This story that I originally found in “The Book of Lists” seemed too good to be true but stranger things have happened. Here’s how it goes:
During one of the wars between Greece and Turkey, a Turkish army had taken up position around a very historic Greek monument on one of the islands off of the Greek mainland. They were low on ammo and stationed away from their main supplies. Since the supporting columns of the monument contained a metal core, they could melt the metal into ammunition.
Somehow the Greeks heard of this idea and, rather than see the monument destroyed, gave the Turks some of their own ammuniton.
I’m a little suspect about how useful it would be to break apart stone monuments to make ammo, but maybe there’s a more believable version out there. Anybody else heard of this?
“Since the supporting columns of the monument contained a metal core, they could melt the metal into ammunition.” Supporting columns made out of lead? That sounds quite ridiculous to me. Lead is one of the softeft metals and I’ve never heard of it being used in a structural capacity. And of course a supply of lead is hardly all one needs to make ammunition. You need a machine shop, an explosive to use as the propellant, casings, etc. etc.
The Ryan
{“Since the supporting columns of the monument contained a metal core, they could melt the metal into ammunition.” Supporting columns made out of lead?}
How did “metal” turn into “lead”? Metal contains a large number of members, and while I agree that lead is unlikely you might as well have said “Mercury is a metal. Supporting columns made from Mercury? Thats crazy talk!”
Additionally, supposing the troops had enough powder, it is quite possible they would be able to manufacture shot from a pure metal source. I suspect that the troops in question were armed not with M16s, but muskets.
Well, also remember that the “Book of Lists” series contains info on UFO sightings, spontaneous combustion, and stigmata (which is really interesting, considering who wrote it).
And of course, the various ages that Bradley Goldstein would most like to be.
[Emphasis mine]
Furthermore, bullets are usually made out of lead, not mercury or steel or gold. I suppose one could make bullets out of steel (I don’t know of any reason why this wouldn’t work), but then how would the soldiers melt down the metal? I can almost buy that soldiers in the field can improvise a fire hot enough to melt lead, but steel? Can you think of any metal that:
is used for structural support,
can be used in bullets,
and can be melted down by poorly equiped soldiers?
Perhaps the lead was part of the roofing? I’m pretty sure that lead was used as a roofing material by the Middle Ages, not so sure about Ancient Greek times though. Maybe Ms Mercouri was slightly off on the details of her anecdote.
The clamps used to hold the blocks together were iron but the sockets were then filled with molten lead to provide a protective layer over the clamps to prevent corrosion. Iron-only clamps were used in the major late-nineteenth/early-twentieth century restoration, with the result that considerable damage was done to the surrounding marble.
According to Mary Beard, some of the clamps probably were prised out from the Parthenon during the War of Independence so that the lead could be used for bullets, but the story about the Greeks sending bullets to the Turks was ‘elaborated, if not invented, years after’. Mary Beard, The Parthenon (Profile Books, London, 2002), p. 95.
Clamps made with lead? It makes no sense. Not to mention that the appreciation of ancient monuments is a rather new thing in history and even after it evolved people have valued their own lives more than monuments. The whole thing sounds like an invention but “si non e vero e ben trovato”.
And just in case anyone still doubts that lead was used in the Parthenon, its use is discussed in this article about the Acropolis restorations on the Greek Ministry of Culture website. Interestingly, the second page of the article mentions that during the War of Independence ‘blocks were broken up to get at the lead inside’ but says nothing about the Greeks offering bullets to the Turks or even whether it was the Greeks or the Turks who did the damage.