Reuse in the Ancient Architecture: a Contribution from Punic-Roman Site of Tharros (Sardinia)

The reusing of the building material in the ancient architecture is a practice widely attested in the sites with a continuity of life. This is the case of Tharros, situated on the mid-West coast of Sardinia, where many buildings were reused during a long period after the edification. For this reason, several reuse forms of the numerous stone blocks are attested in the constructions. Besides the unworked stone elements visible everywhere in the site, there are some blocks attributable to the specific classes that took on a new function in their last use phase compared with the original indented use. The analysis of these reuse forms has allowed to distinguish the changes occurred in the walls, rebuilding the wall stratigraphic sequences and defining whenever possible some fixed points in the history of the buildings and site as a whole.