Constantinople to Cordoba: Dismantling Ancient Architecture in the East, North Africa and Islamic Spain

510 Pages·2012·0.92 MB·English

by  Michael Greenhalgh

Constantinople to Córdoba

Constantinople to Córdoba
Dismantling Ancient Architecture in the East,
North Africa and Islamic Spain
By
Michael Greenhalgh
LEIDEN • boStoN
2012
Cover illustrations: Front cover: Ankara: the citadel walls, perhaps 7th century, which incorporate
large quantities of antiquities from the ancient city, as once did the city walls, now demolished;
back cover: Seljuk/Ayasoluk: the “Gate of Persecution,” the lower entrance to the fortress. It is built
of marble blocks from Ephesus, and incorporates re-used reliefs above its arch. Datable to perhaps
6th–8th century. ©Photographs by Michael Greenhalgh.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Greenhalgh, Michael.
 Constantinople to Cordoba : dismantling ancient architecture in the East, North Africa and
Islamic Spain / by Michael Greenhalgh.
  pages cm
 Includes bibliographical references and index.
 ISbN 978-90-04-21246-6 (hardback : alk. paper) — ISbN 978-90-04-22927-3 (e-book)
1. Architecture, Ancient—Mediterranean Region. 2. building materials—Recycling—
Mediterranean Region. 3. Classical antiquities—Destruction and pillage—Mediterranean Region.
I. title.
 NA1458.G73 2012
 722—dc23
2012015412
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ISbN 978 90 04 21246 6 (hardback)
ISbN 978 90 04 22927 3 (e-book)
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Quomodo sedet sola civitas plena populo
facta est quasi vidua domina gentium;
princeps provinciarum facta est sub tributo
– Vulgate: Lamentation of Jeremiah the Prophet

CoNtENtS
Preface  ................................................................................................................... xvii
Introduction  ........................................................................................................ 1
Why Constantinople to Córdoba?  ........................................................... 1
Scope of the book  ......................................................................................... 2
overview of Contents  .................................................................................. 3
Importance of the Subject  ......................................................................... 6
Discovering Under-Populated Landscapes  ........................................... 9
travelling with texts  .............................................................................. 9
Landscapes of Ruins  ................................................................................ 10
but Which Antiquity?  ............................................................................. 11
Antiquities on the Move  ........................................................................ 13
Investigating Re-use  ................................................................................ 15
Quality and Nature of the Evidence  ....................................................... 16
Pilgrims & Scholars  ................................................................................. 16
New Reasons for travel  ......................................................................... 18
Improving Communications, Disappearing Monuments  ............ 21
Varieties of Monuments and Remains  ................................................... 21
Interesting and Useful Antiquities: A brief Census  ............................ 23
Pride and Prejudice  ...................................................................................... 27
And to Make an End Is to Make a beginning  ...................................... 27
Mis-use in Re-use  ..................................................................................... 27
Autres temps, Autres Moeurs  ............................................................. 29
Ruins and Re-use as Constants  ................................................................. 31
SECtIoN oNE
tHE MEDIAEVAL LANDSCAPE AND ItS FEAtURES
1. the Mediaeval Landscape: An overview  ............................................. 41
Dismantling to Destruction  ...................................................................... 41
Population Levels and Ancient buildings  ............................................ 44
Smaller Populations in the Middle Ages  ......................................... 44
Growing towns, Diminishing Antiquities  ....................................... 46
Carthage & tunis  .................................................................................... 47
viii contents
Marble: the Stamp of Greece and Rome  ............................................. 48
A Profusion of Antiquities  .................................................................... 48
Continuing Amazement ........................................................................ 49
Untouched Remains, Abandoned towns  ............................................. 51
Dismantling the Mediaeval Landscape  ................................................. 53
Marble and Mortar  ...................................................................................... 54
building in brick ...................................................................................... 54
A Plethora of Lime Kilns  ...................................................................... 56
Statues to the Kilns  ................................................................................ 59
Antiquities Feed New building  ................................................................ 60
Deserted towns as a Source  ................................................................ 60
Acquisitive Foreigners meet Avaricious Locals  ............................. 61
town Expansion & trade bury Antiquities  .................................... 61
Attitudes to the Antiquities  ...................................................................... 63
the Importance of travellers’ Accounts  ............................................... 64
Disappearing and Surviving Monuments  ............................................. 65
travellers Describe Dismantlings  ...................................................... 65
Luxury Items Disappear  ........................................................................ 66
North Africa  .............................................................................................. 67
Greece and its Islands  ........................................................................... 71
Egypt and Syria  ........................................................................................ 72
Antiquities Near the Sea  ....................................................................... 74
Survival, Dismantling and Destruction  ................................................. 75
Shifting Landscapes  ..................................................................................... 76
Sand and Silting  ....................................................................................... 76
Archaeology: A Great Help to Looters  ............................................. 78
Miscellaneous Pilfering  ......................................................................... 79
New Landscapes Involve Dismantling  ............................................. 80
Examples of Dismantling to Destruction  ............................................. 80
Syria & Egypt  ............................................................................................ 80
Mediterranean Islands  ........................................................................... 80
Libya  ............................................................................................................ 81
“Passed Away in Ignominious Utility”: Re-uses for Antiquities  ..... 81
Houses & Fortresses  ............................................................................... 81
Compacting Roofs  ................................................................................... 82
Supporting trees  ..................................................................................... 82
Agricultural Work  ................................................................................... 82
Millstones for Grain and olive Presses  ............................................ 83
contents ix
2. Greek and Roman towns  ........................................................................ 89
From town to Countryside  ..................................................................... 89
Primacy of towns  ................................................................................. 89
Move to the Countryside  .................................................................... 91
Discerning town Plans ........................................................................ 92
Change over time  ................................................................................. 93
the Hunt for Iron and Lead  ................................................................... 94
Far from the Madding Crowd  ................................................................ 95
Uninhabited and Semi-intact – Until the 19th Century? ............... 95
turkey  ....................................................................................................... 96
Palestine  ................................................................................................... 97
North Africa  ............................................................................................ 98
Prominent Sites – Exiguous Remains  .................................................. 99
Gaza  .......................................................................................................... 99
olympia, Sparta and Delphi  .............................................................. 100
Athens  ...................................................................................................... 101
Morocco  ................................................................................................... 103
Egypt  ......................................................................................................... 104
Constantinople  ...................................................................................... 107
Nineteenth-Century Egypt Dismantles Antiquities  ......................... 109
Industrialisation  .................................................................................... 109
Alexandria and Continuing thirst for Her Antiquities  ............. 110
Cairo in the 19th Century  ................................................................... 111
Location Dictates Survival or Destruction  ......................................... 112
New towns near Ancient ones  ........................................................ 112
Greece and the Islands  ........................................................................ 114
Algeria  ...................................................................................................... 114
Sites near Main Roads or Rivers  ....................................................... 116
Near-complete Destruction: the Crimea  ....................................... 117
Disasters Natural and Human  ................................................................ 119
Earthquakes  ............................................................................................ 119
bradysism  ................................................................................................ 123
Silting and Detritus  .............................................................................. 124
War, Revolution and Invasion  ............................................................... 125
the Age of Archaeology – and Continuing Destruction  ............... 126
Volubilis  ................................................................................................... 126
Egypt  ......................................................................................................... 126
Vanishing Sites  ....................................................................................... 127