Imagine the Acropolis

You stand atop the Acropolis and gaze in wonder and awe.

Imagine thousands of years of history, a history not only of

Ancient Greece, but indeed symbolically the history of all

Western civilization. Today, there are scaffolds surrounding

the limestone temple structures atop that historic hill. A vi-

gorous monumental cleaning is taking place.

For millennia, pollutants, exhausts and abrasive toxic fumes

have grated and eaten away at the surfaces of those precious

edifices. Now imagine the ongoing process of restorations to

come, each cleaning taking more and more particles away

from each and every stone. Carefully the method is calculated,

measured to affect the precise and even wearing of each and

every stone.

And one day, tens of thousands of years hence (given all that

corrosive pollution and the abrasive cleaning) there will be a

resulting miniature museum piece, an Acropolis so tiny it could

be held it in the palm of a hand. Imagine the history of that. Ima-

gine the archeological thinking then—those Ancient Greeks, they

must have been a tiny yet mightily industrious lot indeed.

Chris Hanch  11-17-15