Non lavorato, non rifinito, non scanalato, non levigato. Edifici incompiuti del mondo greco

A history of unfinished buildings in the ancient world is an impossible task: all types of monuments are involved, while the causes, not always decipherable, are linked to the articulated vicissitudes of construction sites, the nature of the commissions, the multiple and sometimes co-existing forms of financing and even to more exogenous factors. Today it is the same notion of incompleteness that is sometimes elusive due to misunderstandings caused by the distinction between accidental incompleteness and the multiple forms of intentional unfinishedness or “Bossenstil”. This article addresses the causes of incompleteness through the presentation of several examples, in particular from the 5th century B.C. to the Hellenistic era.