2015/12/01 by James Beresford · 2 citations
Earth and Planetary Sciences · #Acropolis #Alchemy #Ammunition #Ancient history #Archaeology #Archaeology and ancient environmental studies #Art history #Classics #Geography #History #Independence (probability theory) #Omen #Plucking
paper · doi:10.1017/s0018246x15000242
openalex publication_date 2015/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/05/21
Abstract This paper assesses the historical validity of the famous tale that, near the beginning of the Greek War of Independence (1821–32), the Hellenic revolutionary army offered lead ammunition to their Ottoman enemies who they were besieging on the Athenian Acropolis. This gift was presented to the Turks in an effort to halt their quarrying of the Parthenon and the other classical monuments on the hill-top, within the masonry of which the Ottoman defenders were searching for the ancient lead clamps which could be melted down and recast into ammunition. This paper will, however, demonstrate that there is a lack of contemporary evidence to support the tale and the earliest recorded references to the story only occur some four decades after the event was claimed to have taken place. Yet despite this lack of eyewitness evidence, from the early 1980s onwards, the tale has been frequently passed off as historical fact and referenced with regularity by campaigners lobbying for the return of the Elgin Marbles from the British Museum.