From the Romans to the Railways

Michael Greenhalgh, M.A., Ph.D. (1967), from 1987 Sir William Dobell Foundation Professor of Art History at the Australian National University, now Visiting Fellow. Author of many books and papers on the survival and re-use of the antique around the Mediterranean, including Marble Past, Monumental Present (2009) and Constantinople to Córdoba (2012).

"Asia Minor seems to have been a target of acquisitive explorers, who ran off with as much loot as they could before efforts of reclamation took hold. Greenhalgh (art history, Australian National U) here offers a fascinating mix of archaeology, history, construction engineering, and travel documentation and produces an admirable record of what happened to antiquities in the region, and what is being done to reclaim them. Greenhalgh examines how technology affected the evolving landscape, what happened when travelers met technology, the decline and recycling of ancient monuments, the decline of the roads and the transport systems, the affects of waterworks, the state of houses in wood, the locals’ attitude toward antiques, and the western impact on antiquities (in films, classical inscriptions, and travelers like Lord Elgin). Greenhalgh also covers the effects, both good and bad, that tourism had on the region. This is a well-researched, impressive work." - Reference & Research Book News, December 2013, p. 36.