The legacies of construction waste on Samothrace from ­ antiquity to the present - A case study between archaeology and social metabolism

Abstract

The Greek island of Samothrace, located in the northern Aegean Sea, has been continuously inhabited since about 5500 BC. Samothracian builders, however, imported non-biodegradable building materials in large quantities only during two historical periods, the first during the early Hellenistic period (c. 350–150 BC) and the second during the modern period (c. 1970–2021). Samothrace’s insularity limits the flow of materials: it increases the cost of imports, prevents most waste exports and limits options for local waste management and recycling. The artificial harbors, which were built on the island in antiquity and in the 20th century, have significantly changed the building and reuse patterns on the island. A broad historical outline of building on Samothrace, comparing the last 5000 and 100 years, draws attention to the secondary uses of building materials. By quantifying ancient imports of marble and modern imports of concrete, brick, asphalt, steel and plastics, it is possible to compare the scale of the imprint these materials leave on the landscape. A point of alignment between the historical data collected from archaeological excavations and the modern statistics produced by Sociometabolic Research reveals a striking contrast: the estimated average amount of construction and demolition waste produced each year in Samothrace today (10,000 tones) is roughly equal to the total estimate of all marble imported to the island for construction purposes in antiquity.