Epidauros: Building for Asclepius

The study of building projects in the Greek World is of central importance for the study of the economy, society, the law, and the history of architecture. With public buildings, an ancient city could express its wealth, its influence and power, or its intended cultural superiority. Every building program depends on the raising of funds and the acquisition of trained workers, especially of engineers and, in the case of temples or statues, of artists. By examining those processes, we will be able to get a clearer picture of forerunners and imitators among Greek cities; regarding the economic aspects, of the difficulties to get funding, material, and trained personnel; and of connections between cities. The study of these processes is based to a very large extent on the epigraphic evidence. Stone inscriptions are particularly reliable since they are official documents, they are in direct relation to specific temples, public buildings or houses and, above all, they are contemporary with the buildings themselves. My project offers a case study from late classical Greece. The group of building accounts from Epidauros (32 stelae in total) is significant for several reasons: It begins relatively early (ca. 400 BC); it has strong relations to Athens; and the responsible commission also decided to register, apart from cost and the revenues from the public treasury, also revenues from fines imposed on workmen who had been late or had performed their work badly this last point being of special legal interest. The first volume of my edition has recently been published published.1 My project in Vienna will be editing the second volume with a new and reliable edition of the later accounts from between ca. 350 and 270 BC, a translation of all texts, and an exhaustive archaeological commentray, as well as summarizing chapters about architectural, artistic and economic features, and the epidaurian building program in general. A Lise Meitner scholarship would give me the time and concentration necessary to continuously work on the texts, and to give translations and commentary. There is no doubt that a full and reliable edition of the new, hitherto unread texts and their interpretation will provide an entirely new overall picture of the Epidaurian sanctuary. It is also clear that this will pave the way for a better understanding of late- classical building policy and craftsmanship in general. 1 Bauurkunden und Bauprogramm von Epidauros (400-350), Vestigia vol. 67, München (C.H.Beck) 2014.

The Project "Epidauros: Building for Asclepius" deals with a group of inscriptions in ancient Greek that has been found in the sanctuary of Asclepius at Epidauros. The texts date back to the 4th century BC; they are accounts for the building activities organized by the sanctuary's administration. Altogether 31 stone slabs, partly complete, partly fragments, in an average height of 2 m, average broadness of 1 m, average thickness of 15-25 cm. Text was written on all sides in some cases. The big challenge was to produce a trustworthy Greek text from the stones: They were re-used in late antiquity as building material for thresholds, house walls or fortifications, so that they were exposed to weather for centuries or worn out by steps of people. The first aim was therefore the constitution of Greek texts, of a critical apparatus and the production of German translations.Following that it was necessary to search for the respective building project each text is dealing with. The inscriptions use to start with an introduction saying which building is accounted. But in many cases the stone is only a fragment, missing the beginning, or the beginning is not readable anymore. In such cases, the building project is only to be found from the content of the texts, i.e. the architectural members that the commission pays for. The second aim was to find the building projects the texts deal with.The information from the texts is concerning building processes, the work of workmen and entrepreneurs, the materials used while constructing, cost, and the time for erecting several buildings. When there was a problem with the workmen, an entrepreneur could be punished by the administration because of bad workmanship or delay. In the case of objection, he could be sentenced by a court. The third aim was the examination of economic and legal questions connected with building activity.We do not find exactly one building project on one stone in every case. When the workshops worked contemporarily on several projects, the accounts were inscribed after receipt of the texts, and because of this, on some stones we find accounts from several projects, and some projects were accounted for on more than one stone, respectively. The fourth aim was a collection of all available information about each building and its synoptic list as a building's history. Next to this, there were insights about the process of inscribing. Then, texts and buildings were to bring into a chronological order. Result is the fifth aim of a building history for the sanctuary of Epidauros. An analysis of this tries to fathom political, economical and cultural reasons for the way the Epidaurians expanded their sanctuary in the 4th century.