Greek temple ruins suggest lifting machines in use 150 years earlier than previously believed

As modern Greeks undertake to reconstruct the Parthenon, largely using stone material from the site's ruins, a question naturally arises: How did ancient Greeks construct massive temples and other buildings—lifting and placing one heavy block at a time, and up multiple rows in a wall—without modern advanced machinery?

The Temple of Apollo in ancient Corinth [Credit: WikiCommons]

Scholars agree that Greek contributions to culture and building technology are myriad, with the crane being the most significant and enduring. But when and how did these machines enter the picture?

New research by Alessandro Pierattini, assistant professor of architecture at the University of Notre Dame, adds nuance to the broadly accepted view that the crane was not in use until 515 B.C. by demonstrating how forerunners to the machine were experimented with as early as 700-650 B.C.

"The foremost discovery of the Greeks in building technology is the crane," Pierattini said. "No previous civilizations are known to have used it, and it has remained central to building construction without remarkable changes for nearly 25 centuries—because it was perfect."

Pierattini studies the architectural history of Greek temples, with special focus on the ruins at Isthmia and Corinth. In a new article published in the Annual of the British School at Athens, he argues that in the first half of the seventh century B.C., Greek builders were experimenting with a lifting framework. Pierattini also suggests that winches were associated into frameworks from around 600 B.C. Cranes including both winch and hoist appeared only later, as argued by the renowned scholar of Greek design and construction J.J. Coulton in 1974.