excavated between 1953 and 1956 however the American School of classical studies at Athens with generous financial assistance from John D Rockefeller Jr reconstructed the stoa as the agura museum the replica is as accurate as the archaeologists could make it careful measurements were made of the existing ruins and every available fragment was incorporated into the structure cories were even opened in the hills around Athens to ensure that the new stone would match the old only the design of the interior was modified to accommodate the museum exhibits besides its contribution to the experience of an important archaological site and tourist attraction the reconstructed stoa of adalis was a clear symbol of American and Western commitment at a time when Greece stood on the front lines of the Cold War it was also an expression of an older tradition both Western and Greek nationalist that privileged classical Antiquity over all other periods the project American donors saw the new stoa as a monument to democracy ancient and modern many Greek archaeologists however were inclined to interpret it as American colonialism the controversies of restoration are equally potent on the Athenian Acropolis over the past two centuries every structure on the Acropolis has been at least partially rebuilt initially in the service of Greek nationalism and later to enhance the experience of a site visited by millions of tourists the little Temple of Athena Nike has been completely dismantled and reconstructed three times the Odon of herodes adus was comprehensively rebuilt in the 1950 50s the paron has been under reconstruction more or less continuously for more than a half century all of this work was undertaken with the aim of restoring the Acropolis to its ancient glory in the process everything later than the Roman period along with virtually every trace of soil was stripped away leaving those serially restored buildings and monuments isolated amid naked Rock the Acropolis we see today many archaeologists have compl cled never existed it is not restored it has been invented this is the heart of the controversy over the Reconstruction of ancient buildings beyond the Practical details how much of the structure to reconstitute the materials to use Etc the restorers have to make decisions about the purposes of their project is it meant to help visitors understand a place or time is it meant to be beautiful is it meant to suggest connections between the past and the present who's past and who's present my new book insane Emperors sunken cities and earthquake machines is now available as a paperback ebook and audiobook you can buy your copy through Amazon Barnes & Noble or your local bookstore for more toen Stone content check out my channels toen Stone footnotes and Scenic GR to the past which are linked in the description please consider joining other viewers in supporting toen Stone on patreon thanks for watching

Channel: toldinstone

Views: 380,258

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Id: fYCUC4wdlO4

Length: 11min 19sec (679 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 12 2024