CLAS 1270 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Leptis Magna, Lionsgate, Calcium Oxide
Document Summary
How do we know about the ancient greeks: from sources. Material sources: on surface, below surface. Surface: the items that have the best chance of survival on the surface are durable, hard material, especially stone and fired pottery, there are a long or surviving items that help reconstruct greek culture. The larger the building the more massive its effect on the landscape. The level of survival of a building is quite impressive - still greek ruins. Fragments of pottery can last on the surface. A lot of luck that we still have some items from that time: looting, ancient destruction, modern destruction. Metals should survive but they become valuable so people steal them. Marble was used a lot in buildings, but if the building fell the marble was reused. Romans used cement and needed a quick-lime product which came from burning marble from the greeks.