page_title: Old Temple of Athena
section_title: Wilhelm Dörpfeld
hierarchical_section_title: Old Temple of Athena / Excavation and Reconstruction / Wilhelm Dörpfeld
caption_attribution_description: English: Architectural remains of the Old Athena Temple built into the north wall of the Acropolis
context_page_description: The Old Temple of Athena was an Archaic temple located on the Acropolis of Athens between the Older Parthenon and Erechtheion, built around 525–500 BC, and dedicated to Athena Polias, the patron deity of the city of Athens. It was destroyed by the Persians in 480 BC, during the Destruction of Athens. It was located at the center of the Acropolis plateau, probably on the remains of a Mycenaean palace. The complex is sometimes described by the name "Dörpfeld foundations", after the archaeologist who found the location of the temple. It was referred to as "Archaios Neos" by the Greeks.
context_section_description: Wilhelm Dörpfeld went to Athens in 1885 to look at the ruins of the Temple of Athena where he noticed some ruins were still standing and looked as though the architecture was the temple of Athena Polias. Wilhelm saw a piece of a building that looked like a piece of the Erechtheiom temple, which was in the same location another archaeologist named Ross excavated in 1834. Once Wilhelm saw the same ruins he cleared in 1834, Wilhelm went towards the ruins to examine and he immediately confirmed it was the old temple of Athena. Wilhelm Dörpfeld assumed that the original structure was a double temple in antis, dating to about 570 BC, lengthened and broadened by the addition of the peristasis under Peisistratus, between 529 and 520 BC. This idea led to a subdivision of the foundations into an inner smaller structure known as H-Architektur and assumed to be the oldest part of the building, followed by a structure still described as the "Old Temple of Athena", including the inner H-Architektur as well as the external peristasis.
caption: Architectural remains of the Old Athena Temple built into the north wall of the Acropolis by Themistocles, circa 478 BC.
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