Wisconsin (2019) 384pp p/b £21 (ISBN 9780299322847)
It is common these days to receive books about how modern subjects (race, slavery, colonisation, patriarchy etc.) relate to classical antiquity, but it was still something of a surprise to receive one about recycling, albeit not in the ‘save the planet’ context.
R. is currently a project editor for the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, based in Princeton. She holds a PhD from Harvard and has conducted archaeological research at both Athens and Corinth. This book is the fleshing out of a series of recent articles about the reuse of materials.
R. is interested in the way damaged materials (mainly stone) have been consciously reused for a purpose beyond mere construction and has coined the description ‘upcycling’ to identify the phenomenon. In her Introduction she suggests persuasively that older redundant material is frequently built into new structures deliberately to stir the social or corporate memory of the spectator—an obvious UK example would be the reconstruction of Coventry Cathedral. These prompts may be obvious or subtle and although they occur in many societies they were, she argues, particularly prevalent in Athens over a number of centuries.
In chapter 4 she develops a chronological description of the social memory that the Athenians sought to promote and how that changed over time, from ‘remember how we beat the Persians’ (Themistocles); through ‘aren’t we great’ (Pericles); to ‘Athens is the home of Democracy’ (Lycurgus) and finally ‘Athens is the City of Culture’ (Hadrian). This social memory was not exclusively promoted by buildings or statuary—festivals, theatre and religious celebrations also played their part. Nor was the urge to promote a social memory constant and at times it is instructive, she argues, to notice what events are airbrushed out.
The remainder of the book explores in greater depth the individual examples of upcycling which she identifies in Athens during the various periods of memory generation. The use of fragments of the walls destroyed by the Persians to be visibly incorporated in the new walls; the conscious conjunction of the Erechtheum to the trashed Old Temple of Athena; the visible retention of the cyclopean walls after the sack by the Gothic Heruli (AD 267); the subtle way in which the monument to the Eponymous Heroes was accommodated to Macedonian and later Roman influence; the even subtler way in which statues of Periclean worthies were recycled to honour Roman proconsuls.
R. makes a powerful case that identifying the conscious reuse of building materials can illuminate the image that a society is seeking to promote for itself and that her concept of ‘upcycling’ would repay further consideration. Her own research is impressive to which over 70 pages of detailed notes and over 50 pages of bibliography bear witness. There are also more than 70 relevant illustrations, many provided by the R. herself.
It is a pity that her presentation, although generally lucid and approachable, is perhaps a bit dense for the general reader, because her message deserves a wider franchise than the academic world alone. For the more resilient Classics for All reader, this book is still very good value at £21.
Roger Barnes