Published by
Undergraduate Awards
The New Acropolis Museum in Athens
I visited the new Acropolis Museum in August 2010 on two occasions when I was involved in an Archaeological Study Tour of Greece. I was so impressed by the magnitude and force of the structure and what it housed that I returned again to spend a day there in mid September, before returning to Ireland.
Three years earlier in October 2007 I had sat in the theatre of Dionysos and watched the tower cranes slowly hoist the historic artefacts from the old museum on the Acropolis rock to the new museum. It took four months and required the use of three tower cranes to move the artefacts a distance of two hundred and eighty metres without mishap.
It was certainly a moving and a historical moment and I pondered on the fact that these profoundly ancient artefacts, imbued with the history of the ancient past, were being moved with a modern crane to be carefully situated within a modern space. This experience inspired me to write about the museum, its artefacts and displays, and the fact the ancient past was being incorporated into the present day, through the symbolism of a new modern museum. Because I witnessed the artefacts being transported to the new museum, and then visited it years later, I felt a link with the whole process.
Read the full article HERE.
Comments powered by CComment