Spolia what is it?

So, what is ‘spolia’ exactly and why is it so interesting? Well to the ancients the term could only understood as the stripping of armour or possessions from the vanquished enemy, if not from a dead body, perhaps from temples or buildings. In this last sense, it might even include architectural elements. However, the modern use to mean especially reused architectural blocks definitely come from the Renaissance and is a term of art history. Archaeologist also use it more loosely to mean any block that is reused, although ‘generic reused material’ is a better term for this, with spolia reserved for architectural elements, such as columns, bases, and so on, whether or not they are decorated. The latter category of ‘true spolia’ provoke much interest and comment today, being highly visible and used in ways that jar with classical sensibilities. People talk of ‘hasty building’, ‘declining aesthetics’, and ‘iconoclasm’ often without much thought. The first category, in contrast, excites very little interest, with much of it being missed, as the walls it produces do not shout for attention.  

For those who wish to study the evolution of the ‘spolia’ habit, this represents a difficulty: how do we get a good idea of its origins, if we miss out careful spolia use where the material is either generic or the disguise of carved elements is done at a very high level. There have been many mistakes, whereby late antique buildings, made out of well-chosen and well-laid reused materials, have been assumed to be early imperial. A self-fulfilling rule has been set up, in which if reuse looks bad it must be late antique, whilst all ‘good’ stuff is early. This prejudice does not of course stand up to proper scrutiny on many sites, where stratigraphic excavation reveals careful building in reused material very late in the period, notably in the 6th c. Worse, the study of wall surfaces can show that much mismatching reuse was hidden behind mortar so simply could not be seen. Hiding spolia in a wall is nothing new, but in late antiquity the wall faces are built in spolia and then covered over with marble, plaster, or other materials. Sometimes they are visible, even shown off, although this is mainly a habit of the Middle Ages. 

For us at Sagalassos, the way forward is clear: a detailed and empirical study of walls containing reuse, of whatever style or whatever date, to get an idea of the circumstances and patterns of both spoliation (robbing from buildings) and spolia building, so that we can understand the phenomenon as a whole and get a view right across our site or even the whole region. Urban history, general patterns of city development, is perhaps at stake, and I look forward to telling you soon how the study of ‘spolia contexts’ might provide a way of doing this, giving us stories to tell of the sourcing and use of reused materials that can give insights in the conservation or destruction of classical monuments and city scapes in the late antique period. 

Spot the spolia: here on the Agora Gate stairs, we see an original podium (right behind) with hexagonal pier from the first century AD then a statue monument of the 4th c. with two reused blocks, one turned upside down. Then on the left we have a 6th c. pier not using an architectural element but rather generic reused material of different origins, fitted together with compromises but still done to a high standard, enough to fool a classical archaeologist over its date. 

The walls of our shops on the lower agora however show a much messier situation: a wall built from rubble and missed broken brick, alongside smashed architectural elements. Showing traits typical of clean-up after earthquakes. 

22.0 Spolia: generic reused material in the city wall, well sorted.

 22.1 Spolia: generic reused material and mixed architectural ornament in the 7th c. blocking wall, poorly-sorted.

22.2 Spolia: disguised architectural ornament, with decorated faces turned away from the wall face.

22.3 Spolia: broken Ionic capital, undisguised but with projecting parts cut off, in latest walls of T2 shop.