A New Look at Kendall's Cosine Quantogram: The Key to Unlocking Ancient Mysteries on Samothrace?

• Activity Number: 307
• Type: Contributed
• Date/Time: Tuesday, August 3, 2010 : 8:30 AM to 10:20 AM
• Sponsor: Section on Physical and Engineering Sciences
• Author(s): Vicki Stover Hertzberg*+ and Bonna Daix Wescoat and S. Margueritte Cox and Paul Weiss
• Companies: Emory University and Emory University and Emory University and Emory University
• Keywords: archaeology ; architecture ; metrology ; cosine quantogram ; ancient Greece ; resampling

Abstract

Identifying the principles of design and construction used in ancient architecture is critical to our understanding of these structures. While many scholars agree that, in ancient Greek architecture, these principles are based on quantal units of linear measure, the magnitude of those quanta have been bitterly contested for centuries. Recent statistical treatment of this question has centered on application of the cosine quantogram to estimate the quantum used in isolated examples of ancient Greek structures. Building upon this work, we present a generalized inference for analyzing cross-classified measurement data. We apply the method to data from several well-preserved buildings in the culturally significant Sanctuary of the Great Gods on the island of Samothrace, Greece, in order to gain insight into the architectural design and construction methods employed at the site.