La progettazione modulare del tempio di Zeus a Stratos (Acarnania, Grecia): determinazione dell'unità di misura e studio di alcune procedure di cantiere

The late-classical Doric peripteral temple at Stratos (Acarnania, West Greece) is a well- conserved building with some features worthy of study. The local limestone column drums still keep the bosses used for lifting and collocating them, because the temple was never finished; only their lower shaft shows a small ring with roughed-out fluting, while Doric capitals were completely finished. It is noteworthy, too, that its main dimensions, like the axial column spacing, are regular and constant (except on the corners). Despite this apparent regularity, however, the length unit of this temple is still unknown, and it resists to any attempt of detection, even with the support of modern statistics. I shall try, in this paper, to detect the length unit of this temple, by proposing a new length unit, never recognized until now, on which is based the architectural “modulus” used in the temple. I based my hypothesis on the inductive system always used in metrological research, with a help from the “modular system” recently introduced by Mark Wilson Jones. The unfinished state of the temple, and my new hypothesis on its length unit, permits to understand better some aspects of the construction and project procedures, mainly the application of entasis to the columns, and the fluting of the column shafts.