Aphrodisias in Caria 2001 Overview

R.R.R. Smith, Roman Sculpture from Aphrodisias in Caria

The excavations at Aphrodisias (SW Turkey), conducted by Prof. Kenan Erim from 1961 to 1990, produced large quantities of high-quality marble sculpture of the Roman period. The current Aphrodisias Project, sponsored by the Institute of Fine Arts and New York University, is focused in large part on the documentation and publication of these earlier excavations and their associated finds.

This grant is within that project and concerns two major bodies of material, the reliefs from the Sebasteion and the portrait sculpture of the site. Both have been studied in preparatory journal articles by the applicant, and their full monographic publication is now a priority.

The historical significance of this material is high. The Sebasteion reliefs are a remarkable visualization of the Roman emperors as seen from the Greek provinces, and the portrait sculpture provides a near-complete repertoire from a single city of the changing self-representation of the kind of men and women who ran the eastern Roman empire. This material has detailed contexts, and it is material that makes a difference.