Editing Acropolis of Athens (section)

===Archaic Acropolis===
{{Redirect|Temple of Athena Polias|the temple in Priene|Temple of Athena Polias (Priene)}}
[[File:Primitive Acropolis with the Pelargicon.jpg|thumb|upright=2.2|Primitive Acropolis with the Pelargicon and the Old Temple of Athena.]]
[[File:Aufriß des alten Athena-Tempels.jpg|thumb|Elevation view of a proposed reconstruction of the Old Temple of Athena. Built around 525 BC, it stood between the Parthenon and the [[Erechtheum]]. Fragments of the sculptures in its pediments are in the Acropolis Museum.]]

Not much is known about the architectural appearance of the Acropolis until the [[Archaic Greece|Archaic era]]. During the 7th and the 6th centuries BC, the site was controlled by [[Cylon (ancient Athenian)|Kylon]] during the failed Kylonian revolt,<ref name="Pomeroy1999">{{cite book |last=Pomeroy |first=Sarah B. |author-link=Sarah B. Pomeroy |title=Ancient Greece: A Political, Social, and Cultural History |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=INUT5sZku1UC&pg=PA163 |year=1999 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-509742-9 |pages=163–}}</ref> and twice by [[Peisistratos]]; each of these was attempts directed at seizing political power by ''[[coup|coups d'état]]''. Apart from the [[Hekatompedon temple|Hekatompedon]] mentioned later, Peisistratos also built an entry gate or [[propylaea]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/448916/Peisistratus |title=Peisistratos |last=Starr |first=Chester G. |website=Encyclopædia Britannica |access-date=2 December 2012 |archive-date=31 July 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130731080315/http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/448916/Peisistratus |url-status=live }}</ref> Nevertheless, it seems that a nine-gate wall, the [[Enneapylon]],<ref>[http://odysseus.culture.gr/h/2/eh251.jsp?obj_id=8242 "Acropolis fortification wall"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121128012957/http://odysseus.culture.gr/h/2/eh251.jsp?obj_id=8242 |date=2012-11-28 }}, Odysseus. Retrieved 2 December 2012.</ref> had been built around the acropolis hill and incorporated the biggest water spring, the [[Klepsydra (Akropolis)|Clepsydra]], at the northwestern foot.

A temple to [[Athena|Athena Polias]], the [[tutelary deity]] of the city, was erected between 570 and 550 BC. This [[Doric order|Doric]] limestone building, from which many relics survive, is referred to as the Hekatompedon (Greek for "hundred–footed"), Ur-Parthenon (German for "original Parthenon" or "primitive Parthenon"), H–Architecture or Bluebeard temple, after the pedimental three-bodied man-serpent sculpture, whose beards were painted dark blue. Whether this temple replaced an older one or just a sacred precinct or altar is not known. Probably, the Hekatompedon was built where the Parthenon now stands.<ref>Hurwit 2000, p. 111.</ref>
[[File:The Capture of the Acropolis by the Persians.jpg|thumb|left|upright=1.2|[[Achaemenid destruction of Athens|Destruction of the Acropolis]] by the armies of [[Xerxes I]], during the [[Second Persian invasion of Greece]], 480–479 BC]]

Between 529 and 520 BC yet another temple was built by the [[Pisistratus|Pisistratids]], the [[Old Temple of Athena]], usually referred to as the Arkhaios Neōs (ἀρχαῖος νεώς, "ancient temple"). This temple of Athena Polias was built upon the [[Wilhelm Dörpfeld|Dörpfeld]] foundations,<ref>Hurwit 2000, p. 121.</ref> between the [[Erechtheion]] and the still-standing Parthenon. The Arkhaios Neōs was destroyed as part of the [[Achaemenid destruction of Athens]] during the [[Second Persian invasion of Greece]] during 480–479 BC; however, the temple was probably reconstructed during 454 BC, since the treasury of the [[Delian League]] was transferred in its [[opisthodomos]]. The temple may have been burnt down during 406/405 BC as [[Xenophon]] mentions that the old temple of Athena was set afire. [[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]] does not mention it in his 2nd century AD ''Description of Greece''.<ref>{{in lang|el}} [http://www.eie.gr/archaeologia/gr/02_DELTIA/Old_Temple_of_Athena.aspx] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111230004407/http://www.eie.gr/archaeologia/gr/02_DELTIA/Old_Temple_of_Athena.aspx|date=2011-12-30}}, Retrieved 5 June 2012.</ref>

Around 500 BC the Hekatompedon was dismantled to make place for a new grander building, the [[Older Parthenon]] (often referred to as the Pre-Parthenon or Early Parthenon). For this reason, Athenians decided to stop the construction of the [[Temple of Olympian Zeus, Athens|Olympieion]] temple which was connoted with the tyrant Peisistratos and his sons, and, instead, used the [[Piraeus]] limestone destined for the Olympieion to build the Older Parthenon. To accommodate the new temple, the south part of the summit was cleared, made level by adding some 8,000 two-ton blocks of limestone, a foundation {{cvt|11|m|0}} deep at some points, and the rest was filled with soil kept in place by the retaining wall. However, after the victorious [[Battle of Marathon]] in 490 BC, the plan was revised and marble was used instead. The limestone phase of the building is referred to as Pre-Parthenon I and the marble phase as Pre-Parthenon II. In 485 BC, construction stalled to save resources as [[Xerxes I of Persia|Xerxes]] became king of Persia, and war seemed imminent.<ref>Manolis Korres, [http://www.eie.gr/archaeologia/En/chapter_more_3.aspx ''Topographic Issues of the Acropolis''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200218042410/http://www.eie.gr/archaeologia/En/chapter_more_3.aspx|date=2020-02-18}}, Archaeology of the City of Athens; Retrieved 7 June 2012.</ref>
The Older Parthenon was still under construction when the Persians invaded and sacked the city in 480 BC. The building was burned and looted, along with the Ancient Temple and practically everything else on the rock.<ref>[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/artifact;jsessionid=7EAE195E7827EA194D2FFC77288CE706?name=Athens%2C+Pre-Parthenon&object=Building "Athens, Pre-Parthenon (Building)"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200821080259/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/artifact;jsessionid=7EAE195E7827EA194D2FFC77288CE706?name=Athens,+Pre-Parthenon&object=Building |date=2020-08-21 }}, ''Perseus Digital Library''. Retrieved 3 December 2012.</ref><ref>Dörpfeld, W: ''Der aeltere Parthenon'', Ath. Mitt, XVII, 1892, pp. 158–189. {{in lang|de}}.</ref> After the Persian crisis had subsided, the Athenians incorporated many architectural parts of the unfinished temple (unfluted column drums, triglyphs, metopes, etc.) into the newly built northern [[curtain wall (fortification)|curtain wall]] of the Acropolis, where they served as a prominent "war memorial" and can still be seen today. The devastated site was cleared of debris. Statuary, cult objects, religious offerings, and unsalvageable architectural members were buried ceremoniously in several deeply dug pits on the hill, serving conveniently as a fill for the artificial plateau created around the Classical Parthenon. This "[[Perserschutt|Persian debris]]" was the richest archaeological deposit excavated on the Acropolis by 1890.<ref>Kavvadias, Panagiotis, Kawerau, Georg: ''Die Ausgrabung der Akropolis vom Jahre 1885 bis zum Jahre 1890'', Athens, 1906 {{in lang|de}}.</ref>