Per un'archeologia del lavoro in eta' protobizantina. Organizzazione e committenza del cantiere edilizio attraverso i marchi dei marmorari

The research deals with the study of the architectural yard in early byzantine period, with a particular focus on the marble manufacturing cycle. This one is analyzed under an administrative, social and artisanal point of view. Masons' marks on marble items are the guiding element of the research. First, epigraphic and literary sources are analysed in order to reconstruct the system of quarry-administration and marble supply during the Principate, as well as the handcrafted procedure adopted in the production. The comparison with the available data for late antiquity, particularly referring to the quarries of Marmara Island, shows an effective continuity in the administrative and bureaucratic practice, but a remarkable transformation in the production system. The functioning of marble workshops is deepened through the study of masons' marks. This term point out inscriptions composed of single or multiple Greek characters, carved by officials and workers during the productive process. About 2360 epigraphic evidences are collected in a database, which includes both published and unpublished witnesses from personal surveys. A typological classification of early byzantine marks is proposed, including quarry, stock, workshop marks. Among quarry marks, control, destination/committed, assembly/placement marks are counted. A particular attention is reserved to the class of workshop marks: they can be referred to proper names, that identify the ????????????, the head chief who supervised his own craftsmen's work and check the products intended to the patrons. The operational process adopted in the manufacture is investigated through comparative analyses of marks, with a particular focus on the topic of itinerant workshops. In conclusion, several types of written sources are examined, in order to place the phenomenon of stone-working in a wider socio-economic context. The main attention is devoted to the subject of bureaucratic and artisanal figures involved in the architectural yards and to the problem of the committee.