Marble

The organization of the quarries and of the trade in marble has received much scholarly attention (Betsch 1977: 290-331; Asgari 1995; Sodini 1989; 2002). Marble was largely used for columns, capitals, entablature blocks, cornices, door-frames, window-frames, church furnishings (such as ambos and chancel screens), and for facing masonry. Architectural elements were often marked by the masons with a numeral (to aid the positioning of blocks), with an abbreviated name (possibly of the mason himself or his overseer), or with an invocation (Deichmann 1976:206-30; Butler 1989:136-66; Paribeni 2004; Bardill 2008). Occasionally blocks were inscribed with a reference to the building in which they were to be used (Peschlow 1997:105, pi - 97).

Capitals have been the subject of much art historical study in an attempt to clarify the chronology of the different styles. They are, therefore, regularly used as a guide to dating structures, but reuse is often a complicating factor (Kautszch 1936; Betsch 1977; Zollt 1994; Dennert 1997). Marble facing might be in the form of blocks (as in the case of the Golden Gate in Constantinople) (Ward-Perkins 1958: 67-8; Mango 1976: pi. 58) or in the form of thin revetment plaques attached by brackets. Such plaques are usually found on the interior of buildings, where, if the plaques do not survive, their arrangement can sometimes be reconstructed from surviving cramp holes in walls (Naumann and Belting 1966: fig. 8; Deichmann 1976: 128-35); occasionally, however, traces of external revetment survive, as on the west facade of Hagia Sophia (Mango 1976: pi. 22). A further use of marble was for opus sectile decoration, either on walls (as above the spandrels of the nave arcades in both St Demetrios at Thessalonike (Mango 1976: pi. 81) and Hagia Sophia in Constantinople (Mainstone 1975: pi. 44; Kleinert 1979)) or floors (St John of Stoudios, Christ Pantokrator) (Megaw 1963:335-40; see II.7.4 below. Wall-paintings and mosaics).

The quarries exploited in the fourth to sixth centuries are listed in Dodge and Ward-Perkins 1992: 153-9. Although it is difficult to be precise about the dates at which the various quarries closed, it is clear that few of them can be said with any certainty to have been exploited on a large scale after the beginning of the seventh century, and most marble found in later structural contexts is reused.

Reuse of materials was a characteristic of Late Roman and Byzantine architecture, in all types of building; this applies to brick and stone as much as to marble (Sodini 2002: 135-45). Some marble was reused purely because of its value as a structural material, and if extensively reworked cannot be recognized as such. It is often difficult to determine whether such reuse was out of necessity (because there was no supply of new material) or pragmatism (because useful old materials such as columns and capitals were conveniently available close by, either in ruined structures or in depots). In Constantinople, pragmatism probably explains the reused columns and capitals in many cisterns, the marble waterpipes carved from old capitals or old column fragments (Firatli 1964: 209, pi. 38.1-2), and the recut gravestones from a Late Roman cemetery at Kyzikos reused in the north church of the Lips monastery (Mango and Hawkins 1964:311-15; 1968:182). Other marble was reused for its natural beauty or original sculptural decoration. The reuse of marble, whether necessary or pragmatic, might be symbolic: marble for churches might be taken from nearby temples to suggest the victory of Christianity over paganism (Saradi 1997: 401-3).

Although the use of spolia is known in monuments of earlier date, it was under Constantine that the practice became commonplace, as demonstrated by the columns of the Lateran basilica and the variety of friezes, roundels, and relief panels on the Arch of Constantine (Eisner 2000:153-62; Wohl 2001). In the early period, it seems that wealthier patrons preferred to use new materials if they could get them, but had no hesitation in using carefuUy chosen spolia if they were suitably attractive or symbolic. In particular, it is typical for reused columns of differently coloured marbles to be prominently displayed, and even carefully arranged (Ward-Perkins 1984: 211-18). In Justinian’s Hagia Sophia, for instance, there are eight porphyry columns in the ground-floor exedras. These must have been reused, since the porphyry quarries had closed in the later fifth century. Porphyry was highly prized, and had strong imperial associations because of its purple colour, hence the decision to claim these columns and to display them so prominently.

At later periods, practically all marble was salvaged rather than newly quarried: in the late twelfth-century Kalenderhane Camii in Constantinople, the convex hidden face of some revetment plaques provides clear evidence that they had been cut from old columns (Striker 1997:118). Sculptured marble was also reused and prominently displayed. Inside and outside churches, sculpture with explicit pagan scenes might be given a Christian reinterpretation (Mango 1963: 63-4; Saradi 1997: 406-23). In secular contexts, too, such as the outer Golden Gate and the Maritime Gate in Constantinople, sculptured marble was displayed with an awareness of its antiquity, although it is difficult to discern any deeper meaning in the arrangements (Mango 1995; 2000).

Marble was also broken up and used for building walls, or burned to make lime for mortar. In Rome of the fourth to sixth centuries, the lime-kilns were watched over to ensure that statues from empty houses and palaces were not being looted and burned (Heres 1982: 77-8).