Tag: Virtual reconstruction

Percy Jackson and the Olympians Take Shortcut to Athens via Nashville Parthenon

The cast and crew of Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief didn’t have to go all the way to Athens to film the hydra scene in the Parthenon. They just booked some time in a reconstruction of the Parthenon in Nashville, Tennesse. Perhaps in the future, as the role of CGI increases in movies, they will be able to use a virtual version. I visited the Nashville Parthenon, as well as Second Life’s virtual reconstruction, to find out what the Parthenon of Athens was really like in the time of the ancient Greeks.

The Nashville Parthenon

I know, most people think of Nashville as home of the Grand Ole Opry and the country music capital of the world, but people there also have a taste for the classics! The Parthenon in Nashville is a full-scale replica of the original in Athens. It was built in 1897 as part of the Tennessee Centennial Exposition. Apparently, Nashville was once known as the “Athens of the South”, a title which influenced the construction of the replica for the fair.

The original replica was built of plaster, wood and brick but was replaced by concrete construction that began in 1920. The exterior was completed in 1925 and the interior was finally finished in 1931. In 1990, sculptor Alan LeQuire, a native of Nashville, recreated the 42-foot statue of Athena Parthenos to add to its interior. The statue of Athena is gilded with eight pounds of gold leaf.

The structure, now the centerpiece of Centennial Park, houses an art museum that contains casts of the original Parthenon (Elgin) Marbles. In the summer, local theater troupes present classic Greek plays such as Euripides’ Medea and Sophocles’ Antigone. Most performances are free.

To view my entire tour of the Parthenon in Nashville, play the slideshow below. If you view the slideshow in full screen mode, you can click “Show Info” to view titles and descriptions to learn more.

The Parthenon in Second Life

If you can’t make it to either Athens or Nashville, you can find a recreation of the Parthenon and several other Greek landmarks in Second Life. You can even visit a virtual armour museum and climb aboard a Greek war galley!

The Second Life reconstruction I visited was created by Second Life user Noyle Boucher. As you can see by these images, the virtual Parthenon is brightly painted (as it was in ancient times!) and contains its own towering statue of Athena. Like the physical replica in Nashville, you can also climb steps to an observation gallery that brings you closer to Athena’s face and the statue of Nike (winged Victory) that she holds in the palm of her hand. I was also delighted to find that her shield includes sculptured scenes like those I had seen on the shield of the Athena Parthenos in Nashville.

I also visited Boucher’s reconstruction of the Erechtheion. The temple, built between 421 and 407 BC, is thought to have been named for the shrine of the famous Greek hero Erichthonius but others think it was built in honor of the legendary king Erechtheus, who ruled Athens during the Archaic period and was mentioned in Homer’s Iliad.

On the north side of the structure is the famous ‘Porch of the maidens’. Roman architect Vitruvius claimed the maidens on the porch of the Erchtheion, known as caryatids, represented women from the village of Kary, a town near Sparta in Laconia, who were condemned to slavery after betraying Athens by siding with Persia in the Greco-Persian Wars.

Scholars point out, however, that this is doubtful since supports depicting young women were used before the outbreak of the Greco-Persian Wars. Priestesses of Athena or Artemis used to carry sacred objects to feasts in baskets on their heads. Therefore, some scholars think these maidens represent such priestesses of Artemis in Kary. I managed to use the flying navigation control to position my avatar next to the virtual caryatids to get a great screenshot.

To view my entire Greek adventure in Second Life, play the slideshow below. If you view the slideshow in full screen mode, you can click “Show Info” to view titles and descriptions to learn more.

You can see the remains of temples on the Acropolis as they appear today in Google Earth, or take a visit to the real site. For more virtual reconstructions, check out Heritage Key’s virtual areas, including King Tut Virtual, and Stonehenge.

The Ara Pacis As You’ve Never Seen it Before

Normally as white as a bleached bone, the Ara Pacis, the emperor Augustus’s altar to peace, is being restored to what could have been its original colours for a series of evening openings from tonight, until April.

The famous monument represents the Augustan golden age of the early empire and was excavated from several metres under Rome’s busy main shopping street, via del Corso, during Italy’s Fascist era in the 1930s. The fragments were reassembled and finally housed in a wooden structure in piazza Augusto Imperatore.

A new structure to house the monument was opened in 2006. Designed by Richard Meier, the building has met with harsh criticism from local Romans and professional architects for its lack of congruence and integration with the centuries-old churches and buildings surrounding it.

This is the first time that sophisticated virtual technology will be used to project images and colours onto one of ancient Rome’s monuments.

Visitors will have several occasions to see the Ara Pacis in colour between 20:00 to 23:00 (last entrance at 22:00) on following dates:

Friday 26, Saturday 27 and Sunday 28 February 2010
Friday 26, Saturday 27 and Sunday 28 March 2010
Friday 23, Saturday 24 and Sunday 25 April 2010

An exhibition about one of Italy’s best-loved musicians, Fabrizio de Andr, is on show in the exhibition space under the Ara Pacis. Tickets to an evening view of the Ara Pacis in colour, as well as entrance to the museum, costs EUR9 (reduced tickets are EUR7).

CRE XI – Religion and more Religion; Egyptology versus Egyptomania

CRE XI’s Religion Day – if you’ve missed day 1 of the Egyptology conference, read up here – started off with Susanne Tpfer from Leipzig. In this very very interesting session, we all heard about how some papyri describing embalming rituals can have direct connections to religion myths as the body and the afterlife were treated with the best care.

Many publications have been published on Papyrus Boulaq 3 in Cairo, from 1871 to 2009. The position of body parts, the instructions on the application of anointments and other products onto the body of the deceased, how the bandages should be wrapped and of course the words to be recited over these proceedings as nothing was effective in ancient Egypt if it did not include magic. The body was prepared first and the head was done afterwards with special requisitions. Osiris is mentioned in the recitations as all deceased become Osiris at some point.

The session continued with Jared Krebsbach from Memphis, talking about how and why the Persians in Egypt have chosen Atum over Osiris to be their main worshipped god.

Osiris green: his body represented in medicinal plants

I presented my own research after this and explained how the deification of plants can be done by analyzing plant references in religious papyri and comparing those with the ingredients from medical papyris prescriptions. Osiris is then portrayed to be green not only as the god of agricultural since Neolithic times but also as the mentor of rejuvenation for ancient Egyptians as well. Egypt was called kemet in ancient times which means the black land and uses green as its national colour today.

In the afternoon some sessions were cancelled due to bad weather in the UK which prevented some speakers to fly but the early Christianity session was one of the best for me, in this conference so far.

Early Christianity in Egypt

Renate Dekker had the chance to present her own paper on Pesynthios, a Coptic bishop, and she showed the audience how the research is going reading letters from the bishop scattered around the world. Fragments are to be found in Florence, paris and England as well as new York and Egypt of course.

She reviewed Walter Crums research on Coptic language as he studied some of these letters, and she explained how the project in Leiden is aiming to get accurate translations, list names and toponyms, identify scribes, reconstruct the social context where the letters existed, and distinguish between the various types of letters. Some of the papyri where the letters are written were reused so we have a letter to one bishop in the verso and another to another bishop in the recto.

Next Joost Hagen showed us the stage of his own research on Nubian churches and the documents found in buildings now under the waters of the Nile. The chronology of the monasteries use the Muslims invasions, the Ottomans presence, and the dichotomy between Greek and Coptic in Christian Egypt, kings that could be bishops and the amount of materials found in Qasr Ibrim: textiles, pottery, and documents.

Virtual Reconstruction of Qubbat al-Hawa

Renate Dekker returned to present Howard Middleton-Jones work on the Coptic database project, more precisely on the virtual reconstruction of Qubbat al-Hawa church. Part of a monastery, this church got its name from the geographical position (it means the mountain of wind) and also the patrons name. Built in the Xth century and consecrated in the XIIth century. Using high resolution images it is possible to help the conservation projects as well as capture the art and inscriptions in situ.

Egyptology vs Egyptomania

Our evening lecture of today, given by Miguel Versluys, focused on the terms Egyptology versus Egyptomania. Egyptomania is thought to be everything that is not the real thing as he stated.

The discussion included, for instance, Alexandria which is geographically located in Egypt but associated with classical culture. Egyptian symbols and language was widely spread among the Mediterranean world and foreign rulers in Egypt used Egyptian styles and motifs in Egypt.

How did the Egyptian people felt about that? The same person could have Greek and Egyptian names. Egyptian artifacts provenance and dating is done how? Was it made in Egypt?

Rome is considered to be a successor culture to Egypt. And Egyptian is something in itself. Alexandria shops had clients all over the world and manufactured pieces both Egyptian and Classical even the Macedonian kings like Alexander the great used Egyptian iconography to identify himself with Egyptian power.

We then moved on the restaurant for our dinner party which was extraordinary; food was exquisite and service was great! We all felt very cozy in there and chatted along the eveningmore to follow tomorrow on the last day. Dont miss out the report for tomorrow! In the mean while, you can also read up on the highlights of CREXI’s day one.