The Pergamon Altar [antikvár]

THE REDISCOVERY AND EXCAVATION "At Pergamon is a great marble altar, 40 feet high, with remarkable statues, and the entire is surrounded by a Battle of the Giants" - Pergamo ara marmorea magna, alta pedes quadraginta cum maximis sculpturis; continet autem gigantomachiam. With these words Lucius Ampelius, a Romari, described the Great Altar at Pergamon in his "Book of Memorable Facts" (liber memorialis 8,14). As Ampelius wrote these words the altar was already about 400 years old. Just a few centuries later, however, nothing remained of tliis extraordinary building. Even so, after the Middle Ages, the odd traveller who included Pergamon in his itinerary was duly impressed by the ancient ruins of the upper and lower city. As far as we know it was an 18th century Frenchman, Count Marié Gábriel A. F. Choiseul-Couffier, who first suggested that it might be interesting to excavate the citadel at Pergamon. Another century passed, however, before a systematic excavation was finally underway. Although a few fragments of Pergamene relief had been sent to the Berlin Museums in 1871, once there they had gone virtually unnoticed. It was Alexander Conze, archaeologist and director of the Sculpture Collection of the Roval Berlin Museums, who was finally attracted to the three relief fragments which were described at the time as hanging "on the wall close to the floor in the so-called Hall of Heroes in the Old Museum". Finally the significance of the fragments had been recognized and the connection between Ampelius's description of a great altar decorated with a battle of the giants and the representations on the relief fragments in Berlin emerged. The man who had discovered the reliefs and sent them to Berlin was a Germán engineer named Carl Humann (fig. 1) who was working for road construction firms in Turkev at the time. In his opinion, the reliefs depicted a "battle with men, horses, wild animals" that had been created for a Temple of Minerva at Pergamon. It was clear to the Berliners, however, that the relief fragments were from a Gigantomachy, or battle of the gods and the giants. Furthermore, they were convinced that it was the Gigantomachy encircling The Pergamon Altar seen by Ampelius centuries earlier. Alexander Conze immediately sent word to Humann that he should watch out for more reliefs. September 1878 - barely a year had passed and the Berlin Museums, officially licensed by the Türkish state authorities, began to excavate the Pergamon citadel. Carl Humann, the man who rediscovered Pergamon was appointed excavation site director. Fig. 1 Carl Humann in Sm\rna (Archives DAI Istanbul) Going back a few years in Pergamon's modern history to the winter of 1864/65, we find Carl Humann arriving at Pergamon for the first time. He was attracted by the idea of visiting the fabled Kings of Pergamon once thriving city. In his report he wrote, "Then it was up to citadel. To the casual observer it looks like one big field of rubble covered with grass and low bushes interspersed with projecting walls from various periods and whose relationship to each other is not at first glancé clear; the crown of the citadel includes what is apparently a Hirkish wall which acted as fortification before the hill feli into its present desolate state. Here too, at the summit, a massive foundation, often criss-crossing and spreading in all directions, projects from the ground. Especiallv of note, however, bordering the precipice to the east as the west, the high retaining walls