Marbleworkers in the Athenian Agora

Marbleworkers in the Athenian Agora
Author: Carol L. Lawton
Publisher: ASCSA
Total Pages: 56
Release: 2006
Genre: Design
ISBN: 9780876616451

The 5th-century B.C. poet Pindar remarked on the rich sculptural decoration of the Athenian Agora, and, indeed, over 3,500 pieces of various types of sculpture have been uncovered during its excavation. This full-color guide sheds new light on the marble industry in and around the Agora, including rich evidence for sculptors' workshops, their tools, and techniques. The text discusses the works of both famous and anonymous artists.

The Athenian Agora

The Athenian Agora
Author: John McK. Camp II
Publisher: American School of Classical Studies at Athens
Total Pages: 194
Release: 2010-02-28
Genre: History
ISBN: 1621390160

This definitive guide to the archaeological remains in the civic and commercial center of ancient Athens is an essential companion to the interested visitor, as well as to students of the topography of the classical city. A large-scale map provides an overview of the site, keyed to descriptions and plans of every monument still visible from the majestic Temple of Hephaistos to the utilitarian Great Drain. The fifth edition retains many of the elements that made the earlier editions so popular, but also takes full account of new discoveries and recent scholarship. It is intended for visitors touring the site, and is arranged topographically, monument by monument. Also included are an overview of the historical development of the site and a history of the excavations. A companion guide to the Agora Museum in the Stoa of Attalos is also available (The Athenian Agora: Museum Guide, by Laura Gawlinski, 2014).

The Athenian Agora

The Athenian Agora
Author: Laura Gawlinski
Publisher: American School of Classical Studies at Athens
Total Pages: 201
Release: 2014-06-18
Genre: History
ISBN: 1621390179

Written for the general visitor, the Athenian Agora Museum Guide is a companion to the 2010 edition of the Athenian Agora Site Guide and leads the reader through all of the display spaces within the Stoa of Attalos in the Athenian Agora - the terrace, the ground-floor colonnade, and the newly opened upper story. The guide also discusses each case in the museum gallery chronologically, beginning with the prehistoric and continuing with the Geometric, Archaic, Classical, Hellenistic, Roman, and Byzantine periods. Hundreds of artifacts, ranging from common pottery to elite jewelry held in 81 cases, are described and illustrated in color for the very first time. Through focus boxes, readers can learn about marble-working, early burial practices, pottery production, ostracism, home life, and the wells that dotted the ancient site. A timeline, maps, and plans accompany the text. For those who wish to learn more about what they see in the museum, a list of further reading follows each entry.

The Cambridge Companion to Ancient Athens

The Cambridge Companion to Ancient Athens
Author: Jenifer Neils
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 505
Release: 2021-02-18
Genre: History
ISBN: 1108484557

This book is a comprehensive introduction to ancient Athens, its topography, monuments, inhabitants, cultural institutions, religious rituals, and politics. Drawing from the newest scholarship on the city, this volume examines how the city was planned, how it functioned, and how it was transformed from a democratic polis into a Roman urbs.

A Guide to Scenes of Daily Life on Athenian Vases

A Guide to Scenes of Daily Life on Athenian Vases
Author: John H. Oakley
Publisher: University of Wisconsin Press
Total Pages: 301
Release: 2020-08-18
Genre: Art
ISBN: 0299327248

Painted vases are the richest and most complex images that remain from ancient Greece. Over the past decades, a great deal has been written on ancient art that portrays myths and rituals. Less has been written on scenes of daily life, and what has been written has been tucked away in hard-to-find books and journals. A Guide to Scenes of Daily Life on Athenian Vases synthesizes this material and expands it: it is the first comprehensive volume to present visual representations of everything from pets and children's games to drunken revelry and funerary rituals. John H. Oakley's clear, accessible writing provides sound information with just the right amount of detail. Specialists of Greek art will welcome this book for its text and illustrations. This guide is an essential and much-needed reference for scholars and an ideal sourcebook for classics and art history.

Corinth in Late Antiquity

Corinth in Late Antiquity
Author: Amelia R. Brown
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 368
Release: 2018-02-22
Genre: History
ISBN: 1786733587

Late antique Corinth was on the frontline of the radical political, economic and religious transformations that swept across the Mediterranean world from the second to sixth centuries CE. A strategic merchant city, it became a hugely important metropolis in Roman Greece and, later, a key focal point for early Christianity. In late antiquity, Corinthians recognised new Christian authorities; adopted novel rites of civic celebration and decoration; and destroyed, rebuilt and added to the city's ancient landscape and monuments. Drawing on evidence from ancient literary sources, extensive archaeological excavations and historical records, Amelia Brown here surveys this period of urban transformation, from the old Agora and temples to new churches and fortifications. Influenced by the methodological advances of urban studies, Brown demonstrates the many ways Corinthians responded to internal and external pressures by building, demolishing and repurposing urban public space, thus transforming Corinthian society, civic identity and urban infrastructure. In a departure from isolated textual and archaeological studies, she connects this process to broader changes in metropolitan life, contributing to the present understanding of urban experience in the late antique Mediterranean.

Revelation and the Marble Economy of Roman Ephesus

Revelation and the Marble Economy of Roman Ephesus
Author: Anna M. V. Bowden
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 247
Release: 2020-12-10
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1978710186

In an effort to bring the (im)practicalities of John’s command for withdrawal from cultural participation in 18:4 to the forefront of scholarly discourse, this book reconstructs the marble economy of ancient Ephesus and proceeds to read Revelation by foregrounding the daily lives of its marble-workers. This book argues that Ephesus was a major center of the marble economy in the Roman world and that the infrastructure that went into creating, building, and sustaining such an enterprise generated the need for a large workforce. Anna M. V. Bowden further demonstrates that the majority of marble-workers endured poor working conditions and struggled on a daily basis to ensure subsistence. Finally, Bowden explores the ways marble-workers participated in empire “through the work of their hands” (9:20) and questions John’s characterization of marble-workers as idolaters, sorcerers, murderers, fornicators, and thieves. Bowden concludes that the praxis Revelation requires from its audience of complete withdrawal is pragmatically not sustainable and is ultimately a manifesto leaving marble-workers jobless, hungry, and with a heightened risk for malnutrition, disease, injury, and even death.

The Afterlife of Greek and Roman Sculpture

The Afterlife of Greek and Roman Sculpture
Author: Lea Stirling
Publisher: University of Michigan Press
Total Pages: 433
Release: 2016-06-27
Genre: History
ISBN: 0472121820

For centuries, statuary décor was a main characteristic of any city, sanctuary, or villa in the Roman world. However, from the third century CE onward, the prevalence of statues across the Roman Empire declined dramatically. By the end of the sixth century, statues were no longer a defining characteristic of the imperial landscape. Further, changing religious practices cast pagan sculpture in a threatening light. Statuary production ceased, and extant statuary was either harvested for use in construction or abandoned in place. The Afterlife of Greek and Roman Sculpture is the first volume to approach systematically the antique destruction and reuse of statuary, investigating key responses to statuary across most regions of the Roman world. The volume opens with a discussion of the complexity of the archaeological record and a preliminary chronology of the fate of statues across both the eastern and western imperial landscape. Contributors to the volume address questions of definition, identification, and interpretation for particular treatments of statuary, including metal statuary and the systematic reuse of villa materials. They consider factors such as earthquake damage, late antique views on civic versus “private” uses of art, urban construction, and deeper causes underlying the end of the statuary habit, including a new explanation for the decline of imperial portraiture. The themes explored resonate with contemporary concerns related to urban decline, as evident in post-industrial cities, and the destruction of cultural heritage, such as in the Middle East.

The Oxford Handbook of Roman Sculpture

The Oxford Handbook of Roman Sculpture
Author: Elise A Friedland
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 737
Release: 2015-02-03
Genre: History
ISBN: 0190266872

The study of Roman sculpture has been an essential part of the disciplines of Art History and Classics since the eighteenth century. Famous works like the Laoco?n, the Arch of Titus, and the colossal portrait of Constantine are familiar to millions. Again and again, scholars have returned to sculpture to answer questions about Roman art, society, and history. Indeed, the field of Roman sculptural studies encompasses not only the full chronological range of the Roman world but also its expansive geography, and a variety of artistic media, formats, sizes, and functions. Exciting new theories, methods, and approaches have transformed the specialized literature on the subject in recent decades. Rather than creating another chronological catalogue of representative examples from various periods, genres, and settings, The Oxford Handbook of Roman Sculpture synthesizes current best practices for studying this central medium of Roman art, situating it within the larger fields of Art History, Classical Archaeology, and Roman Studies. This comprehensive volume fills the gap between introductory textbooks and highly focused professional literature. The Oxford Handbook of Roman Sculpture conveniently presents new technical, scientific, literary, and theoretical approaches to the study of Roman sculpture in one reference volume while simultaneously complementing textbooks and other publications that present well-known works in the corpus. The contributors to this volume address metropolitan and provincial material from the early republican period through late antiquity in an engaging and fresh style. Authoritative, innovative, and up-to-date, The Oxford Handbook of Roman Sculpture will remain an invaluable resource for years to come.

Facing the Colours of Roman Portraiture

Facing the Colours of Roman Portraiture
Author: Amalie Skovmøller
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
Total Pages: 596
Release: 2020-09-07
Genre: Art
ISBN: 3110583801

The fact that most ancient marble portraits were once intentionally polychrome has always been lurking at the corners of art historical and archaeological research. Despite the fact, that the colours of the sculpted forms completed, enhanced and even extended the plastic shapes, the topic has not been devoted much dedicated attention. This book represents the first full-length academic monograph which explores the original polychromy of Roman white marble portraiture. It presents results from scientific analysis of portraits in statuary and bust formats dating to the first three centuries CE. The book also explores the cultural and social significance of colours in their original contexts, and how the immaterial affects of the polychrome, three-dimensional images can be integrated into the traditional research into ancient portraiture, which has tended to place overwhelming emphasis on iconography, typology and biography. By doing so the ancient sculpted marble form, as we know it, will be exposed and confronted, and the impact of manipulated material effects, that were meant to evoke a broad range of multisensory experiences, will be emphasized. The book puts forth a new way of analysis to be tested and developed in the future.