While engaged recently on a careful analysis of the architectural detail of the Erechtheum, I chanced to observe certain peculiarities in connection with the north doorway which, as far as I am aware, have not been previously commented on, and which may be of sufficient importance to warrant my bringing them forward.
The date of the north doorway of the Erechtheum has been generally accepted as contemporary with that of the rest of the building, at least I have not found any published evidence which calls it in question: this of course excludes the thin inner linings which are supposed to have been added by the Christians when they turned the temple into a church. My investigations have led me to the conclusion that none of the original doorway is in situ, that the main jambs are of a period not far removed from the time of the building but not contemporary, and that the lintel, brackets and cornice are still later insertions. I shall endeavour in the following paper to state my reasons for these assumptions, and it may help us to follow them more clearly if we commence by observing the various parts which go to make up the composition of the doorway as it now stands.