International congress of byzantine studies belgrade, 22 27 august 2016

Andrea Paribeni
University of Urbino ‘Carlo Bo’, Urbino, Italy; 
[e-mail]
Marble Masons on Stage: 
Organizational and Work Process Aspects in Byzantine Sculptural Ateliers
The massive production and distribution of marble in early Byzantine era was fuelled by 
the increasing demand of architectural items and furniture for the ambitious building programs 
promoted during that period by civil and ecclesiastical elites. Beginning with the extraction of marble 
from the quarries up to the shipping of the artefacts and their dissemination in all the provinces of 
the byzantine empire, such a challenging goal required to take a complex series of decisions and face 
well-structured working procedures.
Among the aspects that will be examined in this paper, particular attention will be paid to 
the techniques of identification and installation of architectural pieces followed by early byzantine 
skilled workers with the aid of alphabetical, numeral or simply graphic signs. The use of this kind 
of assembly marks, very useful in order to lay out serial elements such as columns, entablatures 
and arcades, was widespread in Greek and Roman architecture: in this occasion we will consider 
well known examples in Constantinople and other places in Greece, together with some unnoticed 
evidences from the Justinian’s workshop of Saint Sophia.

---

THEATRE AND LITURGY: 
PERFORMANCE AND RITUAL IN CHRISTIAN WORSHIP – PART 1
Conveners: 
Andrew Walker White
, 
Niki Tsironis
Andreas Andreopoulos
, 
Liturgical Dialogues: Clergy and Laity Concelebrating
Pia Houni
, 
Theatre and Church as Lovers in Dialogue in Byzantium
Theodora Antonopoulou
, 
From Constantinople to Panormos: Manuscripts, Homilies, 
Ecphrases