the copying of several thousand Greek inscriptions by French epigraphers from 1843 onwards, a project supported by the Prime Minister, Ioannis Kolettis. In 1843, Pittakis was appointed to Ross' former post as Ephor General of Antiquities, which he held until his death in 1863. One of his first actions, in 1843, was to complete Ross' attempted demolition of the Parthenon mosque, which had been partially destroyed during the War of Independence. He continued to curate Athens' archaeological collections, writing an 1843 guidebook in which he claimed that around 400 of the 615 objects exhibited in the Temple of Hephaestus had been collected 'as a result of [his] endeavour and passion'. He also continued to excavate on the Acropolis, completing in 1843–1844 with Rangavis the restoration of the Temple of Athena Nike, and uncovering two portions of the Parthenon frieze in 1845. He returned to the Temple of Athena Nike in 1846–1847 to install casts replacing parts of its frieze, which had been removed and taken to the British Museum. One of Pittakis' priorities was to protect the antiquities on the Acropolis from looting and damage. Between 1847 and 1853, he arranged for the archaeological fragments scattered around the Acropolis to be collected, fixed into plaster and built into walls, and hired watchmen to ensure that none were picked up by visitors. He also established collections of these antiquities in the major monuments of the site, most of which were in locked storerooms to which only he had keys, and to which nobody was permitted access except in his presence. A substantial problem was the habit of visitors, especially sailors from the Piraeus, of chipping away pieces from the ancient structures, particularly the Erectheion: to combat this, Pittakis had the whole temple covered with stones. From 1850, Pittakis undertook significant work in and around the Propylaea. That year, he cleared and partially reconstructed the steps approaching the monument, Pittakis enlisted Charles Ernest Beulé, a French archaeologist of the French School at Athens, to assist with the removal of medieval and modern structures from the remaining parts of the Propylaea in 1852. Beulé, against the prevailing scholarly opinion at the time, believed that Mnesikles, the architect of the Propylaia, had originally constructed a second gateway, and secured Pittakis' blessing as well as support from Alexandre de Forth-Rouen, the French ambassador to Greece, to investigate his hypothesis. On 4 May, the excavators discovered