Except for treasure-hunting, the usual attitude both amongst the Turks and further west was to disregard antiquities unless they could be made into something useful. In addition, eleven of these have matching antique capitals. For the context of such re-use, see below, page 000, the chapter dealing with Decline . Hundreds of tombstones are constructed of the ornamental parts of ancient temples, all of which are marble. Near the city, he examined a wall to a corn field, which he discovered was entirely made of slabs of mosaic flooring.
Coins provide a different story.
Ibn Khaldun's description of Byzantine workmen building mosques, cited at the beginning of this chapter, is far from the only example of invading peoples' using preceding works of art.