Clusters of re-use: the late Roman Wall and the Unfinished Baths of Lepcis Magna

Authors

  • Francesca Bigi Sovrintendenza Capitolina per i Beni Culturali

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5617/acta.10431

Keywords:

spolia, recycling, late-antique recycling, re-use, city walls, ancient baths, Antiquity, Leptis Magna (Extinct city), Lepcis Magna

Abstract

Lepcis Magna is a privileged site for investigating re-use in all its forms, and this paper focuses on the materials which are to be found recycled in two late-antique contexts: the late Roman defensive circuit and the so-called Unfinished Baths. In both contexts, the architects made use of a multitude of older elements, mostly architectural and epigraphic, many of which are still unpublished. These are discussed here for the first time in an attempt to investigate their character, their original provenance and in which ways they were employed within these new settings.

 

On cover:
Late Roman wall, the portion immediately south of the West Gate (Porta Oea) with re-used blocks from first-century mausolea (Drawing by Francesca Bigi) and Tombstone of Regina from South Shields (Arbeia) (Tyne and WearArchives and Museums/ Bridgeman Images).

E-ISSN (online version) 2611-3686

ISSN (print version) 0065-0900

Late Roman wall, the partition immediately south of the West Gate (Porta Oea) with reused blocks from first-century mausolea (Drawing by Francesca Bigi) and Tombstone of Regina from South Shields (Arbeia) (Tyneamd WearArchives and Museums/ Bridgeman Images)

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Published

2023-08-01

How to Cite

Bigi, F. (2023) “Clusters of re-use: the late Roman Wall and the Unfinished Baths of Lepcis Magna”, Acta ad archaeologiam et artium historiam pertinentia, 33(19 N.S.), pp. 1–37. doi: 10.5617/acta.10431.

Issue

Vol. 33 No. 19 N.S. (2021)

Section

Part 1: New Research on Late-Antique Recycling

License

Copyright (c) 2023 Acta ad archaeologiam et artium historiam pertinentia

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

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