A Tale of Three Drums: An Unfinished Archaic Votive Column in the Sanctuary of Poseidon at Kalaureia

Three unfinished column drums discovered at the Kalaureia
Research Program excavations in 2007–2009 can be shown to have
been intended for a monumental Archaic Ionic votive column. All
drums have systematic masons’ marks on the contact surfaces. The
latter parts of the inscriptions indicate the position of the drum in the
shaft. Two alternative readings for the first part of the inscription are
suggested: the first interprets it as a building instruction and the
second as a price indication. The start of the building project took
place very likely in the second half of the sixth century BC, and the
deposit date of the fill surrounding the blocks indicates that the
unfinished project was abandoned in the late sixth century BC.
Reconstruction of the column shaft from the known drum dimensions
demonstrates that the finished shaft would have been constructed
with a slight entasis.