Professor Receives Grant for Temple Reconstruction in Greece

Author: Edward Pickering

Pieter Broucke, assistant professor of the History of Art and Architecture, has received a grant from the Parnassus Foundation in support of the Messene Heroon Reconstruction Project, an archaeological excavation that he co-directs in Greece. The foundation has promised continued support for the next three years.
Broucke and Dr. Frederick Cooper of the University of Minnesota began excavating the ruins of a Greco-Roman heroon, or hero shrine, in Ancient Messene in 1992. In the last five summers, 22 Middlebury College students have participated in the project, gaining firsthand archaeological experience amid the idyllic ruins of an ancient Greek city.
Project veteran Sarah Davies '03, who spent two summers as student supervisor of excavations, calls the project "one of those experiences that is so intense it will stay with you forever."
Said Carolyn Gersh '04, who joined Davies this past summer, "The project gave me a glimpse of the material remains of a culture that I have studied for a long time. My time at Messene was extraordinary."
Broucke values the presence of the college students who accompany him to Greece. "I can teach my students a great deal in class," he said, "but until they are in the field, in the heat and the sun and the dust -- until they have a physical context -- they can only learn so much."
A temple-like building, the heroon stood on a high podium and defined the south side of an imposing athletic complex on the southern edge of Ancient Messene, a city of great wealth in antiquity and a large site by modern archaeological standards.
In 1999 Broucke and Cooper completed a trial reconstruction to determine if a full-scale reconstruction of the heroon was feasible. They concluded that it was. The reconstruction underway at Messene is the first large-scale reconstruction of a classical monument in Greece in nearly a century.
"Messene is the next big site," says Davies. "There are 140 acres, largely unexcavated."
In 2000 and 2001 project members reassembled parts of the cella, the structure's innermost room. "In 2002, large-scale excavation took place on, in, and around the podium, and more courses [of the podium] were stacked," said Broucke.
"In the 2003 season," Broucke wrote in a flyer, "the project will continue the excavations and the preparations for reconstruction. Fractured blocks will be mended, missing parts redesigned and specifications drawn up for rebuilding."
Coins found this past summer indicate that the heroon dates to the Julio-Claudian era in the first century A.D. "The best argument for the attribution of the temple," added Broucke, "has been made by Sara Davies." In her independent research project Davies argued that the temple was dedicated to Aristomenes, the eponymous hero of Ancient Messene. Various legends hold that Aristomenes led the Messenians in war against their oppressors, the Spartans.
Like Broucke, who first visited Greece as a 16-year-old backpacker, Davies has fallen in love with the country. "Life in Greece is so much simpler -- so wholesome. Time seems to go slower there. Everywhere you walk in Greece there is history."
Said Broucke of his first encounter, "It was love at first sight: the light, heat, dust, food, landscape and people. It drew me to Greek architecture, which I had always liked."
Project participants speak fondly of Mavromati, the small village overlooking the site of Ancient Messene. A collection of medieval and 19th century houses clustering around an ancient spring, Mavromati is situated on the southern slope of Mount Ithome and, on a clear day, affords a view of the Gulf of Kalamai to the south.
Although surrounded by beauty, and given the weekends off so they can roam across the Western Peloponnese, participants work extremely hard. "The work is physically grueling and psychologically demanding. You can't describe how hard it is," said Davies, "But you also can't describe how rewarding it is."
"The hours are long -- 10 hours a day -- and the heat and sun are brutal," noted Broucke. The students rise at 6:15 a.m. and do not finish until 7:30 p.m. "The work is tedious but fascinating."
"It is almost magical how stuff pops out at you," said Davies, referring to the excavations she supervised. "We found glass, pottery, sculpture, architectural fragments and lots of coins, she added."
For Broucke, the reconstruction of the heroon is just as gratifying as the excavation of it. "I do not make much of a distinction between designing and reconstruction," said Broucke, who began his professional career as an architect in Belgium, his native land. A fortuitous encounter with Cooper in the early 1980s led to his involvement in an archeological team working at Nemea, another site in Greece.
In the early 1990s he joined Cooper in spearheading the excavation at Messene.
Said Davies, summarizing her time with the Messene Project, "It is an experience you can't get anywhere else. To me, Pieter Broucke was the life of the dig. His passion was infectious."
After completing the Messene project, which the Greek government will fund through 2006, Broucke would like to conduct field research at the Temple of Zeus in Argento, Sicily, the edifice on which he wrote his dissertation. Again, Broucke intends to take students. "I would love to do this purely as a Middlebury project," he said, noting that the Messene Project incorporates students from other institutions.
Broucke and Cooper will publish a monograph of their work on the Messene Project in Praktika, a series issued by the Greek Archaeological Society.