Book by Christopher Courault
Christopher Courault - Carlos Márquez Eds, 2020
Oxbow books, 2020
The construction of urban defences was one of the hallmarks of the late Roman and late-antique pe... more The construction of urban defences was one of the hallmarks of the late Roman and late-antique periods (300–600 AD) throughout the western and eastern empire. City walls were the most significant construction projects of their time and they redefined the urban landscape. Their appearance and monumental scale, as well as the cost of labour and material, are easily comparable to projects from the High Empire; however, urban circuits provided late-antique towns with a new means of self-representation. While their final appearance and construction techniques varied greatly, the cost involved and the dramatic impact that such projects had on the urban topography of late-antique cities mark city walls as one of the most important urban initiatives of the period.
To-date, research on city walls in the two halves of the empire has highlighted chronological and regional variations, enabling scholars to rethink how and why urban circuits were built and functioned in Late Antiquity. Although these developments have made a significant contribution to the understanding of late-antique city walls, studies are often concerned with one single monument/small group of monuments or a particular region, and the issues raised do not usually lead to a broader perspective, creating an artificial divide between east and west. It is this broader understanding that this book seeks to provide.
The volume and its contributions arise from a conference held at the British School at Rome and the Swedish Institute of Classical Studies in Rome on June 20-21, 2018. It includes articles from world-leading experts in late-antique history and archaeology and is based around important themes that emerged at the conference, such as construction, spolia-use, late-antique architecture, culture and urbanism, empire-wide changes in Late Antiquity, and the perception of this practice by local inhabitants.
Co-authors: J.I. Carrillo
Books by Christopher Courault
From Concept to Monument: Time and Costs of Construction in the Ancient World celebrates Janet De... more From Concept to Monument: Time and Costs of Construction in the Ancient World celebrates Janet DeLaine’s seminal work on Roman architecture and construction. One of the foremost scholars of the last decades, her pioneering research has offered important insights not only into individual structures in central Italy but also into the processes involved in creating ancient buildings. Her approach has provided important conceptual frameworks that have allowed scholars to understand Roman buildings in their proper social and economic contexts. The volume collects papers from an international conference held in Janet’s honour at Wolfson College, Oxford, in January 2020. The various contributions focus on modelling the costs of construction over the course of 2,500 years, from Bronze Age Greece to the early Middle Ages. They discuss both broader issues of methodology and particular case studies, with particular attention to the effort needed in the different steps of architectural creation, such as the exploitation of raw materials (e.g. quarries), transport, and the construction processes on building sites. The papers not only cover a wide chronological and geographical area of the ancient world but also take up many of the themes explored by Janet throughout her career on Roman architecture, urbanism, building technologies, materials, and the principles of design. The wide range of papers reflects the scope and vibrancy of Janet’s scholarship on Roman architecture and her enormous contribution to the discipline.
The construction of urban defences was one of the hallmarks of the late Roman and late-antique pe... more The construction of urban defences was one of the hallmarks of the late Roman and late-antique periods (300–600 AD) throughout the western and eastern empire. City walls were the most significant construction projects of their time and they redefined the urban landscape. Their appearance and monumental scale, as well as the cost of labour and material, are easily comparable to projects from the High Empire; however, urban circuits provided late-antique towns with a new means of self-representation. While their final appearance and construction techniques varied greatly, the cost involved and the dramatic impact that such projects had on the urban topography of late-antique cities mark city walls as one of the most important urban initiatives of the period. To-date, research on city walls in the two halves of the empire has highlighted chronological and regional variations, enabling scholars to rethink how and why urban circuits were built and functioned in Late Antiquity. Although these developments have made a significant contribution to the understanding of late-antique city walls, studies are often concerned with one single monument/small group of monuments or a particular region, and the issues raised do not usually lead to a broader perspective, creating an artificial divide between east and west. It is this broader understanding that this book seeks to provide. The volume and its contributions arise from a conference held at the British School at Rome and the Swedish Institute of Classical Studies in Rome on June 20-21, 2018. It includes articles from world-leading experts in late-antique history and archaeology and is based around important themes that emerged at the conference, such as construction, spolia-use, late-antique architecture, culture and urbanism, empire-wide changes in Late Antiquity, and the perception of this practice by local inhabitants.
Chapter book by Christopher Courault
Recent research within the framework of architecural energetics is making it possible to better a... more Recent research within the framework of architecural energetics is making it possible to better analyse the time and costs
of a growing number of pre-industrial construction projects. However, most of these time and cost estimates are applied to
structures from Antiquity for which we have hardly any textual evidence and so are based solely on archaeological remains
and the famous manuals of the 19th century. This chapter is the first quantitative study on the duration and resources used
with its 106 ha of surface area became the most ambitious urban development project known from the western Mediterranean
research on the city, we have extensive information in Arabic written sources.
The methodological approach of this paper consists of three phases. First, the analysis of the textual information on the
construction process and the use of calcarenite. Although these data are collected in sources from the 12th century (6th h.)
onwards, much of it is attributed to informants from the Caliphate period. Second, the contextualisation of these data by
comparing them with archaeological evidence. Finally, the theoretical reconstruction of the production cycle of the walls of the
palace and the city, based on a quantitative study combining textual and material information.
Architecture and the Ancient Economy, edited by Dominik Maschek and Monika Trümper, 2022
La compréhension des remparts tardifs s’est souvent limitée à leurs fonctions, devenant même une ... more La compréhension des remparts tardifs s’est souvent limitée à leurs fonctions, devenant même une marque de vigueur des villes; cependant, le processus de fortification adopte des formes diverses. L’intérêt des études quantitatives ont permis de mettre en avant une dynamique structurée, efficace et peu coûteuse lorsque le matériel est recyclé. Bien que les problématiques soient encore nombreuses, il est possible de mettre en avant certains impacts socio-économiques. En d’autres termes, l’activité sur les enceintes urbaines tout au long de l’Antiquité Tardive peuvent être motivés par leur coût, mais non seulement, d’autres facteurs sociaux auraient pu intervenir à savoir le chômage ou de longues périodes d’inactivé.
Mímesis: imitación de los modelos clásicos y nuevos valores semánticos en el mundo tardoantiguo y medieval, 2021
Quantitativ Studies and Production Cost of Roman Public Construction, 2020
The limestone is the local stone used in all building in Córdoba since the first Roman settlement... more The limestone is the local stone used in all building in Córdoba since the first Roman settlement. At the end of Republican period, the reused material was already a known phenomenom, or spolia which is very common during late Antiquity. The Roman Theatre was destroyed by an earthquake during the second part of IIIrd century, becoming this place like an enormous quarry in the city centre. The investigation thinks that the limestone was reused for other construction, for example : Cercadilla (IIIrd A.C.), a religious building and wisigoth palace (IVth-Vth A.C.).
The main argument is only based on the quantity of materials needed for the mentionned construction, and the theatre could provide all this quantity of limestone. However, the investigation was abled to establish a link between all this buildings. Basing on a chemical study, using different instrumental techniques, we can affirm that the towers in the northern of the city during IVth-Vth were built with reused materials from theatre.
This paper purposes also a reflexion on the economical impact of spolia in regards to the classic economical circuit from quarries explotation.
Quantitative Studies and Production Cost of Roman Public Construction, 2020
The last rest well preserved in Geneva of the Antique City Wall are in Taconnerie Street / Hotel ... more The last rest well preserved in Geneva of the Antique City Wall are in Taconnerie Street / Hotel de Ville Street. This sector were excavated several time during the XXth century which give us a lot of informations about
the construction technique of the defense structure. However, since several decades the Late Antique City Wall has not been investigated with all the attention needed, above all the main characteristic of this structure is the origin of the stone which came from the Basilica of Nyon. In this paper, we offer a comparaison study from an economic perspective to explain why Roman decided to dismantle the Basilica of Nyon and they did not use the stone from quarries.
Córdoba reflejo de Roma, Córdoba, p.209-212
Papers by Christopher Courault
ROMVULA, 2022
Le travail du calcaire à Cordoue a été prédominant pour le développement de la ville tout au long... more Le travail du calcaire à Cordoue a été prédominant pour le développement de la ville tout au long de son histoire, mais son exploitation au IIème siècle avant notre ère pose un certain nombre de questions surtout sur la capacité à produire un monument public d’ampleur tel que le système de canalisation et défensif.
Les datations pourvues par la céramique indiquent une différence face à celle de l’historiographie pour la construction des remparts. Suite à de récentes études chimiques, et à de nouvelles interprétations à partir du matériel graphique, il a été possible de mettre en avant un processus de recyclage dans les fondations de l’enceinte offrant dès lors un nouvel horizon sur l’évolution de Cordoue. C’est en s’intéressant aux sujets de la démographie, à la rentabilité agricole puis à la production des blocs de calcaire qu’une dynamique tout autre concernant l’organisation du travail au sein de la société romaine peut être reconstituée hypothétiquement. Le premier impact de cette organisation oblige à reconsidérer l’évolution de la ville de Cordoue entre sa fondation en 169-168 av. J.-C. et la fin du IIème-début Ier siècle.
Hardback Edition: ISBN 978-1-78925-364-1 Digital Edition: ISBN 978-1-78925-36 5-8 (epub) A CIP re... more Hardback Edition: ISBN 978-1-78925-364-1 Digital Edition: ISBN 978-1-78925-36 5-8 (epub) A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Control Number: 2020932445
City Walls in Late Antiquity: an empire-wide perspective, 2020
What do we know about the late antique city walls in southern Spain, and more concretely about it... more What do we know about the late antique city walls in southern Spain, and more concretely about its most important late antique cities (Carmo, Italica, Gades, Malacca, Corduba…)?
The archaeological information is so limited that a synthesis is not possible, and most of our knowledge of late city walls is that these structures are often defined by the re-use of material. In this sense, Córdoba follows the same trend.
To understand the fortification process during late
antiquity, the investigation should be based on a diachronic perspective, as has been done for Barcino, Emerita Augusta, Colonia Patricia (Pizzo 2010; Puig and Rodà 2010; Courault 2016). This includes two ways to investigate the evolution of a city wall: a horizontal point of view or the defence delineation (Fig. 10.1); and, vertical aspects, including the evolution of the structures, which define the ramparts. The aim of this is to identify and evaluate the fortification process over several centuries, despite the difficulty of determining a concrete chronology. The following paper is based on my recent PhD thesis (Courault 2016) and new investigation.
This will offer a first statement on the late antique city wall in Córdoba.
The construction of urban defences was one of the hallmarks
of the late Roman and late antique pe... more The construction of urban defences was one of the hallmarks
of the late Roman and late antique periods (AD 300–600)
throughout the Western and Eastern Empire. While a number
of cities already had existing urban defences, most urban
centres seem to have been entirely unfortifed prior to late
antiquity; however, between the third and sixth centuries
AD, the situation changed drastically, with walled circuits
of varying types and designs being erected in many cities
throughout the Roman world (Sarantis 2013a, 256). This
included not only the imperial and provincial capitals but
also smaller cities and towns. In Gaul, for example, some
85% of the 125 largely undefended towns were provided with
walls through the third, fourth, and into the ffth centuries
(Bachrach 2010, 38 with bibliography). That city walls were
the most signifcant construction proMects of their time and
that they redefned the urban landscape cannot therefore be
understated. In both the West and the East of the Empire,
many cities followed a reduced course, excluding large sections of the existing imperial city (e.g. Bordeaux, Pergamon,
Sagalassos, and Hierapolis). Moreover, their appearance and
monumental scale (varied as they may be), as well as the
cost of labour and material, are easily comparable to proMects
from the High Empire; however, urban circuits provided
late antique towns with new means of self-representation
and represent one of the most important urban initiatives
of the period.
To-date, research on city walls has highlighted chronological and regional variations, enabling scholars to rethink
how and why urban circuits were built and how they
functioned in late antiquity. Scholarship also has sought
to question traditional historical narratives of barbarian
invasions and instead shown that benefaction, civic pride,
availability of military labour, or a combination of these,
alongside defence, acted as powerful motivations for the
construction of city walls (see Laurence et al. 2011, 141–
169, for arguments about urban status; Dey 2011, 112–121,
for a discussion of the motivation for the Aurelian Wall in
Rome and the various factors involved in its construction,
including defence, prestige, and the undertaking of a largescale public work to aid in the stability of Aurelian’s regime
in the capital). Although these developments have made a
signifcant contribution to the understanding of late antique
city walls, studies are often concerned with one single monument, small groups of monuments, or a particular region.
As a result, broader perspectives, especially those that
consider walls from both the Western and Eastern parts of
the Empire, are still lacking and therefore create an artifcial
divide between East and West.
This divide appears to have been well established already
in the 1 s, when fortifcations experienced a surge of
interest in scholarly literature. In this respect, the summary
works of Johnson (1983) and Lander (1984), which cover up
to the fourth century AD, can be considered as indicative of
this. While the former is mostly concerned with case studies
from the West, Lander focuses his attentiun to the East. That
this tendency still persists is refected by the excellent bibliographic reviews (on ‘West’, ‘East’, and ‘Africa’) written
by Sarantis and Christie (Sarantis and Christie 2013, Sarantis
2013a, 2013b) in the volume edited by the same scholars
on ‘War and Warfare in Late Antiquity’.
Despite the fact that single-site and regional approaches ....
Antiqvitas, 2019
La muralla es la única estructura urbana que permanece a lo largo de la historia de la ciudad. La... more La muralla es la única estructura urbana que permanece a lo largo de la historia de la ciudad. La sucesión de épocas implica
numerosas actuaciones para mantener dicha estructura, tales como reparaciones, recrecidos o lienzos ex NOVO. De acuerdo
con las investigaciones arqueológicas recientes sobre la cerca antigua de Córdoba, se ha puesto de manifiesto una serie
de actuaciones que dejarían entrever una muralla bien conservada hasta el siglo VI d.C., antes de la invasión del 711. No
obstante, las fuentes islámicas apuntan a una muralla con un estado de conservación discutible, y mencionan entre los siglos
VIII y X d.C. que la ciudad de Córdoba fue dotada de nuevos recintos. Sin embargo, la investigación ha demostrado que
dichas actuaciones eran más bien localizadas y que persistía la estructura fortificada antigua. Este trabajo se interroga sobre
el proceso de recuperación del recinto antiguo en época islámica y sobre el abastecimiento de piedra para su construcción.
Para ello, incorporaremos los resultados de un estudio petrográfico.
Antiqvitas
Cordoue a été l’objet de nombreuses publications pour expliquer son évolution tout au long de l’a... more Cordoue a été l’objet de nombreuses publications pour expliquer son évolution tout au long de l’antiquité, mais les enceintes
apparaissent comme une structure immuable dans l’espace et le temps. Ce présent travail a pour intérêt exclusif les tours,
il s’agit de comprendre et d’offrir à ces structures une analyse qui va au-delà de l’aspect poliorcétique. En effet, elles
renferment bon nombre d’information (technique constructive, morphologie etc.) qui permet de déterminer l’évolution des
enceintes antiques en partie. Il ne s’agit pas de réaliser une simple synthèse des découvertes, mais de les replacer dans
un contexte chronologique tout en se basant sur leurs caractéristiques. Il est certain que les murailles doivent faire face à des problématiques chronologiques récurrentes (peu d’indices fiables dont la céramologie), ainsi adopter une perception
diachronique sur l’étude des tours peut les convertir en un argument chronologique pour comprendre en partie l’évolution
de la ville.
REUDAR
Erosion was a real problem for damage edifice in long term, and Roman people knew this fact, as V... more Erosion was a real problem for damage edifice in long term, and Roman people knew this fact, as Vitruve and Frontin ilustrated. There is not much investigation about erosion, due to the difficulties concerning the identification of the relationship between the erosion process and reparation acts during an emergency archaeological excavation. However, Cordoba presents particular interest within the investigation of its City Wall during the Antiquity. Certain aspects have not been considered yet by investigation, reason by which Cordoba offers some interesting clues to understand how Roman citizens protected their urbanism against erosion.
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Book by Christopher Courault
To-date, research on city walls in the two halves of the empire has highlighted chronological and regional variations, enabling scholars to rethink how and why urban circuits were built and functioned in Late Antiquity. Although these developments have made a significant contribution to the understanding of late-antique city walls, studies are often concerned with one single monument/small group of monuments or a particular region, and the issues raised do not usually lead to a broader perspective, creating an artificial divide between east and west. It is this broader understanding that this book seeks to provide.
The volume and its contributions arise from a conference held at the British School at Rome and the Swedish Institute of Classical Studies in Rome on June 20-21, 2018. It includes articles from world-leading experts in late-antique history and archaeology and is based around important themes that emerged at the conference, such as construction, spolia-use, late-antique architecture, culture and urbanism, empire-wide changes in Late Antiquity, and the perception of this practice by local inhabitants.
Books by Christopher Courault
Chapter book by Christopher Courault
of a growing number of pre-industrial construction projects. However, most of these time and cost estimates are applied to
structures from Antiquity for which we have hardly any textual evidence and so are based solely on archaeological remains
and the famous manuals of the 19th century. This chapter is the first quantitative study on the duration and resources used
with its 106 ha of surface area became the most ambitious urban development project known from the western Mediterranean
research on the city, we have extensive information in Arabic written sources.
The methodological approach of this paper consists of three phases. First, the analysis of the textual information on the
construction process and the use of calcarenite. Although these data are collected in sources from the 12th century (6th h.)
onwards, much of it is attributed to informants from the Caliphate period. Second, the contextualisation of these data by
comparing them with archaeological evidence. Finally, the theoretical reconstruction of the production cycle of the walls of the
palace and the city, based on a quantitative study combining textual and material information.
The main argument is only based on the quantity of materials needed for the mentionned construction, and the theatre could provide all this quantity of limestone. However, the investigation was abled to establish a link between all this buildings. Basing on a chemical study, using different instrumental techniques, we can affirm that the towers in the northern of the city during IVth-Vth were built with reused materials from theatre.
This paper purposes also a reflexion on the economical impact of spolia in regards to the classic economical circuit from quarries explotation.
the construction technique of the defense structure. However, since several decades the Late Antique City Wall has not been investigated with all the attention needed, above all the main characteristic of this structure is the origin of the stone which came from the Basilica of Nyon. In this paper, we offer a comparaison study from an economic perspective to explain why Roman decided to dismantle the Basilica of Nyon and they did not use the stone from quarries.
Papers by Christopher Courault
Les datations pourvues par la céramique indiquent une différence face à celle de l’historiographie pour la construction des remparts. Suite à de récentes études chimiques, et à de nouvelles interprétations à partir du matériel graphique, il a été possible de mettre en avant un processus de recyclage dans les fondations de l’enceinte offrant dès lors un nouvel horizon sur l’évolution de Cordoue. C’est en s’intéressant aux sujets de la démographie, à la rentabilité agricole puis à la production des blocs de calcaire qu’une dynamique tout autre concernant l’organisation du travail au sein de la société romaine peut être reconstituée hypothétiquement. Le premier impact de cette organisation oblige à reconsidérer l’évolution de la ville de Cordoue entre sa fondation en 169-168 av. J.-C. et la fin du IIème-début Ier siècle.
The archaeological information is so limited that a synthesis is not possible, and most of our knowledge of late city walls is that these structures are often defined by the re-use of material. In this sense, Córdoba follows the same trend.
To understand the fortification process during late
antiquity, the investigation should be based on a diachronic perspective, as has been done for Barcino, Emerita Augusta, Colonia Patricia (Pizzo 2010; Puig and Rodà 2010; Courault 2016). This includes two ways to investigate the evolution of a city wall: a horizontal point of view or the defence delineation (Fig. 10.1); and, vertical aspects, including the evolution of the structures, which define the ramparts. The aim of this is to identify and evaluate the fortification process over several centuries, despite the difficulty of determining a concrete chronology. The following paper is based on my recent PhD thesis (Courault 2016) and new investigation.
This will offer a first statement on the late antique city wall in Córdoba.
of the late Roman and late antique periods (AD 300–600)
throughout the Western and Eastern Empire. While a number
of cities already had existing urban defences, most urban
centres seem to have been entirely unfortifed prior to late
antiquity; however, between the third and sixth centuries
AD, the situation changed drastically, with walled circuits
of varying types and designs being erected in many cities
throughout the Roman world (Sarantis 2013a, 256). This
included not only the imperial and provincial capitals but
also smaller cities and towns. In Gaul, for example, some
85% of the 125 largely undefended towns were provided with
walls through the third, fourth, and into the ffth centuries
(Bachrach 2010, 38 with bibliography). That city walls were
the most signifcant construction proMects of their time and
that they redefned the urban landscape cannot therefore be
understated. In both the West and the East of the Empire,
many cities followed a reduced course, excluding large sections of the existing imperial city (e.g. Bordeaux, Pergamon,
Sagalassos, and Hierapolis). Moreover, their appearance and
monumental scale (varied as they may be), as well as the
cost of labour and material, are easily comparable to proMects
from the High Empire; however, urban circuits provided
late antique towns with new means of self-representation
and represent one of the most important urban initiatives
of the period.
To-date, research on city walls has highlighted chronological and regional variations, enabling scholars to rethink
how and why urban circuits were built and how they
functioned in late antiquity. Scholarship also has sought
to question traditional historical narratives of barbarian
invasions and instead shown that benefaction, civic pride,
availability of military labour, or a combination of these,
alongside defence, acted as powerful motivations for the
construction of city walls (see Laurence et al. 2011, 141–
169, for arguments about urban status; Dey 2011, 112–121,
for a discussion of the motivation for the Aurelian Wall in
Rome and the various factors involved in its construction,
including defence, prestige, and the undertaking of a largescale public work to aid in the stability of Aurelian’s regime
in the capital). Although these developments have made a
signifcant contribution to the understanding of late antique
city walls, studies are often concerned with one single monument, small groups of monuments, or a particular region.
As a result, broader perspectives, especially those that
consider walls from both the Western and Eastern parts of
the Empire, are still lacking and therefore create an artifcial
divide between East and West.
This divide appears to have been well established already
in the 1 s, when fortifcations experienced a surge of
interest in scholarly literature. In this respect, the summary
works of Johnson (1983) and Lander (1984), which cover up
to the fourth century AD, can be considered as indicative of
this. While the former is mostly concerned with case studies
from the West, Lander focuses his attentiun to the East. That
this tendency still persists is refected by the excellent bibliographic reviews (on ‘West’, ‘East’, and ‘Africa’) written
by Sarantis and Christie (Sarantis and Christie 2013, Sarantis
2013a, 2013b) in the volume edited by the same scholars
on ‘War and Warfare in Late Antiquity’.
Despite the fact that single-site and regional approaches ....
numerosas actuaciones para mantener dicha estructura, tales como reparaciones, recrecidos o lienzos ex NOVO. De acuerdo
con las investigaciones arqueológicas recientes sobre la cerca antigua de Córdoba, se ha puesto de manifiesto una serie
de actuaciones que dejarían entrever una muralla bien conservada hasta el siglo VI d.C., antes de la invasión del 711. No
obstante, las fuentes islámicas apuntan a una muralla con un estado de conservación discutible, y mencionan entre los siglos
VIII y X d.C. que la ciudad de Córdoba fue dotada de nuevos recintos. Sin embargo, la investigación ha demostrado que
dichas actuaciones eran más bien localizadas y que persistía la estructura fortificada antigua. Este trabajo se interroga sobre
el proceso de recuperación del recinto antiguo en época islámica y sobre el abastecimiento de piedra para su construcción.
Para ello, incorporaremos los resultados de un estudio petrográfico.
apparaissent comme une structure immuable dans l’espace et le temps. Ce présent travail a pour intérêt exclusif les tours,
il s’agit de comprendre et d’offrir à ces structures une analyse qui va au-delà de l’aspect poliorcétique. En effet, elles
renferment bon nombre d’information (technique constructive, morphologie etc.) qui permet de déterminer l’évolution des
enceintes antiques en partie. Il ne s’agit pas de réaliser une simple synthèse des découvertes, mais de les replacer dans
un contexte chronologique tout en se basant sur leurs caractéristiques. Il est certain que les murailles doivent faire face à des problématiques chronologiques récurrentes (peu d’indices fiables dont la céramologie), ainsi adopter une perception
diachronique sur l’étude des tours peut les convertir en un argument chronologique pour comprendre en partie l’évolution
de la ville.
To-date, research on city walls in the two halves of the empire has highlighted chronological and regional variations, enabling scholars to rethink how and why urban circuits were built and functioned in Late Antiquity. Although these developments have made a significant contribution to the understanding of late-antique city walls, studies are often concerned with one single monument/small group of monuments or a particular region, and the issues raised do not usually lead to a broader perspective, creating an artificial divide between east and west. It is this broader understanding that this book seeks to provide.
The volume and its contributions arise from a conference held at the British School at Rome and the Swedish Institute of Classical Studies in Rome on June 20-21, 2018. It includes articles from world-leading experts in late-antique history and archaeology and is based around important themes that emerged at the conference, such as construction, spolia-use, late-antique architecture, culture and urbanism, empire-wide changes in Late Antiquity, and the perception of this practice by local inhabitants.
of a growing number of pre-industrial construction projects. However, most of these time and cost estimates are applied to
structures from Antiquity for which we have hardly any textual evidence and so are based solely on archaeological remains
and the famous manuals of the 19th century. This chapter is the first quantitative study on the duration and resources used
with its 106 ha of surface area became the most ambitious urban development project known from the western Mediterranean
research on the city, we have extensive information in Arabic written sources.
The methodological approach of this paper consists of three phases. First, the analysis of the textual information on the
construction process and the use of calcarenite. Although these data are collected in sources from the 12th century (6th h.)
onwards, much of it is attributed to informants from the Caliphate period. Second, the contextualisation of these data by
comparing them with archaeological evidence. Finally, the theoretical reconstruction of the production cycle of the walls of the
palace and the city, based on a quantitative study combining textual and material information.
The main argument is only based on the quantity of materials needed for the mentionned construction, and the theatre could provide all this quantity of limestone. However, the investigation was abled to establish a link between all this buildings. Basing on a chemical study, using different instrumental techniques, we can affirm that the towers in the northern of the city during IVth-Vth were built with reused materials from theatre.
This paper purposes also a reflexion on the economical impact of spolia in regards to the classic economical circuit from quarries explotation.
the construction technique of the defense structure. However, since several decades the Late Antique City Wall has not been investigated with all the attention needed, above all the main characteristic of this structure is the origin of the stone which came from the Basilica of Nyon. In this paper, we offer a comparaison study from an economic perspective to explain why Roman decided to dismantle the Basilica of Nyon and they did not use the stone from quarries.
Les datations pourvues par la céramique indiquent une différence face à celle de l’historiographie pour la construction des remparts. Suite à de récentes études chimiques, et à de nouvelles interprétations à partir du matériel graphique, il a été possible de mettre en avant un processus de recyclage dans les fondations de l’enceinte offrant dès lors un nouvel horizon sur l’évolution de Cordoue. C’est en s’intéressant aux sujets de la démographie, à la rentabilité agricole puis à la production des blocs de calcaire qu’une dynamique tout autre concernant l’organisation du travail au sein de la société romaine peut être reconstituée hypothétiquement. Le premier impact de cette organisation oblige à reconsidérer l’évolution de la ville de Cordoue entre sa fondation en 169-168 av. J.-C. et la fin du IIème-début Ier siècle.
The archaeological information is so limited that a synthesis is not possible, and most of our knowledge of late city walls is that these structures are often defined by the re-use of material. In this sense, Córdoba follows the same trend.
To understand the fortification process during late
antiquity, the investigation should be based on a diachronic perspective, as has been done for Barcino, Emerita Augusta, Colonia Patricia (Pizzo 2010; Puig and Rodà 2010; Courault 2016). This includes two ways to investigate the evolution of a city wall: a horizontal point of view or the defence delineation (Fig. 10.1); and, vertical aspects, including the evolution of the structures, which define the ramparts. The aim of this is to identify and evaluate the fortification process over several centuries, despite the difficulty of determining a concrete chronology. The following paper is based on my recent PhD thesis (Courault 2016) and new investigation.
This will offer a first statement on the late antique city wall in Córdoba.
of the late Roman and late antique periods (AD 300–600)
throughout the Western and Eastern Empire. While a number
of cities already had existing urban defences, most urban
centres seem to have been entirely unfortifed prior to late
antiquity; however, between the third and sixth centuries
AD, the situation changed drastically, with walled circuits
of varying types and designs being erected in many cities
throughout the Roman world (Sarantis 2013a, 256). This
included not only the imperial and provincial capitals but
also smaller cities and towns. In Gaul, for example, some
85% of the 125 largely undefended towns were provided with
walls through the third, fourth, and into the ffth centuries
(Bachrach 2010, 38 with bibliography). That city walls were
the most signifcant construction proMects of their time and
that they redefned the urban landscape cannot therefore be
understated. In both the West and the East of the Empire,
many cities followed a reduced course, excluding large sections of the existing imperial city (e.g. Bordeaux, Pergamon,
Sagalassos, and Hierapolis). Moreover, their appearance and
monumental scale (varied as they may be), as well as the
cost of labour and material, are easily comparable to proMects
from the High Empire; however, urban circuits provided
late antique towns with new means of self-representation
and represent one of the most important urban initiatives
of the period.
To-date, research on city walls has highlighted chronological and regional variations, enabling scholars to rethink
how and why urban circuits were built and how they
functioned in late antiquity. Scholarship also has sought
to question traditional historical narratives of barbarian
invasions and instead shown that benefaction, civic pride,
availability of military labour, or a combination of these,
alongside defence, acted as powerful motivations for the
construction of city walls (see Laurence et al. 2011, 141–
169, for arguments about urban status; Dey 2011, 112–121,
for a discussion of the motivation for the Aurelian Wall in
Rome and the various factors involved in its construction,
including defence, prestige, and the undertaking of a largescale public work to aid in the stability of Aurelian’s regime
in the capital). Although these developments have made a
signifcant contribution to the understanding of late antique
city walls, studies are often concerned with one single monument, small groups of monuments, or a particular region.
As a result, broader perspectives, especially those that
consider walls from both the Western and Eastern parts of
the Empire, are still lacking and therefore create an artifcial
divide between East and West.
This divide appears to have been well established already
in the 1 s, when fortifcations experienced a surge of
interest in scholarly literature. In this respect, the summary
works of Johnson (1983) and Lander (1984), which cover up
to the fourth century AD, can be considered as indicative of
this. While the former is mostly concerned with case studies
from the West, Lander focuses his attentiun to the East. That
this tendency still persists is refected by the excellent bibliographic reviews (on ‘West’, ‘East’, and ‘Africa’) written
by Sarantis and Christie (Sarantis and Christie 2013, Sarantis
2013a, 2013b) in the volume edited by the same scholars
on ‘War and Warfare in Late Antiquity’.
Despite the fact that single-site and regional approaches ....
numerosas actuaciones para mantener dicha estructura, tales como reparaciones, recrecidos o lienzos ex NOVO. De acuerdo
con las investigaciones arqueológicas recientes sobre la cerca antigua de Córdoba, se ha puesto de manifiesto una serie
de actuaciones que dejarían entrever una muralla bien conservada hasta el siglo VI d.C., antes de la invasión del 711. No
obstante, las fuentes islámicas apuntan a una muralla con un estado de conservación discutible, y mencionan entre los siglos
VIII y X d.C. que la ciudad de Córdoba fue dotada de nuevos recintos. Sin embargo, la investigación ha demostrado que
dichas actuaciones eran más bien localizadas y que persistía la estructura fortificada antigua. Este trabajo se interroga sobre
el proceso de recuperación del recinto antiguo en época islámica y sobre el abastecimiento de piedra para su construcción.
Para ello, incorporaremos los resultados de un estudio petrográfico.
apparaissent comme une structure immuable dans l’espace et le temps. Ce présent travail a pour intérêt exclusif les tours,
il s’agit de comprendre et d’offrir à ces structures une analyse qui va au-delà de l’aspect poliorcétique. En effet, elles
renferment bon nombre d’information (technique constructive, morphologie etc.) qui permet de déterminer l’évolution des
enceintes antiques en partie. Il ne s’agit pas de réaliser une simple synthèse des découvertes, mais de les replacer dans
un contexte chronologique tout en se basant sur leurs caractéristiques. Il est certain que les murailles doivent faire face à des problématiques chronologiques récurrentes (peu d’indices fiables dont la céramologie), ainsi adopter une perception
diachronique sur l’étude des tours peut les convertir en un argument chronologique pour comprendre en partie l’évolution
de la ville.
Aborder l’étude de la muraille en tant que simple structure c’est se limiter à des données archéologiques souvent trop dispersées.Pour comprendre une structure publique il faut l’intégrer avant tout dans un ample processus de construction qui prend racine dans les carrières. Il s’agit ici d’une deuxième étude quantitative sur la muraille républicaine. Dans le travail précédent nous nous sommes basés sur une étude quantitative pour évaluer le temps de construction de l’enceinte, ce qui a permis d‘offrir une nouvelle approche sur la fondation de Cordoue. Nous développons dans cette présente étude la méthodologie afin de comprendre le processus d’exploitation des carrières Castillo de Maimón en calculant le volume de déchets produits. Notre deuxième objectif consiste à réaliser une estimation du coût du rempart républicain, ce qui représenterait une partie du budget qu’aurait possédé Claudio Marcelo pour la fondation de Corduba en 169-168 av. J.-C.
Nous nous sommes intéressés à la capacité humaine en ce qui concerne l’édification de la muraille républicaine de Cordoue. L’objectif de notre travail est d’évaluer le temps nécessaire
à la réalisation des défenses, pour cela, il est primordial de définir la structure afin de proposer différentes alternatives. Les conclusions de notre recherche essayent de prendre en
compte l’ensemble d’une organisation logistique qui a pour corps principal l’exploitation des carrières. L’identification et l’analyse des carrières localisées autour du Castillo de Maimón
nous offrent une nouvelle perception sur l’origine des blocs utilisés pour la muraille.
El objetivo de nuestra investigación ha sido interrogarse sobre las fortificaciones de Córdoba, y más concretamente en lo referente a lo que atañe a los suburbios de la ciudad. La revisión de las fuentes literarias y arqueológicas ofrece la posibilidad de proponer una nueva hipótesis que pondría en relieve el hecho de que la Córdoba califal hubiera tenido algunos de sus arrabales fortificados al final del siglo X. Así, la fitna no hubiera sido el origen de las murallas de la Axerquía, sino que hubiera impulsado un proceso de fortificación frente a un peligro inmediato.
El uso cotidiano del término oppidum tiene como mayor consecuencia definir de modo equívoco cualquier yacimiento prerromano con una fortificación sin que haya verdaderamente una diferencia entre aquellos. El objetivo perseguido durante nuestra investigación es explicar las problemáticas de dicho comportamiento que parecía anodino hasta entonces, pero en el fondo se trata de una gran confusión al explayar la evolución de los paisajes urbanos prerromanos. Por lo tanto, es fundamental contextualizar ese concepto con el objetivo de prescindir de sus rasgos abstractos, comprender su ambigüedad y darle un verdadero sentido. Par alcanzar aquella meta, proponemos analizar aspectos topográficos, jurídicos e identidarios.
LABURPENA
Oppidum terminoaren eguneroko erabileraren ondorio ohikoena gotorlekua duen edozein aztarnategi prerromatar modu zalantzagarrian de-finitzea izaten da, nahiz eta haien artean benetako alderik ez egon. Gure ikerketaren helburua ordura arte interesik gabea zirudien, baina funtsean, hiri-paisaia prerromatarren bilakaera azaltzean nahasmen handia sortzen duen portaeraren arazoak azaltzea izan da. Hori dela eta, ezinbestekoa da kontzeptu hori bere testuinguruaren baitan sartzea ezaugarri abstraktuak alboratu, anbiguotasuna ulertu eta benetako zentzua eman ahal iza-teko. Helburu hori lortzeko, beraz, alderdi topografikoak, juridikoak eta identitate mailakoak aztertzea proposatzen dugu.
ABSTRACT
The usage diary of oppidum term gets a real consecuence to define a pre-roman site from a wrong way, because we can not distinguish between them. The aim of our study is explain the problema linkink by this scientific attitude, which looks like anodyne. But basically, the main difficulty is about misunderstanding to explain the preroman urban landscape evolution. Iberia is a generic name, but behind there is a numerous of society so different which difficult our understanding of oppidum. The investigation use to qualify any protohistoric sites like oppidum, by this way it results difficult to give an urban definition to this concept. By consecuence, it is important to contextualize this concept, that s why we have to disregard its abstract feature, understand its ambiguity sense and above all to give it a meaning. In this sense, we suggest to analyse several aspects (topography, legal, identity, archaeology…) since a general point of view. It exists few conceptual reflexion about oppidum, and the only litterary sources came from Roman society, so it is important to question the meaning of this word in a Roman context, and if it is possible to apply a Roman concept to a non Roman landscape. We think this word got a special definition for Roman people but with an abstract notion, because some authors managed its sense according to a concrete context in a determine area; that is why, sometimes, it appeared oppidum was a synonym to urbs, but this sense has a propaganda aspect. However, a juridical status could be associated to oppidum which give a new dimension to this concept. Even if Roman authors wanted to give an urban sense to oppidum, it does not mean that we have to adopt a same horizon, it is to say a mediterranean perspective. Thus, oppidum is used to define a protohistoric and a classical urban landscape at the same time which leads to a nonsense. In other word, it is necessary to interrogate us if urban nucleus in the city sense existed before Roman conquest period. Unfortunately , it results to be a never-ending debate, thus, some researchers do not hesitate to adapt their vocabulary, or other one deny to use it to distinguish the different archeological sites. Indeed, apply Roman concept to a preroman world could offer a confuse situation between cas-trum and oppidum for example. Fumadó Ortega suggests to be prudent when we use this word, because we are not able to determine the sense in classical litterature, whereas archaeology investigation do not give us all the necessary material information to distinguish the preroman sites. The City Wall, often mentioned like a city's symbol, can not be associated systemically to a city. In this situation, we should take account other aspects which could participate to define the preroman site like a city, since a material point of view and sacred field. We think it is important to develop regional investigation to understand oppidum concept in a concrete area. Indeed, when we talk about oppidum concept we participate to a stereotypi-cal view that is why we prefer to refer to oppida concept, which give to oppidum definition a flexibility character including an evolution of the urbanism develop respect to geography and chronology.
la arquitectura. Ésta busca comprender no sólo las implicaciones simbólicas, ideológicas o prácticas
que se esconden detrás de esta actividad, sino mejorar nuestro conocimiento acerca de la gestión de
estos materiales y de las implicaciones económicas que tuvo esta práctica. El estudio del coste del
Arco de Constantino y la comparación con el coste que habría tenido de haber sido construido
enteramente con material realizado ex novo permite cuantificar las implicaciones económicas y de
ahorro de tiempo que tuvo la práctica del reaprovechamiento.
Settembre 2021, 23-25
Pontificia Università della Santa Croce (Roma)
Cineteatro Marques Duque (Mértola)
Università degli studi di Padova
3-5- giugno 2021
Comparative analysis of building techniques and construction processes at regional and empire-wide levels;
Spolia and the impact of the urban landscape;
Perception of city walls in Late Antiquity and the post-Antique period;
Comparative scientific analyses;
Cette tendance se généralise dans tout l’Empire au cours de l’Antiquité Tardive, mais jusqu’à présent aucune étude n’a quantifié l’économie réalisé à la fois dans une perspective de temps de construction et de coûts. Dans ce sens, le contexte de réutilisation du matériel dans la construction des enceintes à Cordoue et Genève offre des résultats d’économie sur le temps et coûts énormes alors que les moyens employés furent différents.
En plus d’apporter une réflexion sur la méthodologie de quantification, les résultats obtenus donneront lieu également à un tout autre débat portant sur le phénomène de fortification.
Elle est réputée pour le palais de lʹAlcazar, la cathédrale, la tour de lʹOr mais aussi pour son art du flamenco.