Monday, June 15, 2009

New Test Reveals Parthenon's Hidden Colour

The Parthenon would once have been much more gaudy (Image: Roy Rainford/Robert Harding/Rex Features)

From New Scientist:

Images of the Parthenon as a stark, white structure set against an azure sky will have to change. Researchers have found the first evidence of coloured paints covering its elaborate sculptures.

The temple, which tops the Acropolis in Athens, Greece, dates from the 5th century BC. Its carved statues and friezes show scenes from Greek mythology and are some of the most impressive sculptures to survive from ancient Greece.

Pigments are known to have adorned other Greek statues and temples, but despite 200 years of searching, archaeologists had found no trace of them on the Parthenon's sculptures.

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