I was under the impression that the Vasa, a Swedish warship from the 1620s was a bigger maritime dig.

If I remember correctly he made a cameo on the time team where they dove on the ship wreck. I'm not sure about his involvement, but I'd still prefer his name was left out of a reddit title ffs

"Overseen" lol. Mfer just slapped his name on it and probs gave them some money and forgot about it

I mean did you really have to add the part about Charles? Unless the whole point was trying to get good piblicity..

Pretty much most stone buildings of any status had mosaic floors. They're everywhere. Of course most aren't beautiful scenes and are checkered or patterned into squares.

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Ahh, the old, "Why did they cover up hardwood with carpet!?" argument.

Hey there! Check out Steven Epstein's Genoa and the Genoese, 958-1528.

That sounds incredibly interesting, will definitely pick it up. Thanks!

Thanks for the recommendation!

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As long as you enjoy it, that's great! How do you like it so far?

This sounds like it would compliment The Black Prince, which I intend on reading soon. Thanks for the recommendation!

That’s true. I also believe the Justinian statue might be 90% spolia and 10% original work, (if that’s the correct term for it). But I would Like to give Byzantine craftsmen more appreciation. I think pieces such as ivory works and the roundel I showed makes me think they’re capable enough to produce busts or statues. Especially when you basically inhabit a whole open museum with an immense collection of antique works you can use as reference. It surprises me that the vanity of rich nobles and emperors would only produce relief and mosaic art.

But I think you might be right that it is only Concentrated in Constantinople and that it’s buried beneath the Istanbul streets.. never to be found.

I haven't really found any literature on this specifically, but I suspect it might have something to do with these statues being more of a uniquely Constantinopolitan development, thanks to the city's extraordinarily preserved classical heritage. You don't really hear about any similar vast statue collections in any other Eastern Roman cities during the Middle Byzantine period, so I suspect most of these statues were not mass produced, and likely were exclusive decorations for the capital.

This explains why finds are so rare, since Istanbul is quite lacking when it comes to the archaeological front, it is quite a limited surface area for any statues to be found, assuming they survived the sacks in 1204 and 1453.

You should also be careful ascribing dates to these statues from the names the primary sources give them. Statues were often given local names/attributions that were entirely incorrect. The equestrian statue on the Column of Justinian is a classic example. It was put atop the column by Justinian, but most Byzantine tour guides thought the statue was actually of Heraclius. Depictions of the statue before it was destroyed seem to suggest however that it was originally Theodosian. So the identity of these statues would often get confused or twisted for ideological purposes.

Many of these statues might not even have been fully original, since the early 5th Century it had become common practice to simply decapitate an old statue/bust and add a new head. Justinian's aforementioned statue might have been one of these, as it had a Theodosian inscription on it.

The only proper statue that may date from this period is the Carmagnola in Venice, which is traditionally believed to be Justinian, but it could be from a later date too.

Iconoclasm did not affect imperial images, it was only aimed at specifically religious images. Early Christianity did not really have many religious statues, that was more of a Medieval Catholic development. Early Christian art was usually in the form of icons, mosaics, frescoes etc. Statues were likely not a major target.

Germans were poor and the land was seen as cold and worthless. Plus Germans were much taller (Romans were super insecure about this) and crazy warriors that weren’t worth the trouble to the short and “cultured” Mediterraneans. Funny how Italy is more German than Roman now huh. Apparently pants and lack of slavery is in vogue now

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I imagine mosaic floors were common enough at one point people didn't particularly think to try to preserve them. They fell out of fashion and people intentionally covered them up like painting over ugly wallpaper in an old home. Maybe an elderly, disabled, or particularly lonely person, last of their family, last owner of the building, wasn't able to really keep the floor clean. Once enough dirt collected, no one would be the wiser after the last person to know died.

I’ve sort of read that during those times people wouldn’t dare to destroy ancient statues, because people thought they were possessed. Also during iconoclasm, the statue of Irene I mentioned was made by constantine VI, member of the isaurian dynasty and an iconoclast symphatiser. Since his father and grandfather was an iconoclast.

I suspect it has more to do with the 4th crusade and the post 4th crusade empire, as they had barely any money to maintain anything monumental and everything around them was crumbling.

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Theres hardly any dedicated postal offices in Denmark left.

Sometimes stuff just outlives their importance.

I don’t think he was asking how it happened, as in what steps did nature take to cover it up.

He meant how did something so important get so neglected.

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