The Byzantine reuse of ancient materials and infrastructure provides a compelling lens to explore the complexities of urban transformation and adaptive reuse in the Athenian Agora, challenging perceptions of Byzantine cities as merely derivative or inferior to their Greco-Roman predecessors. This lecture examines how the Byzantines engaged with the monumental past to address evolving spatial, social, and cultural demands. Using stratigraphic, archaeological, and architectural evidence, I reconstruct how Byzantine inhabitants reconfigured the Agora’s ancient roadways, water systems, and monumental architecture—not as acts of mere survival or nostalgia but as intentional interventions driven by both practical needs and symbolic significance. These practices shaped distinctive urban experiences, integrating sensory engagement with functional considerations. Moving beyond simplistic narratives of continuity versus rupture, this talk underscores the diverse agents and decisions that transformed the built environment, advocating for a reappraisal of Byzantine spatial practices as dynamic, adaptive, and in constant dialogue with the monumental past.
About the Speaker
Fotini Kondyli, Associate Professor of Byzantine Art and Archaeology at the University of Virginia, specializes in the archaeology of the Late Antique, Byzantine, and Frankish periods. Her research focuses on Byzantine spatial construction, communal identity, landscape and household archaeology, and the material culture of non-elites. She also examines cultural and economic networks in the medieval Mediterranean, particularly in relation to ceramic production and distribution. Her interdisciplinary work integrates archaeology, archival research, spatial analysis, and digital humanities. Kondyli is the author of Rural Communities in Late Byzantium: Resilience and Vulnerability in the Northern Aegean (2022) and co-editor of The Byzantine Neighbourhood: Urban Space and Political Action (2022). An active field archaeologist, she has conducted extensive work at archaeological sites in Greece, Turkey, Albania, the United Kingdom, and Germany. Her current research project, Inhabiting Byzantine Athens, utilizes legacy data from the Athenian Agora Excavations to reconstruct the socioeconomic activities, spaces, and urban experiences of Byzantine Athens, emphasizing Byzantine city-making processes and the critical role of non-elites as city-makers.
19:00
21:00
Consuming the Past: Byzantine Strategies of Adaptive Reuse and Urban Transformation in the Athenian Agora