Beyond Spolia: A New Approach to Old Inscriptions in Late Antique Anatolia

Sitz, Anna M.

doi:10.3764/aja.123.4.0643

American Journal of Archaeology

2019

DOI: 10.3764/aja.123.4.0643

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Beyond Spolia: A New Approach to Old Inscriptions in Late Antique Anatolia

Anna M. Sitz

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Cited by 2 publications

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“…103-107;Hansen 2003;Greenhalgh 2008;Brilliant -Kinney 2011;Geymonat 2012;Altekamp et al 2013;Hansen 2015;Frey 2016;Altekamp et al 2017;Altuğ 2018;Ng -Swetnam-Burland 2018;Yalman -Jevtić 2018. On the use, especially of inscriptions as spolia, see Cooley 2000;Moralee 2006;Sitz 2019a;Sitz 2019b. 10 Niewöhner 2008 The reuse of the inscriptions became even more widespread during the Early Byzantine period (5 th -7 th centuries) and this continued through the end of Byzantine sovereignty in the region in the 13th century.…”

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The Second Life of Inscriptions in Late Antique and Byzantine Asia Minor: Some Remarks on the Reuse of the Inscribed Material

Pallis

2019

Gephyra

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When the ancient world began to decline, the lands of the Asia Minor were already littered with a plethora of Greek and Latin inscriptions in stone: laws, letters, decrees, honorific, votive or funerary inscriptions, invocations and all kinds of texts which dated from the Archaic period at the earliest to Late Antiquity at the latest. This material had lost its initial purpose, and its content was considered to be incomprehensible or inaccessible to the people. However, new life was given to it during the Late Antique and Byzantine period, 1 when it was used as building material. In their new positions, many of these blocks of stones had their inscribed surfaces visible, and this feature poses a series of questions related to the possible perceptions that Byzantine society had for the written word: a) Did the masons and builders understand that those were inscriptions? b) Did the presence of the text affect the way in which the material was to be treated? c) Can we trace any kind of respect towards these examples of the written word? 2 The textual sources of the Byzantine period only briefly state anything about such matters and in most cases are related to certain and limited cycles of scholars. According to the 10th c. bishop of Kyzikos Theodore, the inscriptions should be acknowledged as evidence of a bygone prosperity-«παλαιᾶς εὐδαιμονίας ἐν μὲν γράμμασιν ἀμυδρὰ λείψανα». 3 Their content, however, was inaccessible for many. Already from the 5 th century, an ancient text recovered in the walls of Chalcedon was treated as an oracle and changed the attitude of emperor Valens towards the city. 4 According

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The Second Life of Inscriptions in Late Antique and Byzantine Asia Minor: Some Remarks on the Reuse of the Inscribed Material

Pallis

2019

Gephyra

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Archaeology and Epigraphy in the Digital Era

Matsumoto

2021

J Archaeol Res

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Beyond Spolia: A New Approach to Old Inscriptions in Late Antique Anatolia

Cited by 2 publications

References 22 publications

The Second Life of Inscriptions in Late Antique and Byzantine Asia Minor: Some Remarks on the Reuse of the Inscribed Material

The Second Life of Inscriptions in Late Antique and Byzantine Asia Minor: Some Remarks on the Reuse of the Inscribed Material

Archaeology and Epigraphy in the Digital Era

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