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Ito, Juko 
  
RECONSTRUCTION OF THE STADION AREA OF ANCIENT MESSENE 
USING 3D COMPUTER GRAPHICS AND ANALYSIS OF ITS TOWNSCAPE 
J. Ito", Kostas Tokmakidis”, Kosuke Inada’) 
1)Assoc. Prof., Dept. of Architecture, Kumamoto Univ., Japan 
itoj @arch.kumamoto-u.ac.jp 
2)Lecturer, Polytechnical School, Univ. of Thessaloniki, Greece 
tokmakid@topo.auth.gr 
3)Research Staff, Asian Air Survey, Co. Ltd, Japan 
working Group V/5 
KEY WORDS: Computer Graphics, Archaeology, Classical Sites, Townscape, Messene, 
ABSTRACT 
The use of three dimensional computer graphics (3D CG) is now becoming more and more popular, because it often 
visualizes objects more comprehensively than real ones. Concerning classical architecture and archaeology, sites are 
usually in ruin and excavated buildings are in demolished condition down to the foundation. Thus, it is hard not only for 
specialists but also for general people to have vivid images of how they looked like in antiquity without help of 
reconstructed drawings. 3D CG has drawn strong public attention during recent years for this purpose, and the authors 
tried to reconstruct the buildings of the stadion area of ancient Messene, a Hellenistic town of Greece, in 3D CG and 
showed here the results of the reconstruction and townscape analysis. 
1 INTRODUCTION 
The town of Messene was founded in 369 BC by a Messenian hero, Epaminondas, in Peloponnesos, Greece, and seems 
to have been prosperous until early Medieval age. Now the site is almost in ruin and covered by olive fields. The 
excavation has been going on after the World War II and is progressing extensively recent years under the direction of 
Prof. P. Themelis of Crete University, who is also the director of the Messenian Archaeological Society. The site is still 
under excavation and many buildings have been found demolished down on the ground level. The works of architects is 
first of all to make measurements and drawings of the excavated buildings. But, the site spreads around vast area and it 
is almost impossible to measure the whole site from block to block by traditional way. We have participated in the 
excavation of the stadion area since 1997 as a group of architects and topographers. We surveyed the site taking aerial 
photographs by a model helicopter, and made a topographical map by means of photogrammetry. In addition, we also 
made detailed survey of some buildings for architectural studies in the seasons of 1998 and 1999. 
The objectives of this paper are, firstly, to introduce our surveying method to make a topographical map of 
archaeological site by the model helicopter, and secondly, to reconstruct the buildings of the stadion area using 3D CG 
based on the map and the architectural detailed drawings, and thirdly, to analyze the townscape of the area to show the 
characteristics of the site planning of the area. 
2 THESITE OF STADION AREA 
The site of ancient Messenia is among low mountains of Messenia, being surrounded by the city walls which were 
originally more than 10 km long and still survive partially in good condition. The excavation was concentrated only on 
the Sanctuary of Asklepios in the city center in 1960s and the stadion area has been dug during these several years. The 
Stadion lies on the south edge of the city, adjacent to the city wall. The U-shaped seats of 19 rows have been preserved 
well, though a small stream broke them partially. The race course has not been excavated yet to the original level and 
the digging is still on the way. 
The Stadion was surrounded by three Doric stoas on the east, north, and west side. There have been preserved around 
120 columns, many still standing in-situ and others being laid down or lost. The columns of the East Stoa lie in a row on 
its west, as though they fell down at a time by an earthquake. In the North Stoa there was also a middle colonnade 
inside. On the northwest corner of the Stoa was a Doric Propylon or a gate where reaches the main street from the agora 
  
International Archives of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing. Vol. XXXIII, Part B5. Amsterdam 2000. 395