NSF Award
2401213
The goal of this project is to increase understanding ancient societies by examining the destruction of monumental architecture. More than a century of archaeological research has focused on the construction of impressive architectural and engineering feats around the globe—with far less research devoted to the cause(s) of their demolition. This research focuses on sites where hundreds of massive, stone statues were carved, transported, erected, and subsequently toppled over. Popular accounts have attributed the destruction of statues to a chaotic period of warfare and societal collapse. It has also been suggested statues may have been toppled by neglect, or strong earthquakes. The research team comprised of archaeologists, a seismologist, and civil engineers are working closely with students in conducting this research. The project serves to enhance indigenous cultural understanding and the results are anticipated to form the basis of a consensus explanation for this case study and promote related inquiry elsewhere.<br/><br/>Monuments are a critical window into people’s values, beliefs, and social memories. The destruction of monuments is especially important since it can shed light on how these aspects of societies change over time. To begin to understand the destruction of statues the team is conducting two types of research. The first is to build a chronology of statue toppling based on the exposure of the broken surfaces of statues to weathering. Exposure to rain and sea spray will over time damage statues in way that can be measured non-destructively with a specialized handheld ultrasound. To determine how long damage observed on statues took to accumulate, the team is artificially weathering stone blocks as well as conducting other experiments. Their second objective is to assess how statues were toppled by looking for distinctive patterns in the timing and location of statue toppling that can be linked to purposeful destruction, neglect, or earthquakes. The team takes advantage of advances in archaeoseismology, specifically engineering computer simulations that predict how statues might behave in major earthquakes, coupled with recorded and synthetic earthquake waveforms. Data produced by these two objectives are delivered to the local community to help make decisions about future conservation of statues.<br/><br/>This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
