Rome Pilfered

[Ludovicus]

Looters stealing the iron clamps in the facade of the Colosseum left holes that are still apparent today. Let's imagine what other valuables might have fueled a strong economy based on recycling the ancient city. OK, iron building clamps and surely marble columns.

 

What other materials could have been removed and sold? And where could they have gone?

[Melvadius]

Well the obvious inclusion is the Forma Urbis map which, probably along with an unknown quantitiy of other marble items including columns and statues, seems to have been broken up to be burnt to produce lime either for inclusion in concrete for construction or simply as a fertiliser.

 

Speaking of marble columns not all of those removed from Rome were from Roman period structures. Apparently several were recovered from the Tiber - presumably part of a lost Roman period cargo which sank then used in the construction of Syon House in Middlesex.

[Ludovicus]

I imagine that many a ship left post 6th century Rome bound for Constantinople laden with pilfered lead, columns, bronze, and iron.

[caldrail]

Not necessarily. This sort of recycling tends to be local in scope, and Constantinople had sources of its own. The question is whether the effort and risk of transporting secondhand masonry and ironwork was worth the price.

[Ludovicus]

There is some documentation for the long distance use of spolia (recycled building materials from earlier periods). For example, at Charlemagne's palace in Aachen:

from Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palace_of_Aachen

 

Charlemagne wanted his chapel to be magnificently decorated, so he had massive bronze doors made in a foundry near Aachen. The walls were covered with marble and polychrome stone.[25] The columns, still visible today, were taken on buildings in Ravenna and Rome, with the Pope's permission.

 

Eginhard provides a description of the inside in his Life of Charlemagne (c. 825

[Ludovicus]

Trajan's Forum in the Middle Ages from Rome: An Oxford Archaeological Guide:

By the [ 9th Century] C 9 AD all the paving had gone, and for lack of suitable drainage, the concrete platform became a swamp...

 

http://www.amazon.com/Oxford-Archaeological-Guides-Amanda-Claridge/dp/0199546835/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1298332511&sr=8-1

Edited February 21, 2011 by Ludovicus