The Chalkotheke (

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

for "bronze store") was a structure on the

Athenian Acropolis The Acropolis of Athens is an ancient citadel located on a rocky outcrop above the city of Athens and contains the remains of several ancient buildings of great architectural and historical significance, the most famous being the Parthenon. Th ...

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders ...

. Its name and function are only known from 4th century BC inscriptions. One decree orders the listing of all objects stored in the Chalkotheke and the erection of a '' stele'' inscribed with that list in front of the building.Inscriptiones Graecae II² 120. Remains of a structure discovered to the east of the sanctuary of Artemis Brauronia and immediately to the southwest of the

Parthenon The Parthenon (; grc, Παρθενών, , ; ell, Παρθενώνας, , ) is a former temple on the Athenian Acropolis, Greece, that was dedicated to the goddess Athena during the fifth century BC. Its decorative sculptures are considere ...

have been suggested to be those of the Chalkotheke. Only scant limestone foundations and rock-cut foundation trenches survive. The building stood in front of the southern Acropolis wall and was ''circa'' 43 m long and 14 m wide, fronted on its northern long side by a portico of 4.5 m width. To make room for that portico, the southernmost portion of the rock-cut steps leading up to the west facade of the Parthenon had to be cut away. Thus, the portico is assumed to have been an early fourth century BC addition, while the main part of the structure is thought to be roughly contemporary with the Parthenon, i.e. to date to the mid-fifth century. A major renovation appears to have taken place during

Roman times In modern historiography, ancient Rome refers to Roman civilisation from the founding of the city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD. It encompasses the Roman Kingdom (753–509 BC ...

, as indicated by numerous fragments of architectural members that are definitely Roman in date and have dimensions matching those of the Chalkotheke.

References

Bibliography

*Maria S. Brouscaris: ''The monuments of the Acropolis''. Athens, 1978, pp. 56–57. *Laetitia La Follette, ''The Chalkotheke on the Athenian Akropolis'', Hesperia, 55, 1986, pp.75-87 *Gorham Phillips Stevens, ''The Setting of the Periclean Parthenon'', Hesperia Supplements, Vol. 3, 1940, pp.1-91 *J. A. Bundgaard, ''The Excavation of the Athenian Acropolis, 1882-1890'', Copenhagen. 1974 {{coord, 37.9713, N, 23.7258, E, source:wikidata, display=title Buildings and structures completed in the 4th century BC Acropolis of Athens Ancient Greek buildings and structures in Athens Former buildings and structures in Greece