anastylosis

With this technique, known in archaeological circles as 'anastylosis' (the Dutch used the term 'reconstruction'), the Archaeological Service of the Dutch East Indies set an influential and meaningful example for the French in Indochina, who sent architect and director of the Ecole francaise d'Extreme-Orient's Conservatoire d'Angkor Henri Marchal in 1930 to the Dutch East Indies to learn about it and to apply it in Angkor.

Due credit is given to Theodoor van Erp's sterling efforts that set the benchmark for anastylosis (the technique of dismantling a ruined monument, numbering each stone; and the careful fitting together of these and other loose building stones/sculptures that may be found scattered around it, to reassemble the structure) which was subsequently employed with much success at other sites in Java.

In the second stage of the project, cement used for restoration in 1930 was removed and the process of anastylosis of broken and fallen parts began.

Here is a beautiful stanza from the last poem of a series entitled "Anastylosis" (an archeological term for the reassembly of ruined monuments from fallen or decayed fragments, incorporating new materials when necessary): I got stung by a hovering swarm of tears.

The accepted approach, far outside the limits of anastylosis identified in the 1931 Athens Charter or the 1964 Venice Charter, reflected the educational objectives and contemporary standards of re-creating an historical sense of place.

Architects and engineers like Georges Parmentier, Henri Marshal, Georges Trouve, Maurice Glaize, and others worked endlessly to identify, clear, and restore the Angkor temples (with the method of anastylosis borrowed from Dutch conservationists in Java).