After 2,100 years, the marble volumes (buildings) with which the extraordinary artistic outer enclosure of the impressive Kasta Tomb was lined are returning to their place again, thanks to the study and supervision of the architect Dr. Michalis Lefantzis.
The buildings return to their original position after a long journey of dispersal in the area around the river Strymonas. The buildings were razed by the Roman conquerors in an attempt to disappear the brilliant monument that was a reference point of the glory of the Macedonian army and the campaign in the east. Today, ten years after its discovery by the archaeological hoe of Katerina Peristeris, the Kasta Tomb is a unique archaeological monument of incalculable value and prestige for our country.
The mystery of the scattered marble buildings
The origin of a large number of marble buildings that were scattered along the bed of the Strymons, around Amphipolis, was for many years a mystery to archaeologists. Their number was so great that in 1934 the German company that built the Kerkini lake dam in Lithotopos used 1,600 pieces, in order to avoid the use of cement, which was more expensive and did not provide the stability offered by marble.
Those marbles that were not then used for the work in question, remained for decades submerged at the bottom of Kerkini. When the water level receded in 2014, more than a hundred members of the Kasta Tomb’s marble enclosure were exposed, such as cornices, uprights and crowns.
Earlier, and several decades ago, marbles from the surroundings of the Kasta Tomb had been discovered in Strymonas during the riverbed settlement works. A part of these were used for the construction of the new pedestal of the famous Leo of Amphipolis.
In the Fall of 1970, the French archaeologists Stellas Grobel Miller and Stephen G. Miller spent ten days at Amphipolis, engaged in gathering the marbles that had come out of Strymons. The result was to gather together next to the Leo of Amphipolis, the marble architectural members found from both banks of the river, so that it would be easy to study them by the researchers of the future, and this work of theirs was by no means inconsiderable. In addition, they compiled a catalog of the finds, in which they attempted a grouping of the marble members, for which no one at the time could imagine where they came from.
The identification of the structures is a difficult and laborious task
Since 2012, in the first phase of the excavation research, when the porinus and marble enclosure was revealed, Dr. Michalis Lefantzis studied and identified the scattered buildings with the masonry of Timvos Kasta. The identification of the architectural members was based on this study today. It is a particularly difficult and laborious project, as it involves thousands of buildings, coming from various parts of the wider region.
The impressive enclosure, 497 meters long and 1.60 meters thick in total, consists of thousands of buildings. About 1/3 of it, which is over 100 meters, was saved in excellent condition and is the eastern part, from the side of the monument. In total, 365 buildings have been collected from the area next to Leo and 100 from Lake Kerkini, which are placed in order of construction, on the western side of the Tomb. These buildings will be utilized for the restoration of the enclosure.
The missing marble buildings amount to 2,150 and are of various categories. Of these, 1,600 are found at the bottom of Kerkini, while there are also about 150 that were used for the pedestal of Leo, in its current location.
A public work commissioned by a king
The work of the restoration work of the marble enclosure is almost titanic as all the buildings found have to be identified following the technique of that time. It should be noted that Mr. Lefantzis studied in detail the restoration of the Eumenos gallery in Athens and completed a similar project in the past.
What is worth emphasizing and emerges from the study prepared by the architect of the monument, is that the construction of the marble enclosure was done by two different workshops. Both started from a common point but crossed different directions: one from the east side to the west and another from the west to the east. It took about two and a half years for the entire enclosure to be covered with marble.
As underlined by Dr. Michalis Lefantzis, head of the Department of Archaeological Projects and Studies of the Ephorate of Antiquities of the City of Athens, “this enclosure consisted of thousands of cubic meters of marble, a particularly expensive material that had to be transported from far away. Given that marble was not used as a construction material in Macedonia, but mostly pumice stone with mortar (plastering), it can be seen that the impressive marble enclosure was a great public project of the time. A project that only a king could order.”
A new era for the brilliant monument
The project of the so-called didactic restoration of the enclosure which has already started and is expected to be completed within four months includes the placement of the marble structures that have already been found and identified in three different places, in an effort to restore the monument.
However, Mr. Lefantzis underlines that the process of identification and attribution of the members is a particularly difficult task carried out by scientists who have been dealing with the specific object of work for years in similar monuments such as the Acropolis. “It is a very special job, for a very difficult puzzle in plain language, as the identification and full rendering of the marble structures also requires the corresponding links which are not easy to find.”
This restoration is one of the elements that can be seen up close by the visitor of the impressive monument of the Kasta Tomb. Mr. Lefantzis underlines to APE – MPE that “as the visitor enters the space, he will see the restored section which will consist, in order of height, of five marble bases, two uprights and a counter. A few meters further west, there will be a second, more complete section that will include eight marble plinths, four uprights, three lintels, two lateral uprights and a cornice. Afterwards, he will visit the inside of the monument and at the exit towards the east he will see the complete form of the enclosure, as it was saved over the centuries and revealed by the excavation of 2012”.
Source: Skai
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