Spolia in Fortifications: Turkey, Syria and North Africa

51 A. DE THEVENOT, Relation d’un voyage fait au Levant, Paris 1665, pp.214-6: des bas reliefs fort bien taillez contre le mur qui est battu de la mer, sont plusieurs autres pieces de bas reliefs en divers lieux Entre la quatrième et cinquième porte il y a a main droite des bas reliefs de gens qui combatent;

52 FRANTZ, The Athenian Agora, cit., p. 140; the Hypapanti Gate in the west flank of the walls uses similar jambs, and is therefore also thought to be a Justinianic repair: ibid., 139;

53 cf. T. TANOULIS, The Propylaea of the Acropolis since the 17th century: their decay and restoration, Jbuch DAI 102 1987, pp.413-483, with plentiful illustrations;

54 H. KOHL et al., Baalbek, II, Berlin & Leipzig 1925, fig 7 p. 41. The SW tower has a building inscription of 1219. Earliest work on making a fortress reckoned to be 11thC and 12thc (p.60);

55 GINOUVES & MARTIN, Dictionnaire méthodique, plate 46. K. RHEIDT, Bautechnik und Bautradition in byzantinischen Pergamon, in A. HOFFMANN et al., editors, Bautechnik der Antike (Colloquium, Berlin 1990), Mainz 1991 (Diskussionen zur Archaeologischen Bauforschung 5), 187-196: he illustrates a tower with carefully laid polychrome courses at Kizilkilar;

56 M.V. SCHWARZ, Mittelalterliche Dekorationsfluege: Eine Studie ueber Schauplaetze und methoden von Antikenrezeption, in Roemische Jahrbuch der Biblioteca Hertziana, 25 (1989), pp. 97-126; and N. Kenaan-Kedar, Gli architravi della chiesa del Santo Sepolcro a Gerusalemme, in REY-DELQUE, Le Crociate, 286-90;

th C. FOSS, Byzantine Malagina and the Lower Sangarius, in Anatolian Studies, 40 (1990), pp.161-183; cf. plate XXIVc and XXVa, b;

57 DE THEVENOT, Relation d’un voyage, cit., p.443: the walls are basties de bonnes pierres blanches et noires figurées en diverses façons, le peu qu’il en reste monstre leur ancienne beauté. La porte du Chasteau est ornée d’inscriptions en lettres Arabes;

58 H. HELLENKEMPER, Burgen der kreuzritterzeit in der Grafschaft Edessa und im Koenigreich Kleinarmenien, (Geographica Historica, Band 1), Bonn 1976, plate 23A;

59 N. ELISSEEFF, Nur ad-Din: un grand prince musulman de Syrie au temps des Croisades, 3 vols, Damascus 1967, III, p. 720, reports this for Les blocs à bossage et à refends dressés au ciseau, selon les meilleurs traditions des tailleurs de pierre syriens…;

60 Ibid., plates 14, 24, 46, 52B, 53B, 55B, 65B and 11A respectively;

61 C. ENLART, Les monuments des Croisés dans le Royaume de Jérusalem: architecture religieuse et civile, 2 vols, Paris 1925 & 1928, I.39;

62 G. LUGLI, La tecnica edilizia romana, 2 vols, Rome 1957, pp. 214-18 and plates LIII-LIV;

63 J. RUSSELL, The archaeological context of magic in the Early Byzantine period, in H. MAGUIRE, editor, Byzantine Magic, in Dumbarton Oaks 1995, pp. 35-50; cf. pp.48-49; C. MANGO, Antique statuary and the Byzantine beholder, in DOP, XVII (1963), pp. 55-75, fig. 2 & pp. 63-64 for the antique relief over the south entrance to the church of S. Anne at Trebizond, and remarks on interpretatio cristiana;

64 F. J. TSCHAN, Saint Bernward of Hildesheim, 2: his works of art, 2 vols Notre Dame IN 1951-2. Pp. 275: an apt means of substituting things Christian for the things pagan that some of his people still regarded with lingering reverence;

65 M. VICKERS, A ‘new’ capital from St. Polyeuktos (Sarachane) in Venice, in Oxford Journal of Archaeology, VIII.2 (1989), pp. 227-230; material from the church has turned up in Barcelona, Venice, Aquileia and Vienna;

66 G. A. M. HANFMANN, From Croesus to Constantine: the cities of western Asia Minor and their arts in Greek and Roman times, Ann Arbor 1975, pp. 66-7;

67 Cited in J. M. PATON, Chapters on Mediaeval and Renaissance Visitors to Greek Lands, Princeton NJ 1951, p.33;

68 P. LOCK, The Frankish Tower on the Acropolis, Athens: the photographs of William J. Stillam, in Annual of the British School at Athens, 82 (1987), pp. 131-133;

69 O. ZHIRI, L’Afrique au miroir de l’Europe: fortunes de Jean Léon l’Africain à la renaissance, Geneva 1991, for background to the book;

70 G. B. RAMUSIO, Delle Navigationi et Viaggi raccolto gia da M. GB Ramusio, 3 vols, Venice 1563, 1564 & 1565, I, p. 1ff: Delle Descrittione dell’Africa et delle cose notabili che quivi sono, per Giovan Lioni Africano;

71 L. MASSIGNON, Le Maroc dans les premieres années du XVIe siècle. Tableau géographique d'après Léon l'Africain, Algiers 1906, p.160;

72 J. CHRISTERN, Das fruechristliche Pilgerheiligtum von Tebessa, Wiesbaden 1976. 167f. & plate 10 for spolia, which he believes were used for aesthetic and iconographic as well as for practical reasons;

73 RAMUSIO, Delle Navigationi, cit., cf. vol I. fol. 8r; for parallel remarks cf. L. de MARMOL, Libro Tercero y segundo Volumen de la primera parte de la descripcion general de Affrica, Granada 1573, chap. 34, fols 44r-44v;

74 W.M. LEAKE, Journal of a Tour in Asia Minor, with comparative remarks on the ancient and modern geography of that country, London 1824, p.128: for the cemetery, The whole gives, perhaps, the most perfect idea of a Greek city that any where exists;

75 E. GUIDOBONI, editor, I terremoti prima del Mille in Italia e nell’area mediterranea, Bologna 1989: pp.622ff for chronological catalogue; and G. Traina, Fra archeologia, storia e seismologia: il caso emblematico del 21 luglio 365 [i.e. in North Africa], in ibid., pp.449-51. A. di Vita, Evidenza dei terremoti del 306-10 e del 365 DC in Tunisia, Antiquités Africaines, 15 (1980), 303-7 for renovatio inscriptions. See also A. DI VITA, Sismi, urbanistica e cronologia assoluta. Terremoti e urbanistica nelle citta di Tripolitania fra il I secolo a. C ed il IV secolo d. C, in L'Afrique dans l'Occident romain, 1er siecle av. LC - IVe siecle ap. JC, Rome 1990 (Actes du colloque Rome 1987), (Coll. de l'Ecole Francaise de Rome, 134), pp. 425-94;

76 H. BARNES & M. WHITLOW, The Oxford University / British Institute of Archaeology at Ankara Survey of Medieval Castles of Anatolia (1992). Mastaura kalesi: a preliminary report, in Anatolian Studies, 43 (1993), pp. 117-135; cf. p.117: there is a need for archaeology in the study of the medieval period in Turkey. The Byzantine sources are limited, and documentary materials for medieval Asia Minor barely exist;

77 Y. GARLAN, Recherches de poliorcétique grecque, Athens & Paris 1974, p.92ff La muraille, en tant que fait de civilisation;

78 T. WYMAN, Format and style: the adaptation of cartoons to reused marble at Saint-Sernin, in X. BARRAL I ALTET, editor, Artistes, artisans et production artistique au Moyen Age, 3 vols, Paris 1986-87-90, from CNRS Colloquium, 1983, III 223-233: the Gelduinus Workshop was capable of adapting two-dimensional cartoons to marble spolia of varying formats and thickness;

79 A. SALAMAGNE, L’Approvisionnement en pierre des chantiers médiévaux: l’exemple de Douai (Nord) aux XIVe et XVe siècles, in Archéologie Médiévale, XXX V (1997), pp. 45-76. Cf pp.53ff. In one case, the chateau de Cantin was bought by Douai in 1391 and dismantled to build the communal belfrey (p.54). As late as the 15th century, masons were set to work to tailler et rapareiller old stones for new work;

80 MARSHALL, Warfare, cit., pp. 93ff for castle building in the East;

81 W. MUELLER-WIENER, Spoliennuetzung in Istanbul, Beitraege zur Altertumskunde Kleinasiens, in Festschrift fuer K. Bittel, Mainz 1983, pp. 369-82, with much on Ottoman spoliation, pp.375ff;

82 K. GREWE et al, Die Wasserversorgung in Mittelalter, Mainz 1991: cf. p.18 fig. 4 for Tabaka, Tunisia, with a castellum divisorium turned into a church;

83 V. FEDERICI, Chronicon Vulturnense, I, Rome 1925, 220-1, describing the church which was dedicated in 808 AD: father Joshua got the Emperor ut illis concederet templum antiquissimum in territorio Capuano, quod maximis colupmnis et diversis lapidibus ad antiquis fuerant institutum in locum, ubi Edes Imperatoris, vel Cripte dicebantur ... [and they all worked so hard that] non multo tempore praeclaro opere et maximis colupmnis ecclesia levaretur, with 32 columns in all, we learn. Column fragments of red Aswan granite have now been found, so the account may be strictly accurate;

84 K. RANDSBORG, The first millennium in Europe and the Mediterranean: an archaeological essay, Cambridge 1991, p.82ff for towns and other centres; and cf. R. HODGES & B. HOBLEY, editors, The rebirth of towns in the West AD 700-1050, London 1988;

85 M. K. LANGDON, The mortared towers of Central Greece: an attic supplement, in Annual of the British School at Athens, 90 (1995), pp. 475-503; p. 475 for the quotation; author lists 58 such structures, which frequently incorporate spolia., and there is a high probability that the majority are of Frankish date (p.496). Cf. also P. W. LOCK, The Frankish towers of Central Greece, in ibid., 91 1986, pp.101-123: he lists 28, with frequent use of spolia but no reference to any decorative intent;

86 Description de l’Afrique, Tierce Partie du Monde, Lyon 1556, p.286: deux desquelles dressés auprès la grande chapelle, sont d’une hauteur inusitée, et incomparable, de couleur rouge, parfaite, et reluisante; diaprées, et martelées de petites taches blanches, tirans sur le porphire;

87 N. HARRAZI, Chapiteaux de la Grande Mosquée de Kairouan, 2 vols, Tunis 1982, p.214;

88 EL-BEKRI, Description, cit., p. 53: editor notes that similar red-spotted columns to these have been seen in the ruins of nearby Sabra;

89 G. GOODWIN, The reuse of marble in the Eastern mediterranean in medieval times, in Journal Royal Asiatic Society, (1977), pp. 17-30; Certainly, the reuse of antique and Christian monuments was systematic: cf. C. BARSANTI, Alcune riflessioni sulla diffusione dei materiali di marmo proconneso in Italia e in Tunisia, Aken des XII Int Kong fuer Christ. Archaeologie Bonn 1991, Jbuch Antike & Christentum Ergaenzungsband 20,1, Muenster 1995, 515-23. See p. 523: Spoliazione sistematica delle fondazioni cristiani da parte degli arabi (protobyzantine capitals at Kairouan, Sfax, Tunis, Gafsa). And they tended to go for the best material: cf. C. Barsanti, Tunisia: indagine preliminare sulla diffusione dei manufatti di marmo proconnesio in epoca paleobizantina, in Constantinopoli e l’arte delle provincie orientali, in F. DE’MAFFEI, C. BARSANTI & A. GUIGILA GUIDOBALDI eds, Rome 1990, 429-31.

90 Trinity College Cambridge; MS R.5.4: Iosias Bull, A briefe discourse of some thinges which my travaile acquainted me with (i.e. of Constantinople), 1598: cf. pp.7-8 ; and cf. De Turcarum Moribus Epitome, Bartholomaeo Georgieuiz Peregrino autore, Lyon 1554, p.9, for a view of a mosque with, in the courtyard, a large tazza, presumably marble, with the water gushing from lion-heads into the lower basin;

91 e.g. P. BERGERON, Abrégé de l’histoire des Sarasins et Mahometans, in his Voyages faits principalement en Asie, The Hague 1735, col 43, of the Casare Palace of the Caliphs of Egypt, at Cairo, in the 12th century: portiques et galleries de marbre, voutes dorées, et pavé de marqueterie et mosaique, mouloures et gravures diverses, le tout très-riche, et exquis. Il y avoit la des viviers et canaux revetus de marbre;

92 C. DE VILLALON, Viaje de Turquia, 3rd ed., Buenos Aires 1947, (written in 1557), p. 300: at Istanbul, the baths inside todos son marmol, jaspe y porfido;

93 MARMOL, Affrica, cit., for 240r: Charles V at Carthage was impressed by y aun se veyan pedacos de los muros enteros de los Alcacares labrados de marmol blanco, y una grandissima cisterna muy honda y ancha, y los arcos enteros; and for his fortress at La Goleta his soldiers los quales an acabado de deshazer los edificios de Carthago llevandose la piedra para la fabrica de los baluartes;

94 GABRIEL, Voyages archéologiques, cit., p. 183, note 1, cited from M. POULLET, Nouvelles relations du Levant, Paris 1668, II, pp. 416-7 for churches in Diyarbakir: les anciennes églises laissent encore voir certains grands desbris, ou le iaspe, le marbre, les moulures, les frises, les corniches et les bas-reliefs ont été aussi fréquemment et aussi régulierement mis en oeuvre que l’on pourrait faire en Europe. The same note refers to a vague description of perhaps a church (S. Mary) but, more probably, the Grand Mosque, with three hundred columns – although Nasir-I Khusraw refers to 200 monoliths inside it, supporting stone arcades, and smaller columns above, themselves supporting arcades;

95 N. CHRISTIE, The Archaeology of Byzantine Italy: a synthesis of recent research, in Journal of Mediterranean Archaeology, II.2 (1989), pp. 249-293; p. 282 for quote;

96 E. THOMAS & C. WITSCHEL, Constructing reconstruction. Claim and reality of Roman rebuilding inscriptions from the Latin West, in PBSR, 60 (1992), pp. 135-77. Most inscriptions say the walls were built from the foundations, when only repairs were made: J. DURLIAT, Les dédicaces d'ouvrages de défense dans l'Afrique byzantine (Coll. De l'Ecole Francaise de Rome 49), Rome 1981;

97 J. LASSUS, La forteresse byzantine de Thamugadi. Fouilles Timgad 1938-1956, I, Paris 1981. Pp. 59-106; cf. figs 26-30, 164, 142; fig. 13 & p. 42;

98 T. KOTULA, Thèmes de la propagande impériale à travers les inscriptions africaines du bas-empire romain, in Histoire et Archéologie de l'Afrique du Nord, Paris 1985 (IIe Colloque Int., Grenoble 1983), pp. 257-63: cf. p. 257, and p. 262 note 4;

99 H. MAGUIRE, Imperial gardens and the rhetoric of renewal, in P.MAGDALINO, editor, New Constantines. The rhythm of Imperial renewal in Byzantium, 4th – 13th centuries, Aldershot 1994, pp.181-197;

100 cf. THOMAS & WITSCHEL Constructing reconstrution, p.168 & Appendix 2. But some scholars still take such inscriptions at face-value, such as C. LEPELLEY, The survival and fall of the classical city in Late Roman Africa, in J. RICH, editor, The City in Late Antiquity, London & New York 1992, 50-76; his view is underlined in the subtitle of his Les cités de l’Afrique Romaine au Bas-Empire, I: La permanence d’une civilisation municipale, Paris 1979 – although his list of municipal constructions and restaurations, taken from references in 236 inscriptions, at pp. 112-120, has no more than ten monuments built or restored after 400 AD;

101 e.g. F. SANSOVINO, Historia universale dell’origine et imperio de Turchi, Venice 1568, fol 52r describing Hagia Sophia: Fuori della chiesa per ogni parte vi son portichi con colonne superbissime di serpentino, e di bronzo con musaichi bellissimi, cosi come si vede nel Tempio di San Marco di Venetia; al qual par che rassimigli alquanti, di fuori massimamente;

102 J. DURLIAT, Les dédicaces, cit., 38 dedication inscriptions: cf. Cats 3 & 4 for: Guelma, 8 for Tebessa, 12 for Afsa, 19-21 for Timgad. He point out, p.109, that Justinian asked Belisarius to inventory especially those cases where the walls should be made smaller in extent to cater for a smaller population of defenders;

103 H. SARADI, The Kallos of the Byzantine City: the development of a rhetorical topos and the historical reality, in Gesta, XXXIV/1 (1995), pp. 37-56; cf. p. 44: epitaph of Bishop Eugenius of Laodicea Combusta on his sarcophagus: I rebuilt the whole church from the foundations with all the adornments around it, namely the porticoes, the tetrastoa, the painting, the mosaics, the water-fountain, the porch and all the works of the stone-masons;

104 G. RAVEGNANI, Castelli e citta fortificate nel VI secolo, Ravenna 1983, pp. 27-8: Justinian, in spite of giving the impression of taking back all Roman Africa, in fact only controlled the coastal strip;

105 G. MARCAIS, Manuel de l'art musulman. L'architecture, Tunisie, etc, Paris 1926, p. 44, cites Ibn Khaldun to the effect that Abin Ibrahim Ahmed erected in Africa nearly 10,000 fortresses, made of stone and lime mortar, and equipped with gates of iron; for a census, see R. BOUROUIBA, L'architecture militaire de l'Algérie médiévale, Algiers 1983;

106 CHRISTIE, The archaeology of Byzantine Italy, cit., provides his own translation (p. 264): When J is recorded as carrying out 'total rebuilding' we may find just repairs; 'new works' may denote the restoration of an existing structure; and 'restorations' may be non-existant; and again, B. CROKE & J. CROW, Procopius & Dara, in JRS, 73 (1983), pp. 143-59; cf.p. 159, where they find by examining The Buildings against an actual site that Procopius is frequently found to be exaggerated, misleading and sometimes contradictory;

A. CAMERON, Procopius and the 6th century, London 1985, pp. 84-112; quote from pp.110-11;

107 N. DUVAL, L'état actuel des recherches sur les fortifications de Justinien en Afrique, in XXX Corso di Cultura sull'Arte Ravennate e Bizantina: Seminario Giustinianeo, Ravenna 1983, pp. 149-204: cf. pp.181ff, p.166;

108 G. GASSI, Scultura architettonica e spolia marmoree della Panaghia di Antalya nel quadro della produzione artistica dell’Asia Minore meridionale I: epoca paleobizantina, in F. DE’MAFFEI, C. BARSANTI & A. GUIGILA GUIDOBALDI eds, Constantinopoli e l’arte delle provincie orientali, Rome 1990, pp.73-114. See especially pp. 90ff for reuse of spolia in Southern Asia Minor;

109 G. UGGERI, Il reimpiego dei marmi antichi nelle catthedrali padane, in A. M. ROMANINI, editor, Nicholaus e l’arte del suo tempo, Conference, 3 vols, Ferrara 1985, II, pp. 609-66; cf. p.610;

110 LUDOLPH OF SUDHEIM, in Pélerinages: récits, chroniques et voyages en Terre Sainte, XIIe - XVIe siècles, Paris 1997, p. 1048;

111 P. LEMERLE, editor, Krekic, Dubrovnik et le Levant au Moyen Age, (Documents et recherches sur l’Economie des pays byzantins au Moyen Age), Paris & The Hague 1961. Cf. map, opposite p. 151, for Dubrovnik’s trading escales in the East: mostly western Greece, of course; but also Smyrna, Mytilene, Altologo (or Theologo, i.e. Ephesus); and Palatia (i.e. Miletus, and the seat of an Emirate, which shipped corn to the West), as well as Rhodes, Antalya, Tripoli, Beirut, Acre and Jaffa. F. THIRIET, Délibérations des Assemblées Venitiennes concernant la Romanie, Paris & The Hague vol I (1160-1363), 1966; vol II (1364-1463), 1971. There were Venetian merchants at Ephesus: cf. item 623 for 4 February 1356: the ambassador is to go to Ephesus and Miletus, in order to contact Venetian merchants there. A parallel point can be made for North Africa: Cf. F. THIRIET, Les relations entre la Crète et les émirats turcs d’Asie Mineure au XIVe siècle, in Actes XIIe Congrès international des Etudes byzantines II, 1964, pp. 213-222. The Venetians appointed a consul at Tunis in 1281: cf. I Rubric LI, and an ambassador was negotiating there in 1292: Rubric CLXV; in 1339 they were importing wool from Tunisia: cf. item 476; they still had a consul in Tunis in 1455: vol II item 1515;

112 E. ASHTOR, Levant trade in the later middle ages, Princeton 1983;

th MORTET, Recueil, cit., I.34, for beautification of Saint Benoit sur Loire, 1005/1030, by Abbot Gauzelin, in his Life, Chorum psallentium quoque pulcherrimo marmorum compsit emblemate, quo asportari jusserat a partibus Romanie – i.e. a storiated mosaic, from near Rome;

th ALI BEY EL ABASSI, Travels of Ali Bey in Morocco, Tripoli, Cyprus, Egypt, Arabia, Syria and Turkey, between the years 1803 and 1807, 2 vols, London 1816. Cf. I.236-7 for the roof of Tripoli’s great mosque, is supported by sixteen elegant Doric columns of a fine grey marble, which, are said, to have been taken in by a Christian vessel in the early 18th century; There were certainly antiquities available earlier: cf. E. ROSSI, Storia di Tripoli e della tripolitania dalla conquista Araba al 1911, Rome 1968, pp.75ff for Tripoli at beginning of 14th century, and the description by at-Tigani in 1307-8, who informa di aver visto nel castello avanzi di antichi edifizi; ma era in rovina e I governatori ne avevano venduto la maggior parte;

th R. KERR, A general history and collection of voyages and travels, XVII, Edinburgh & London 1824, pp. 529-632, gives an excellent commented bibliography of travels with various aims; and cf. H. MURRAY, Historical account of discoveries and travels in Africa, 2nd edition, 2 vols, London 1818, II, pp. 535-550; II pp.213-260 for early travels to Barbary; for the predominantly ethnographical and sociological bent of such travellers, cf. D. BRAHIMI, Voyageurs français du XVIIIe siècle en Barbarie, Doctorat d'état, Paris II, n.d.;

113 Isa Bey Camii at Seljuk, in O. ASLANAPA, Yuzyillar Boyunca Turk Sanati, Istanbul 1977, pp. 41 & 143, was only a weed-infested shell but 20 years ago;