Editing Parthenon (section)

===Older Parthenon===
{{Main|Older Parthenon}}
[[File:Parthenon ancient & Pericles, Maxime Collignon.jpg|thumb|left|The [[Older Parthenon]] (in black) was destroyed by the Achaemenids during the [[Destruction of Athens]] in 480–479 BC, and then rebuilt by [[Pericles]] (in grey).]]
The first endeavour to build a sanctuary for [[Athena#Athena Parthenos: Virgin Athena|Athena Parthenos]] on the site of the present Parthenon was begun shortly after the [[Battle of Marathon]] ({{circa|490}}–488&nbsp;BC) upon a solid [[limestone]] foundation that extended and levelled the southern part of the [[Acropolis]] summit. This building replaced a [[Hekatompedon temple]] ("hundred-footer") and would have stood beside the [[Old Temple of Athena|archaic temple dedicated to ''Athena Polias'']] ("of the city"). The [[Older Parthenon|Older or Pre-Parthenon]], as it is frequently referred to, was still under construction when the [[Achaemenid Empire|Persians]] sacked the city in 480&nbsp;BC razing the Acropolis.<ref name="venieri-acropolis">{{cite web |url=http://odysseus.culture.gr/h/3/eh351.jsp?obj_id=2384 |title=Acropolis of Athens |author=Ioanna Venieri |publisher=Hellenic Ministry of Culture |access-date=4 May 2007 |archive-date=24 October 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191024154934/http://odysseus.culture.gr/h/3/eh351.jsp?obj_id=2384 |url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>Hurwit 2005, p. 135.</ref>

The existence of both the proto-Parthenon and its destruction were known from [[Herodotus]],<ref>Herodotus Histories, 8.53.</ref> and the drums of its columns were visibly built into the curtain wall north of the [[Erechtheion]]. Further physical evidence of this structure was revealed with the excavations of [[Panagiotis Kavvadias]] of 1885–1890. The findings of this dig allowed [[Wilhelm Dörpfeld]], then director of the [[German Archaeological Institute]], to assert that there existed a distinct substructure to the original Parthenon, called Parthenon I by Dörpfeld, not immediately below the present edifice as previously assumed.<ref>W. Dörpfeld, "Der aeltere Parthenon", ''Ath. Mitteilungen'', XVII, 1892, pp. 158–189 and W. Dörpfeld, "Die Zeit des alteren Parthenon", ''AM'' '''27''', 1902, pp. 379–416.</ref> Dörpfeld's observation was that the three steps of the first Parthenon consisted of two steps of Poros limestone, the same as the foundations, and a top step of Karrha limestone that was covered by the lowest step of the Periclean Parthenon. This platform was smaller and slightly to the north of the final Parthenon, indicating that it was built for a different building, now completely covered over. This picture was somewhat complicated by the publication of the final report on the 1885–1890 excavations, indicating that the substructure was contemporary with the Kimonian walls, and implying a later date for the first temple.<ref>P. Kavvadis, G. Kawerau, ''Die Ausgabung der Acropolis vom Jahre 1885 bis zum Jahre 1890'', 1906.</ref>

[[File:Perserschutt.gif|thumb|upright|Part of the archaeological remains called ''[[Perserschutt]]'', or "Persian rubble": remnants of the destruction of Athens by the armies of [[Xerxes I]]. Photographed in 1866, just after excavation.]]
If the original Parthenon was indeed destroyed in 480, it invites the question of why the site was left as a ruin for thirty-three years. One argument involves the oath sworn by the Greek allies before the [[Battle of Plataea]] in 479&nbsp;BC<ref>NM Tod, ''A Selection of Greek Historical Inscriptions II'', 1948, no. 204, lines 46–51, The authenticity of this is disputed, however; see also P. Siewert, Der Eid von Plataia (Munich 1972), pp. 98–102.</ref> declaring that the sanctuaries destroyed by the Persians would not be rebuilt, an oath from which the Athenians were only absolved with the [[Peace of Callias]] in 450.<ref>{{cite web |last=Kerr |first=Minott |url=http://people.reed.edu/~mkerr/papers/Parth95.html |title='The Sole Witness': The Periclean Parthenon |publisher=Reed College Portland, Oregon, US |date=23 October 1995 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070608024611/http://people.reed.edu/~mkerr/papers/Parth95.html |archive-date=8 June 2007}}</ref> The cost of reconstructing Athens after the Persian sack is at least as likely a cause. The excavations of [[Bert Hodge Hill]] led him to propose the existence of a second Parthenon, begun in the period of [[Cimon|Kimon]] after 468.<ref>B. H. Hill, "The Older Parthenon", ''AJA'', XVI, 1912, pp. 535–558.</ref> Hill claimed that the Karrha limestone step Dörpfeld thought was the highest of Parthenon I was the lowest of the three steps of Parthenon II, whose stylobate dimensions Hill calculated at {{convert|23.51|x|66.888|m|2|lk=on}}.

One difficulty in dating the proto-Parthenon is that at the time of the 1885 excavation, the archaeological method of [[seriation (archaeology)|seriation]] was not fully developed; the careless digging and refilling of the site led to a loss of much valuable information. An attempt to make sense of the potsherds found on the Acropolis came with the two-volume study by Graef and Langlotz published in 1925–1933.<ref>B. Graef, E. Langlotz, ''Die Antiken Vasen von der Akropolis zu Athen'', Berlin 1925–1933.</ref> This inspired American archaeologist [[William Bell Dinsmoor]] to give limiting dates for the temple platform and the five walls hidden under the re-terracing of the Acropolis. Dinsmoor concluded that the latest possible date for Parthenon I was no earlier than 495&nbsp;BC, contradicting the early date given by Dörpfeld.<ref>W. Dinsmoor, "The Date of the Older Parthenon", ''AJA'', XXXVIII, 1934, pp. 408–448.</ref> He denied that there were two proto-Parthenons, and held that the only pre-Periclean temple was what Dörpfeld referred to as Parthenon II. Dinsmoor and Dörpfeld exchanged views in the ''American Journal of Archaeology'' in 1935.<ref>W. Dörpfeld, "Parthenon I, II, III", ''AJA'', XXXIX, 1935, 497–507, and W. Dinsmoor, ''AJA'', XXXIX, 1935, 508–509</ref>