Thrown into Limekilns: The Reuse of Statuary and Architecture in Galilee from Late Antiquity onwards

This article examines the evidence of limekilns and associated marble deposits in Galilee from Late Antiquity onwards, with a special emphasis on its urban regions. Especially the extensive excavations at Sepphoris indicate that limekilns were commonplace devices to be found in the urban built environment of Galilee during the Byzantine and Early Islamic periods. Moreover, the evidence of marble statuary fragments nearby some limekilns shows that at a certain time statues would have indeed adorned the built environment of Sepphoris. However, almost all traces of them within the cities have disappeared due to the reuse of these statues for the later construction industry. Indeed, the evidence of limekilns in especially urban Galilee suggests that stone statuary was a more common phenomenon than has hitherto been suggested