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Courtesy of Győző Vörös

AS THE COLUMN CRUMBLES. Column fragments (left foreground) lay scattered around the edges of the royal courtyard. While many original fragments were uncovered at Machaerus, only enough elements survived to reconstruct accurately two complete Herodian columns: one Ionic and one Doric. In accordance with the principles of anastylosis, only original architectural elements should be used in reconstruction.

In the process of re-erecting the Ionic and Doric columns, the original column drums were laid out in the order in which they were to be assembled. All ten pieces of the Ionic column (front) stand in a row, as do the eight pieces of the Doric column (back).

After cleaning the individual column drums and conserving the in situ plaster decoration that still remained on some of them, the columns were ready to be re-erected. The drums were joined together using stainless-steel empolia (plugs), which were inserted into the original empolia holes in the center of the drums. An empolium was placed at each joint.