by JWintjes » Wed Mar 12, 2008 2:42 pm
First of all, thanks to Sean and Kenny for signing.
As for Chuck's comment, I think you're conflating two quite different things.
There is the issue of available resources. If I only have the money for either the Parthenon or any other Athenian temple, I'll spend it on the Parthenon. I would even go so far as to agree with you that if I were forced to chose between digging up the umpteenth Roman military post, interesting as it is, and, say, Karkemish, I'd probably chose the latter (provided they finally start clearing the mines there...
).
But in this particular case quite a different thing is at stake. This is actually not about money - with proper political backing there would be money available to support this site. The problem here is fundamentally about people trying to gain short-term profits out of a site that has a high property value because it's squarely in downtown Athens. As far as the thinking behind it goes, it's pretty similar to someone trying to pull down the Colosseum because you could make tons of money there with a guarded parking lot. The site is indeed of great importance, but it's not the site alone. It's fighting against a policy of profiteering that would sell the Parthenon for profit.
Incidentally, a similar fight is currently going on about the diholkos, the ancient slipway through the Corinthian Isthmus which allowed ships to be pulled from one side to the other. Here again it's about short-sighted profiteering and real estate development. The difference is that the diholkos has little in the way of profile outside the academic world - which this site in downtown Athens has.
Jorit
First of all, thanks to Sean and Kenny for signing. :thumbs_up_1:
As for Chuck's comment, I think you're conflating two quite different things.
There is the issue of available resources. If I only have the money for either the Parthenon or any other Athenian temple, I'll spend it on the Parthenon. I would even go so far as to agree with you that if I were forced to chose between digging up the umpteenth Roman military post, interesting as it is, and, say, Karkemish, I'd probably chose the latter (provided they finally start clearing the mines there... :wink: :big_grin:).
But in this particular case quite a different thing is at stake. This is actually not about money - with proper political backing there would be money available to support this site. The problem here is fundamentally about people trying to gain short-term profits out of a site that has a high property value because it's squarely in downtown Athens. As far as the thinking behind it goes, it's pretty similar to someone trying to pull down the Colosseum because you could make tons of money there with a guarded parking lot. The site is indeed of great importance, but it's not the site alone. It's fighting against a policy of profiteering that would sell the Parthenon for profit.
Incidentally, a similar fight is currently going on about the diholkos, the ancient slipway through the Corinthian Isthmus which allowed ships to be pulled from one side to the other. Here again it's about short-sighted profiteering and real estate development. The difference is that the diholkos has little in the way of profile outside the academic world - which this site in downtown Athens has.
Jorit