Late Antique Art and Archaeology

VINCENZO RUGGIERI La barriera presbiterale e il templon bizantino: ambivalenze semantiche fra liturgia, architettura e scultura* Sono lungi dal presumere, in questa sede, di poter classificare о ampliare la lista dei motivi decorativi, rinvenibili sugli epistili о plutei appartenenti alla decorazione di quell'impianto ecclesiastico a carattere architettonico-decorativo che è il templon. Ci sarebbe, in vero, troppo da annotare sul grande patrimonio costituito dai pezzi lasciati non catalogati ed abbandonati in aree archeologiche о negli oscuri e polverosi depositi dei musei archeologici -questo certamente in Asia Minore -senza nulla dire di quelli obliati e murati nelle case di villaggi Vorrei, invece, soffermarmi sulla natura ideologica che l'apparato architettonico assunse nel corso della sua evoluzione, prima che esso divenisse iconostasi; solo a sprazzi, a modo di provocazione metodologica, accennerò anche a Roma e al Meridione d'Italia. Lascerò, dunque, argomentazioni prettamente tipologiche che il vasto campionario può provocare e mi fermerò a puntualizzare degli aspetti che sottintendono l'acquisizione di una mentalità, di una ideologia composita, ricca di teologia -ben riflessa nella liturgia -e innovazioni architettonico-* Questo saggio ha fondamentalmente un intento metodologico atto a rinvenire delle valenze culturali che sono intervenute nel processo di antropizzazione dello spazio sacro cristiano. Esso fa parte di un progetto più ampio, a carattere interdisciplinare, circoscritto fra il tardo antico e il medioevo bizantino e portato avanti al Pontifício Istituto Orientale di Roma. 1 Un tale desideratum venne espresso anni or sono da С. В ARS ANTI, Scultura anatolica di epoca mediobizantina, in Milion, Studi e Ricerche d'arte bizantina, a cura di C. BARSANTI, A. GUIGLIA, A. IACOBINI, Roma, 1988, pp. 275-277. Recente è la pubblicazione dedicata alla scultura bizantina: La sculpture byzantine Vif-XII e siècles, éd. par CH. PENNAS et C-VANDERHEYDE, Athènes, 2008. 2 Resta ancora valido l'essenziale studio di A. RAES, Introducilo in Liturgiam Orientaient, Romae, 1947; più legata allo sviluppo della liturgia bizantina (costantinopolitana), R. TAFT S. J., How Liturgies Grow: the Evolution of the Byzantine "Divine Liturgy ", in Orientalia Christiana Periodica, XLIII (1977), spec. pp. 355-374. 3 L. CLUGNET, Dictionnaire grec-français des nomes liturgiques en usage dans Γ église grecque, Paris, 1895, pp. 148-149. La stessa prudenza è segnalata da CH. WALTER, The Byzantine Sanctuarya word List, in Liturgy, Architecture, and Art in Byzantine World, ed. by С. С. AKENTIEV, S. Petersburg, 1995 (Byzantinorossica, 1), pp. 95-106. I Typika, con le relative referenze al templon, sono oggi riuniti in: Byzantine Monastic Foundation Documents, ed. by J. THOMAS and С. CONSTANTINIDES HE- RO, Washington, 1998 (Dumbarton Oaks Studies, 25), per il nostro periodo і voll. 1-3.

Preface; I. Introduction: I.1 Prelude "To Imitate the Bees"; I.2 Towards an Interpretation of Spolia: Delimitations and Methods; I.3 Reuse The Development of a New Architectural Practice; II. Translatio of Materials: II.1 Fragments and Fragmentation. The Disposition of Spolia in Church Buildings; II.2 Translations and Transferences: Christian Versions of Roman Architecture; II.3 The Aesthetics of Appropriation Eclecticism, Variety, and Antithetical Harmonies; III. Translatio of Meanings: III.1 Breaking Down the Past Rejections of Rationality; III.2 "Seeing the invisible" Towards a New Metaphorical Architecture; III.3 To "Strip Error Bare" The Rhetoric of Transformation; IV. Translatio of Time: IV.1 "Novelty in the Old and Age in the New". The Rhetoric of Renovation; IV.2 Recollecting the Past Spolia and Historical Consciousness; IV.3 Inventing the Past: Spolia and the Ideology of Classicism; Bibliography; List of Illustrations; Photo Credits; Index.

L’Antiquité tardive constitue une période de première importance en raison de l’ampleur des sources conservées et des événements survenus. Durant cette époque, qui s’étend du IIIe au VIIe siècle, l’Empire romain connaît des évolutions profondes et progressives qui ont non seulement modifié l’organisation du monde méditerranéen antique, mais aussi posé les fondements des périodes et des civilisations postérieures et limitrophes.
C’est durant l’Antiquité tardive que l’autorité de l’État monarchique et bureaucratique devient omniprésente par le biais de la loi, de l’impôt et de l’armée, que le poids des autorités locales se réduit au profit des capitales administratives et de leur système de cour, que le brassage des populations aboutit à leur recomposition et à une fusion des élites, que la conversion au christianisme, malgré les divisions confessionnelles, provoque une intégration et une uniformisation culturelle sans précédent des populations par l’adhésion à une même transcendance et l’élaboration d’une esthétique commune.

Research undertaken in Durham University, Faculty of Social Sciences and Health: Department of Archaeology; supervised by Dr Anna Leone.

Viva voce examination held on April 15th, 2016.
Examiners: Prof. Roland R. R. Smith (University of Oxford), Dr Catherine M. Draycott (Durham University).
Outcome: passed forthwith (no corrections; thesis passed unconditionally).

Asturius vivas! Pictorial Programme and Function of a Late Roman Belt Buckle
A Late Roman brass belt buckle in the collection of the RGZM is decorated with the portrait medallion of a man between victories and two persons likely to represent apostles. An inscription on both sides of the portrait reads Asturius vivas. The object is likely to have been manufactured in North Italy or Pannonia in the second half of the 4th century. But its decorative features include elements known from a golden belt buckle from Asia Minor which belongs to a class of artefacts known to have been distributed as imperial largesse. In this paper, it is argued that the more humble piece it discusses was an object of largesse belonging to a dignitary or officer named Asturius who distributed it among his followers in imitation of imperial custom. In analogy to the golden imperial example, the decoration of the brass buckle is interpreted as an advertisement that its bearer was a loyal follower of Asturius.

A unique group of sculpture from Early Christian Cyprus comes from the so-called Villa of Theseus, at Nea Paphos. The group comprises (at least) twenty sculptures of divinities and mythological figures, which range in date from the Hellenistic to the Late Roman periods. Their discovery with connection to late antique layers demonstrates the long-lasting importance of sculpture to the villa culture and confirms the empire-wide appreciation of local elites to the medium in late antique times. In this paper, the decoration of the Villa of Theseus will be re-assessed in order to efficiently envisage its sculptural environment, between the late fourth and late sixth centuries. Possibilities for the display and usage of the sculptures within the villa will be offered, while possible reasons for the selection of particular iconographical types will also be suggested, within the broader context of Nea Paphos.

The excavations of the University of Warsaw in the so-called Villa of Theseus in Kato Paphos uncovered a unique group of at least twenty sculptures, predominantly depicting mythological figures and divinities. The building took its definite architectural form in the late fourth century, although its construction had started early in the second half of the second century. In terms of decoration, the villa reached its heyday between the late fourth and sixth centuries. Most of the sculptures, which vary in scale and style, have, nevertheless, been described as reduced copies of the late second or early third century at the latest. Yet, their discovery in late antique layers establishes their availability at the time and confirms the importance of sculpture to the villa culture that boomed in Late Antiquity (fourth to seventh century).

It is the aim of this paper to study the statuary from the Villa of Theseus against the background of the architectural development of the building. Immovable decorative elements and architectural features will be considered, in order to assess where sculpture might have been displayed and reconstruct—to the extent possible—the ancient viewers’ experience. The selection of certain sculptural subjects and their significance (decorative, allegorical, religious) will also be discussed.

La nascita dell'insediamento di Monte Sant'Angelo è solitamente considerata una conseguenza dell'introduzione del culto dell'arcangelo Michele, presumibilmente dall'Oriente, nel V secolo 1 e viene citata come esempio di centro abitato generato da un santuario, insieme ai casi di Mont-Saint-Michel, Chatres, Santiago di Compostella 2 . Di recente, tuttavia, sulla base di un riesame delle aree cimiteriali presenti nel suo comprensorio -da inserire nell'ambito dell'articolato quadro degli ipogei funerari del Gargano -è stata ribadita l'ipotesi che il sito fosse abitato già nel secolo precedente 3 . La serie di monete romane, rinvenuta nell'area della basilica micaelica, di cui le più antiche risalgono alla prima metà del IV secolo, se non è sufficiente a dimostrare che il sito fosse già un luogo di culto, risulta comunque prova della sua frequentazione 4 . In questa ottica, a mio avviso, potrebbe essere riconsiderato anche il gruppo di capitelli tardoantichi rinvenuti nell'area della chiesa di San Pietro (ascritti al III-IV secolo) e per i quali è stata ipotizzata la provenienza da Siponto 5 : fermo restando che si tratta di elementi erratici, non si può escludere che fossero pertinenti a un edificio di Monte Sant'Angelo. A ogni modo è indubbio come la fortuna di questo centro sia legata alla grande fama che ben presto proprio il santuario conobbe: i primi pellegrinaggi extra-peninsulari sono documentati (da una serie di iscrizioni graffite, alcune delle quali runiche) già nel VII-VIII secolo 6 .

At the end of the 3rd century, private portraits of the deceased were introduced into the Christian funerary art at Rome, on sarcophagi as well as in catacomb paintings. For over a century they remained the most
important, and the single most widespread motif, in the grave imagery – but then they disappear, along with their sarcophagi and catacomb burials, at the end of antiquity. The reasons for this disappearance have generally been ascribed to the cultural changes of the late Roman imperium. But, I argue, it is possible to identify a more precise motive for the interruption of this phenomenon: the portraits themselves have a highly communicative and also performative character, as they were often intended to stare at the bereaved and communicate directly with those who come and visit the tomb, often for specific cultic and ritual activities of commemoration, such as the refrigeria at the tombs of the deceased. And there seems to be a clear moment when this Roman tradition ends: following the prescription of Augustine and Ambrose, Christians abandon the meal celebrated at the tomb itself, and replace it with a Eucharistic meal celebrated at the church. This is the moment when the place of physical burial and the place of the burial cult were no longer the same – which meant that the image at the tomb, the former ‘window’ through which the deceased had been viewed and remembered, was now useless. Confirmation of this hypothesis can be seen in the return of grave portraits from the early medieval period onward, but only for exceptionally rich people. For there in the grave chapels containing both altars and portraits of the wealthy donors, the place of burial was once again united with the place of the cult – there the mass was now performed by the bereaved in both the physical
(the dead body) and artistic (the portrait) presence of the deceased.

Uno dei temi più caratterizzanti per la comprensione del periodo tardoantico è quello del reimpiego di elementi figurativi e architettonici. I vecchi studi consideravano il fenomeno come spia di decadenza sia della cultura artistica antica, che del livello tecnico delle botteghe di scultori e marmorari e, più in generale, delle capacità economiche dell'impero 1 .

Graphic Signs of Authority in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages presents a cultural history of graphic signs and examines how they were employed to communicate secular and divine authority in the late antique Mediterranean and early medieval Europe. Visual materials such as the sign of the cross, christograms, monograms, and other such devices, are examined against the backdrop of the cultural, religious, and socio-political transition from the late Graeco-Roman world to that of medieval Europe.

This monograph is a synthetic study of graphic visual evidence from a wide range of material media that have rarely been studied collectively, including various mass-produced items and unique objects of art, architectural monuments and epigraphic inscriptions, as well as manuscripts and charters. This study promises to provide a timely reference tool for historians, art historians, archaeologists, epigraphists, manuscript scholars, and numismatists.

This article re-examines the primary sources concerning the findspot of an 8-foot-tall bronze statue, usually identified as the Emperor Trebonianus Gallus, now residing at the Metropolitan Museum in New York. It identifies a new source as the origin of the story of the statue’s alleged discovery two centuries ago in the Lateran neighborhood of Rome, and argues that the source is not a trustworthy one. It considers the vested interests of the statue’s various owners, as well as the scholarly conventions, that kept – and continue to keep – the dubious story alive. It concludes that this is a cautionary tale; and that the provenances of the ostensibly best-known works of ancient art are just as much in need of critical examination as those of recently-surfaced antiquities.

In the autumn of 1986, we visited the Carian and Lycian coasts with a view to identifying urban sites of the Byzantine period. One of the sites we visited lies about 1 km. to the south of the small village of Osmaniye and to the east of the Baba dağ ridge (О-This site was visited by nineteenth and twentieth century travellers and scholars( 2 ), and Louis Robert, in 1937, studied the available evidence and tried to identify the site, but without ever visiting it( 3 ).

This papers examines three early Christian memorial sites in Jerusalem and Bethlehem (church of the Nativity, Eleona church on the Mount of Olives, and Church of the Resurrection) erected in the 330s in the time of Constantine the Great and his mother Helena. All three churches included rock caves as memorial sites. The paper shows that the three differing variants of architectural staging of these caves within the memorial buildings weren‘t merely architectural attempts found within the framework of a process of architectural innovation, when it was a matter of finding adequate settings for a successful and rapidly expanding religious community and its places of remembrance.
The architectural analyses of the three building concepts provide specific insights into the ideas of the appropriate spatial and medial staging of a 'sacred place'. I suggest that the architectural presentation of the cave spaces within the new buildings was linked to the semantics of pre-Christian places of worship, in order to create an associative  context to the commemorated events easily recognizable by a contemporary visitor.

In a manuscript, Ephraim the Athenian (18 th century) mentions that monastery of Hiereon was established by Saints Eutychios and Nicolas, after they destroyed a temple of a pagan goddess. Later Nicolas, who was probably of Cypriot descent, became bishop of Myra in Lycia (Asia Minor). Three pre-Christian inscriptions, found within the monastery premises, assure the existence of a pagan temple dedicated to Hera in the area. One of these, relates that Nicocles, king of Paphos (4 th century BC), erected pillars at the temple of Hera. Are these pillars the same as those that today divide the two parts of the Christian church, which, was founded by saint Eutychios with the participation of Saint Nicolas, was built at the beginning of the AD 4 th century? Architectural remains of the early Christian era are found at other places of the monastery (synthronon, small pillars of the templon screen). Furthermore, a circular glass medallion was also found there. It has a diameter of 44 mm and depicts a deeply embossed Christogram, comprising an isosceles cross and the Greek letter P (rhô). This was most probably attached to a glass vessel. Similar objects can be found in collections outside Cyprus, and are believed to belong to the 4 th century AD.

Multiple connections between the Damascus mosque and the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem; implications of the size of the surface area covered in mosaic; links with classical, early Christian, Byzantine and other Umayyad mosaics, and with the art of pre-Islamic Arabia; the meaning and iconography of the Damascus mosaics; originality of the Damascus mosque; problems and pitfalls in the interpretation of the Damascus mosaics; their originality and their place in late antique art; Qur'anic inscriptions on high buildings, gardens and rivers; the theme of paradise; the uses of colour in the Damascus mosaics; the karma.

Sztuka Wczesnochrześcijańska jest książką wprowadzającą w zagadnienia najstarszej aktywności artystycznej - tak w dziedzinie architektury monumentalnej i prywatnej, jak i sztuk plastycznych (malarstwo, mozaika, rzeźba i drobna plastyka) - chrześcijan żyjących na terenie Cesarstwa Rzymskiego w szeroko rozumianym obrębie basenu Morza Śródziemnego w stuleciach od III do VII w. Autorka zwiedziła niemal wszystkie te tereny i zna większość omawianych zabytków z autopsji

Pred okvirno 70 leti je v drugi oziroma tretji številki Zgodovinskega časopisa potekala vroča diskusija, ki še danes ni razrešena. Gre za eno najbolj perečih vprašanj arheologije v Sloveniji, to je problem staroslovanskega svetišča na Ptuju. Avtor predstavi pester potek odkritja zloglasnega objekta v »podivjanih« povojnih letih v Jugoslaviji med velikimi arheološkimi izkopavanji na zahodnem platoju ptujskega gradu. Izkopavanja postavi v širši okvir povojne gradnje države in nacije (Jugoslovanov), ko so tudi arheologi in zgodovinarji pomagali postavljati novo državo na nove temelje.

The article aspires to show how physiognomy was used in late antique art in order to give substance to the theophanic dimension of a person, especially of a saint. Drawing on monumental art, sculpture, daily life objects and catacomb paintings or mosaics, it is possible to discern that the physiognomic features were used as iconographical attributes, which were adjusted depending on the context and of the degree of holiness of the person depicted (saints, deceased, patrons). Therefore, the article allows to follow the transition from portrait to 'icon' characterizing the late antique period.

Il volume esamina le attività collaterali alla balneazione che avevano luogo presso i maggiori impianti termali urbani imperiali ‒ e di cui le fonti antiche lasciano soltanto indirettamente intuire lo svolgimento ‒ attraverso la ricostruzione della casistica, delle caratteristiche e degli spazi in cui avevano sede, in particolare presso il giardino e il recinto perimetrale. Le Terme di Diocleziano vengono utilizzate come caso di studio non soltanto per il fatto di costituire il maggiore impianto termale romano, ma anche perché, collocandosi quasi al termine dell’esperienza costruttiva termale romana, rappresentano un punto di osservazione privilegiato per l'analisi di elaborazioni architettoniche, soluzioni tecniche e tecnologiche, e fenomeni culturali e sociali consolidati. Lo studio da un lato ricostruisce la storia (antica, moderna e contemporanea) del complesso e del quartiere circostante (ridefinendo anche il rapporto con il costruito preesistente e coevo, la cronologia di dismissione e le trasformazioni successive), dall'altro analizza le evidenze letterarie, iconografiche e archeologiche (conservate e/o registrate nei documenti d'archivio) relative allo svolgimento di pratiche diverse da quelle balneari (prevalentemente, culturali, intellettuali, educative e sportive), senza prescindere dal costante confronto con gli impianti analoghi. Vengono, quindi, avanzate delle proposte di identificazione di contenuto, apparato, forma, funzioni e protagonisti delle attività extratermali svolte in questo particolare complesso alla luce del contesto storico nel quale fu edificato e utilizzato, e ridefinite alcune ipotesi funzionali relativamente alle attività collaterali di alcuni altri grandi impianti termali urbani.

As large cities claimed apostolic founding of their churches, the Roman church declared that it was constituted on the "double apostolate" of Peter and PauL The concordia apostolontm which results from the final agreement between the "former rivals" in this city is also seen as the foundation of the Roman church. The term concordia apostolornm term has been applied to at least two image types which show the two apostles together. I propose that this name is more appropriate as a title for the well known Roman apse image of Christ flanked by the apostle princes than the traditional traditio legis, since the concordia and the double apostolate are concepts which relate the church to the city of Rome. Hence, the scheme with the two apostles which decorates so many Roman apses from Late Antiquity until the age of Paschal I can be seen as an emblem precisely of the
Roman church.

WHO IS THE CIVIL DIGNITARY ON THE MOSAIC OF THE DONORS IN THE CHURCH OF ST DEMETRIOS IN THESSALONIKI?

This paper focuses on the analysis of the insignia, the portrait and the so-called square nimbus in order to clarify the identity of the anonymous civil dignitary depicted in the famous 7th century mosaic of the donors in the church of St Demetrios in Thessaloniki. It is argued that he is not (as often supposed) the founder of the church, the praetorian prefect of Illyricum Leontios, but rather a contemporary donor of the mid-7th century who contributed to the rebuilding of the church after a fire damaged the building about 620/30. His garment and his insignia do not fit to those of a praetorian prefect but most likely represent the highest senatorial dignity in the 7th century, namely that of an honorary consul (ἀπὸ ὑπάτων or ὕπατος). This does not exclude the possibility that he did hold the office of the prefect of eastern Illyricum (respectively of Thessaloniki) as well. The mentioning of the name Leo in the mosaic inscription pertaining to the rebuilding after the fire follows a common epigraphic habit in building inscriptions that refers to the authority responsible to approve the execution of the project. This Leo is often assumed to be the same person as the civil dignitary. Although this conclusion is generally possible it has to remain hypothetical.

An unusually long text of a Jewish-Aramaic amulet of the sixth or seventh century, inscribed on a sheet of gold, is the topic of this paper. Its language is close to Jewish Palestinian Aramaic and to the late Targums. Its vocabulary consists of a number of rare words and some peculiar spellings. It is copied with some errors (e. g., mistaking the letters dalet and resh) from a book of magic recipes, and includes the title that accompanied the text, "For all authorities, " and some instruction for its use. The goal of the spell is to reach a successful issue in litigation. The text reflects some typical Jewish notions and expressions, but it also refers to Shamash (or Shamish), a solar deity, and employs divine attributes that are rarely if ever employed in Jewish texts. Such oddities may be explained by its provenance in the Balkan area.

In the areas of Northern Illyricum more than 100 Early Christian churches were registered, but only a small number of them has been archeologically explored. The largest amount of data was obtained in the last decades, most prominently from the areas of Naissus, Remesiana, Turres, at the sites of fortified hillforts of the Western or Southern Serbia, as well as the areas along the Danubian limes. 
The discovered glass lamps belong to the most frequent types of cylindrical, conical of hemispherical vessels, with a hollow foot or a button-shaped bottom. The glass window panels suggest a wide-spread tendency of recycling raw materials – mostly of a relatively poor quality. The archaeological and archaeometric researches have provided certain indications on the existence of local glass workshops, which were able to meet the needs of the local population for objects made of glass, possibly used in the sacral context as well.

The late Antique mosaic of Orpheus decorated a small room, approximately 18 m2 in area, connected with two even smaller ones, in 4 m2 and the other 2 m2 in area, belonging most likely to a small funerary chapel (or tomb) discovered in the ancient necropolis by the Damascene Gate in Jerusalem; it was discovered in 1901 by H. Vincent.
The author proposes a new interpretation of the iconographic program of the Orpheus myth used by wealthy Christians in a sepulchral context (see Olszewski M.T. «Orphée endeuillé de la mosaïque funéraire de Jérusalem», in Rey Mimoso-Ruiz, B. ed., Actes du colloque «Orphée entre Soleil et ombre», à l’Institut Catholique de Toulouse du 16 au 17 novembre 2007, Inter Lignes, numéros spécial – mars 2008, pp. 205-214, 226). He also proposes a new interpretation of the role Orpheus played in Roman funerary art, concentrating on the importance of the play on words and the visual and textual punning that was popular in ancient art and especially in funerary art. He rejects the popular interpretation of Orpheus as Christ in the Roman catacombs and proposes to interpret the image as that of Orpheus, bard of the departed souls, without any ahistorical connection with Christ. The program of the mosaic from Jerusalem is thus explained as a play on the words Orpheus-orphanos and Chiron (Chi-Rho) and Pan [Παν(τοκράτωρ)].The frequently used Christian funerary formula of resting in peace, Christ or the Lord corresponds
perfectly with the mood created around the mythical bard.
Orpheus’ universal role as singer and musician moving even the most stony of hearts, extolling the beloved departed, is absolutely justified in the context of a 6th-century Christian tomb. Orpheus is a popular and neutral figure, meaning that in effect it does not constitute a threat to Christian theology and can be tolerated by the educated Christians of Jerusalem.