Spolia Reincarnated

Afterlives of Objects, Materials, and Spaces in Anatolia  from Antiquity to the Ottoman Era

At the cutting edge of spolia studies, the collected essays in this volume explore diverse forms and types of reuse in Anatolia over centuries through a cross-cultural lens. Gathered from the joining of disciplines—archaeology, art history, and the history of architecture and landscape—an exceptional array of examples is presented, including architectural elements and decoration, sculpture and statuary, space and buildings, and textiles and other objects. Most significantly, this ground-breaking work reveals how objects, materials, and spaces attained new meanings in their afterlives through various modes of reuse.

The scholarly contributions published here stem from the Tenth International ANAMED Annual Symposium “Spolia Reincarnated: Second Life of Spaces, Materials, Objects in Anatolia from Antiquity to the Ottoman Period” held at Istanbul’s Koç University Research Center for Anatolian Civilizations (ANAMED) in December 2015. This unique conference marked ANAMED’s tenth anniversary and brought together many prominent scholars and former research center fellows, including the volume’s editors.