Builders as Agents of an Architectural koine: the Case of the Attalid Stoas in Athens
(2025) Commonality and Diversity in the Hellenistic World — ISBN: [978-2-9602029-9-1], published
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- Abstract
- This paper explores the concept of architectural “koine” as a process of knowledge transfer with the Attalid stoas in Athens as a case study. The origin of the skilled labourers working on the Stoa of Eumenes (on the south slope of the Acropolis) and the Stoa of Attalos (on the east side of the Agora) is discussed, using archaeological and epigraphical evidence, while the related question of marble provenance prompts a discussion on the reasons behind the choice of various kinds of materials. This serves as a basis to explore the understudied question of on-site technical transfer between craftsmen with different practices in ancient monumental construction. Supporting evidence comes from labour cost estimations drawn from figures of the modern reconstruction of the Stoa of Attalos in 1953-1956. A case is made for architectural energetics (labour cost estimations) as a way of better understanding the concrete mechanisms behind the diffusion of formal and technical features.
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Vanden Broeck-Parant, J. (2025). Builders as Agents of an Architectural koine: the Case of the Attalid Stoas in Athens. In Alexandros Laftsidis (ed.), Commonality and Diversity in the Hellenistic World. CReA‑Patrimoine. https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/260577