Includes bibliographical references (p. 159-176) and indexes.

Introduction : the history of sculpture reuse and related problems -- The reuse of sculpture and recarving of portraits -- Statistical analyses -- The 1st-2nd centuries CE and the damnatio memoriae portraits -- The Third century CE -- Late antiquity and the emergence of new visual expressions -- Recarving methods -- Classifications -- Social aspects -- Conclusions : oblivion and reinvention -- Summary -- Map with portrait provinces -- The Roman imperial succession until Justinian I -- Calalogue of recarved portraits -- Bibliography.

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This book is based on an investigation of more than five hundred recarved portraits. It includes analyses of different recarving methods, some of which can be attributed to geographically localised workshops. The different recarving methods have made it possible to suggest classifiable categories, which together underpin a hypothesis that the late-antique portrait style is a consequence of the many recarved portraits at the time. The practice of portrait recarving emerged due to economic, political, religious and ideological factors, and was influenced by the cultural-historical changes of Late Antiquity. The conclusion gives a new understanding of how wide-ranging, culturally and politically encoded and comprehensive the practice of recarving was.