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

Abstract

Classical, Roman and Late antiquity inherited in the land of Asia Minor thousands of older Greek and Latin inscriptions on stone, of various content and purposes. With the collapse of the ancient world and the transition to the medieval period, this material lost its significance as conveyor of public and private texts and became incomprehensible to the viewers. In the meantime, contem­porary epigraphy followed a different orientation and acquired new values, in the service of Chris­tianity and the Eastern Roman imperial institutions. Fortifications, public infrastructure and churches predominate in the building activity in the re­gion during this long period. Taking place primarily at ancient cities and sites full of earlier ma­terial, architectural production extensively reused spolia of various kinds and periods. These spo­lia included many inscriptions, which were embedded –intact or reworked– in various structures. The walls of Ankara, the churches of Ephesus and other monuments are representative of this practice, which was later exercised by the Seljuks and the Ottoman Turks too. The presence of inscribed spolia in Byzantine monuments of Asia Minor raises several questions about the attitude towards the written word in a society which was still using the same language, in a somehow changed form, but was sharing a different culture. Based on selected cases of reused epigraphic material from the Asia Minor, this article argues that inscriptions were treated mainly in practical terms. Being more or less incomprehensible by illiterate and literate Byzantines, in­scribed stones became raw building materials available to be recycled in fortifications, secular buildings and churches.