New Aspects of Roman Ideal Sculpture in Side

Sculptures from Side are among the best preserved sculptural material in Asia Minor. The site of Side, located on the trade route to Egypt and the Levant, favoured an economic growth of the antique harbour especially in the 2nd and 3rd c. AD. Side developed into one of the richest cities in Pamphylia and the southern region of Asia Minor. More than 400 sculptures from the Roman period (statues, fragments, heads, statuettes, etc.) came to light during the excavations from 1947-1966 in Side. In the application the ideal sculpture (male and female figures of gods/goddesses, heroes, athletes) will be examined in context of production, time and space. In the last few years, scholars have pursued more deeply questions of reworking and reusing of statuary, and issues regarding workshops and craftsmen, and have made great progress in these areas. No such contexts have been examined regarding the sculpture from Side. The aim of this research is to understand the role played by workshops with regard to style and technical aspects, as well as the distribution and erection of sculptures in the imperial period. 1. Sculptures in context (provenance/find-spot; erection; customers, benefactors; historical context) 2. Questions of production and workshop (provenance of marbles/marble analysis; studies of style and technique of the figures; sculptors and the epigraphic evidence; comparative studies of sculpture from other sites). The topic will be examined according to the following methods: It is planned to take marble samples from a majority of the sculptures in order to gain information regarding the provenance and distribution of marble from certain quarries for the sculptures in Side and in the region of Pamphylia. Furthermore, the sculptural material will be examined from the viewpoint of technical and stylistic elaborations to obtain information about workshop traditions, itinerant and local workshops, import, export and the distribution of sculpture. In addition, whether similar sculptures in Side und Perge were produced in the same workshop will be investigated. The interpretation of sculptures in the scope of the Second Sophistic in Asia Minor in the 2nd c. AD is also a subject of the study. Furthermore, the historical context, the erection of statues, customers and clients as well as the occasion of the erection has to be examined. Moreover, the question of an iconographic program will be discussed as well as possible reasons for the selection of figure types. Evidence for reworking and reuse of sculptures, epigraphic and numismatic evidence also has to be considered. The study will be undertaken by the applicant in cooperation with the requested research personnel (N.N.), the University of Leoben (marble analysis), the Anadolu Üniversitesi Eskisehir, the excavation and the Museum in Side.

New aspects of the ideal sculpture in Side, P32539 The sculptures from Side are among the best-preserved sculptural material in Asia Minor. Its location by the sea and on the trade route to the Levant, Egypt and the Mediterranean favoured the economy of the ancient port city, especially in the imperial period, which developed into one of the richest cities in Pamphylia in the 2nd/3rd century AD. More than 500 sculptures and fragments from the Roman period (statues, heads, statuettes, etc.) were recorded, analysed and photographed as part of the project. The material found includes ideal sculptures (deities, heroes, athletes) from Side up to 2009, which were examined in the context of production, time and space. This pilot study investigated contextual questions regarding production, workshops, installation, reuse and painting, which have been increasingly pursued in sculpture research for several years and have not yet been investigated for the sculptures from Side. The aim of the project was to gain new insights into the sculptural landscape in Side. Formal analyses of the sculptures and fragments revealed stylistic peculiarities in a large number of the sculptures, which allow conclusions to be drawn about the sculpting schools and workshops. As the Sidetan sculptures are stylistically very different from those in the neighbouring city of Perge, different workshops can be assumed. Iconographically, the sculptural landscapes in Side and Perge are similar in part, so that rivalry probably played a role here. Workshops worked directly at Side, but it is not yet clear whether prefabricated sculptures were also transported to Side and completed there. Traces of colour (red) have been preserved on a few sculpture fragments. Some statues were reused in other contexts or used as building materials. All the surviving ideal statues show signs of destruction (e.g. on the genitals and face), which can also be understood as iconoclasm and date back to late antiquity or the Byzantine period. This deprived the figures of their pagan function, but they were preserved as part of the city's decorative sculptural landscape. In addition, epigraphic evidence for statues (mostly made of bronze) that have not survived, was included, as they played a decisive role in shaping the sculptural landscape of Side. Comparative studies with sculptural material (e.g. from Perge, Sagalassos, Ephesus) made it possible to embed and evaluate the ideal sculptures from Side, most of which can be dated to the 2nd/3rd century AD. This can be easily linked to the historical events of the city. The research project was carried out by the applicant and her colleagues in co-operation with the Anadolu Üniversitesi Eskiehir, the Side excavation and the museum in Side. The monographic publication is in preparation.