Day 13 Spolia Survey

The rhythm of work on site has undoubtedly changed. In the place of the chatter of earnest professionals, curious students, and laughing workmen, is silence. Small groups of one or two sit recording walls full of spolia, via photogrammetry. Francis is our recognised expert, having completed a single photogrammetric section of 150m in 2023, with no apparent distortion visible, as aerial photos and laser-scanning can confirm. He has passed on his craft to Zehra, Buse, and Emir, including the art of Metashape, sometimes via online tutorials, delivered now from his flat back in Canterbury to the garden of the excavation house. Well, the results have come out well, and Zehra has passed on to recording individual spoliated blocks, whilst Buse and Emir have undertaken a new spolia survey of the late fortifications, looking for variations in surface treatment (of polished, claw-chiselled, point chiselled, quarry-ready, or broken finishes) that might indicate that blocks were reused. This is a new kind of spolia survey in which blocks that are the same form and same colour can show substantial differences indicating that they have either been rebuilt from the same wall or reused from different sources nearby. It is a study of generic reuse of the hardest kind, helping us to identify carefully built walls that previous generations of archaeologists would not have identified as being reused.

The results are impressive: a series of high-quality drawing and photogrammetric models from Zehra and a complete set of fortification wall elevations for the whole city from Buse and Emir. This lone work may be less convivial but the strengths of individual works come out clearly to everyone. And it is a pleasure for me to be involved in explaining and actually carrying out spolia survey. When managing three trenches and the resultant records, blogging, finance-checking, and hosting visitors, one can slip away from the coal-face of excavation and  recording, which is bad for everyone. No-one wants a director who is remote or stuck resolving logistics. Yet, that is the reality of multi-trench recording, especially if one is dealing with experienced supervisors. However, today I got back into the trenches and was able to make primary observations again, something that felt very good, with a feeling that skills-transfer was far more direct than if I have just been telling students what to do. In this work, looking at the makeup of walls, I was able to note new phasing in the shop we excavated on the colonnaded street, as some walls clearly have no detectable reuse, whilst other include major broken architectural fragments. Not all of our work has been crowned with success, however. Zehra and new arrival Martha (who brought the laser scanner) tried in vain to find the western side of the Late Roman fortification, which is a solid line on the plan of Loots, clambering over bare rock on a precipitous ridge, exposed to the sun. Dangerous work, if one is not cautious and well-shod, as they were.

13.1 Photogrammetric Sections, Lower Agora East Portico Shops.