Parian Chronicle

The Parian Chronicle, also known as the Parian Marble, is a captivating Greek timeline inscribed on a stone slab, chronicling events from 1582 BC to 299 BC. Unearthed in two parts on the island of Paros, the slab was sold in Smyrna in the early 17th century. John Selden was the first to decipher the inscription, and it was subsequently published among the Arundel Marbles. The surviving upper fragment is currently housed at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford. This fragment includes both mythological tales and historical events, such as the Trojan War and the voyage of the Argonauts.

Scholars have long debated the sources of the Parian Chronicle. Felix Jacoby posited that the information derived from a variety of materials. However, more recent researchers, such as Rodger Young and Andrew Steinmann, contend that the primary source was likely the archives of the city of Athens. The Chronicle’s straightforward style, enumerating events with minimal detail and emphasizing Athenian rulers, lends credence to the theory that it originated from Athens.

In 2013, Ben Altshuler led a project employing reflectance transformation imaging (RTI) to scan the Parian Marble, revealing previously unreadable text. This advanced imaging technique provided new insights into the ancient inscriptions. The discovery of the lower portion of the tablet on Paros in 1897 helped dispel earlier doubts about the Chronicle’s authenticity.