The Ceiling of the Hephaisteion

The marble ceiling of the Hephaisteion was apparently designed with removable coffers to reduce the weight of the superstructure, so numerous masons' marks (at least 300 are preserved) were needed because each coffer was carved for its own particular place in the ceiling. The presence of an alphabetic series of letters allows a reconstruction of the Attic alphabet at the time: it had 23 letters from alpha through chi, including digamma, eta and xi, apparently lacked qoppa and psi, but may have included omega. Two distinct series of masons' marks provide further evidence of delay in the construction of the building. The letter forms combine with other features to suggest that the temple was begun ca. 460 B. C. and completed during or after the Peace of Nikias, between 420 and 415 B. C

Alphabet · Ceiling (cloud) · Forensic engineering · Linguistics · Structural engineering · Ancient Egypt and Archaeology · Ancient Near East History · Engineering · Historical, Religious, and Philosophical Studies · History · Philosophy

• The Location of the Hephaisteion

  Jeremy Mcinerney•TAPA•2019

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• Athenian Agora

  John Camp, John Van Camp•Theophrastus' Characters•2013

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• Metopes and architecture

  Open Access•Marina Yeroulanou•The Annual of the British School…•1998

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• Of glyphs and glottography

  Open Access•Malcolm D Hyman•Language & Communication•2006

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