eli5 why ancient historical buildings haven’t been kept up? Why are buildings like the Parthenon and the Colosseum in such disrepair? Greece and Rome/Italy have existed the entire time?
In: 508
In the town of Xanten, Germany, there’s an “archaeological park” (Archäologischer Park Xanten) at an old Roman fort. Most of what’s left are stone columns and foundations that had minimal restoration to keep them from falling apart further, but they rebuilt much of the town as a great educational attraction.
It’s also my understanding that many of the great stone edifices were, upon the fall of their empires, pillaged for building materials and road paving. The Goths didn’t really have historic preservation on their list of priorities.
In the town of Xanten, Germany, there’s an “archaeological park” (Archäologischer Park Xanten) at an old Roman fort. Most of what’s left are stone columns and foundations that had minimal restoration to keep them from falling apart further, but they rebuilt much of the town as a great educational attraction.
It’s also my understanding that many of the great stone edifices were, upon the fall of their empires, pillaged for building materials and road paving. The Goths didn’t really have historic preservation on their list of priorities.
Another example is the Sphinx, which had it’s nose until Napoleon’s troops used it for target practice.
The Greek and Roman empires most certainly have not existed the entire time, and you’re talking about extremely long timelines. Even if there was a sitting Roman emperor for the past 2500 years and the entire period had not seen a single invasion succeed, you’re talking about a maximum 50 year reign for each emperor. That’s 50 lifetimes. Now consider that many rulers during that period only lasted a few *months* and you might start to see the problem.
Try to find a building in New York City that’s older than 100 years. Most of them just get torn down for being old and decrepit, and that’s with our current engineering technology, using machines and materials that could never have existed in ancient times. Throw in regular earthquakes and other natural disasters that cause further damage.
Thats pretty much what happened to the Roman Colluseum. Several political leaders considered it a ruin worth only it’s scrap materials, and used that stone for other building projects to save money. It certainly wasn’t *usable* for its original purpose even 1500 years ago.
Another example is the Sphinx, which had it’s nose until Napoleon’s troops used it for target practice.
Another example is the Sphinx, which had it’s nose until Napoleon’s troops used it for target practice.
We value these ancient things more now as they are older and we live in a world of relative abundance so we can give a crap about such things. Most ancient structures have suffered from locals repurposing the materials for whatever else. It might be more relevant for a structure to last long if people arent around to fuck it up, thinking about south american temples, Macchu Picchu, Ankor Wat.
I used to always think that it would be better to not restore it because if we did, it would lose that ancient feeling. I saw it as if we repaired an old painting; it’d have been touched by the modern world instead of being left alone as a time capsule from the past.
Ever looked into what the Amphitheatrum Flavium was originally made of? What it would take to replace all that was torn down to burn in order to make quicklime? Sadly, not happening.
Since people have answered the other part well I’ll try to explain the second part of the question. No Greece and Italy did not exist the entire time. Athens home of the Parthenon was a city state which ended up conquered numerous times the Macedonians, the Romans, the Byzantines (Eastern half of the roman empire after a split), the Ottomans all ruled or conquered the city at points. With the parthenon being partially destroyed while under Ottoman by an attack from the city state of Venice. Which is a nice transition to the fall of Rome. Rome was invaded several times even nearly being abandoned when the aquaducts (the cities water supply was cutoff). The Colosseum was damaged by earthquakes and fire with the Romans not repairing it due to their situation. The Roman empire eventually ended up with small regional powers like the city state of venice. Rome for much of this time was ruled by the Pope as part of the Papel States. There is a bit more, but basically no Greece, and Italy/Rome did not exist the entire time.
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