"La norma e l’uso. Il reimpiego in età romana tra questioni legislative e archeologia"

Ancient laws on demolition have important implications for the discussion of dismantling, salvage and re-use within the Roman building industry. The number of these legal texts related to demolition and re-use that survive demonstrate that architectural recycling was indeed an important and regulated part of Roman building practices. These legal statutes are corroborated by an abundance of archaeological evidence for both the salvage and re-use of building materials. Proceeding chronologically and analysing legal texts, literary, epigraphic and archaeological sources as complementary evidence, this paper aims to demonstrate that re-use was a legitimate and carefully legislated endeavour due to its economic importance and the fact that it was an easily abused component of the Roman building industry.