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PROPORTIONS AND METROLOGY
OF THE PARTHENON


THE WORK IS BASED ON THE FOLLOWING HYPOTHESIS:

I. Layout of construction forms in ancient Greece was
accomplished with the aid of the integral modular
relations, connected with the system of measures.


II. During the layout of the forms of the Parthenon
the following initial linear measures were used:



Overall measurement system. (reconstruction):

methrological
standard Length in sm. (fingers)(inches)
finger 1,629 (1) (3/4)
inch 2,172 (1 1/3) (1)
palm 6,515 (4) (3)
foot (Parthenon)26,06 (16) (12)
attic foot 32,57 (20) (15)
cubit (Parthenon)39,09 (24) (18)
attic cubit 48,86 (30) (22 1/2)
roual cubit 52,12 (32) (24)



SUBSTANTIATIONS:


A. Metrological:

1. Eratosthenes of Cyrene (234-196 BC) has defined
the circumference of the Earth as equal to
252000 stadias. Hence, the length of a stadia
is considered equal to approximately 156-157
meters. History of Herodotus (484-426 BC)
reports that a stadia is 600 feet.
Connecting these two facts, the length of
the foot must be approximately 0,26 0,265
meters.


2. Inscription, which was described by R.Vallois
(J.J.Coulton. Towards understanding greek
temple design. p.86), reports that Prytaneionon
the island of Delos (3 centuries BC) had a
length of 47 orgia. The actual length of the
building is 72.47 meters, that makes the length
of the orgia equal to 1.542 meters. According
to Vitruvius, an orgia is 6 feet. Hence, the
foot is equal to 0.258 meters.


3. During the excavations of Lagash city (southern
Babilonia) was found the statuette of the ruler
Gudea in the role of an architect. On the knees
of the statue is graven an architects
straightedge. Its length is 0.263 meters. It is
divided into 16 equal parts of 0.0164 meters.


4. In the Museum of Ancient Applied Arts in
Munich, two proportional compasses are stored.
One of them has a length of legs of 0,146 m
and 0,073 m, that can be treated as 1/2 and
1/4 of roman foot (0,292 m). The length of the
legs of another compasses is equal to 0,134 m
and 0,067 m, which gives by analogy the
dimension of foot, equal to 0,268 m.


5. According to the results of studies of
historian-metrologist L.V. Firsov (1972), the
dimension of Ancientn Greek stadium is equal to
156 meters. L.V. Firsov has verified 85
references about distances between the
populated areas in the "Geography" of Strabon
and established that the measurements were done
by the stadium, equal to 156 m.



B. ANTHROPOMETRIC.


1. In the 70th on the territory of the former
USSR, there were carried out wide statistical
Anthropometric measurements. The averaged
length of mens foot different regions is
represented in the following table:


Region Averaged length of the foot of the male population in cm
Moscow 26,034
Russia 26,720
Armenia 26,040
Georgia 26,365
Daghestan 26,132
Lithiania 27,030
Yakutia 24,628
Arithmetical mean value 26,136

It seem unlikely that the length of ancient
Greek man-s foot was longer thet the average
Soviet man-s foot.



THE CLOSEST ANALOGY.


Lorensen E. Technological studies in ancient metrology.
Doctorsovn. Copenhagen, 1966.

In this thesis, the foot equals half of roual cubit.
However, he gave us a determined foot-size of 0,268 m
(the size he had shown as the distances between the
midpoints of the external columns,was excepted to equal
16 of these feet). And size of roual cubit, therefore,
is 0,536 m, an unconvincind measurement. In metrology
the royal cubit varied from 0,52 to 0,525m. Also,
Lorensen found a measure of 100 feet in the naos of
the Parthenon. If the distance between midpoints of
columns of the naos equaled 10 feet, he defined the
size of 100 feet as being between abstract points of
the plan of the Parthenon. One of these points is in
the wall of the cella, another is connected to the
midpoints of the external columns (see plate 30). In
addition, if the foot-size is 0,268, the distance
between columns of naos must be 2,68, which is 8 sm
off. This error is very big for exact evidence of
use these measurements.






C. ARCHITECTYRAL SUBSTANTIATIONS:


See Plates


PLATES1-10
PLATES11-20
PLATES21-30
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