Form, display, and semantics of sculptures in late antique domestic settings with particular attention to the city of Ostia: Investigations into the 'biographies' of ancient sculptures

• Applicants: Dr. Elisa Bazzechi; Dr. Marcel Danner
• Subject Area: Classical, Roman, Christian and Islamic Archaeology
• Term: since 2019
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 416611366

At first, the second phase of the project aims at the conclusion of all steps that were planned for the first funding period but could not be carried out due to the COVID-19-pandemic. The work packages comprise the – yet unfinished – documentation of 44 sculptures preserved in the collections of the Parco Archeologico di Ostia Antica and their re-contextualisation based on archival data such as historical photographs and excavation diaries. The conclusion of these major steps will help to cover a deficit of archaeological research into sculptures and the domestic sphere. Thanks to the analysis of the collected data, it will be possible to publish several sculptures from Roman Ostia for the first time according to modern standards and to make well-founded statements about their ancient contexts. Moreover, the project aims at the interpretation of the material from a historico-cultural point of view. The initial concept of sculptures as media within a communication between the patron and his guests proved too one-dimensional, as it is unsuited for an examination of the manifold meanings ascribed to ancient sculptures throughout their cultural ‘lives’: They were produced, used in the envisaged way, maybe repaired, moved or reworked, and finally disposed or destroyed. In the course of such ‘biographies’ – which must be assumed in particular for sculptures from late antique settings, as they were usually of much older date –, things provoked different responses and became an object of various interpretations. The second phase of the project aims at a thorough investigation into the ‘life’ of the sculptures before, during, and after their display in late antique houses on a broad and well-documented basis and with the help of new methods such as provenance analysis and 3D scan. Thanks to this new goal, our project will provide important insights into the cultural history of classical antiquity well beyond art-historical matters. This is particularly true for the last ‘life cycles’ of the sculptures: As sculptures generally count among the few objects that were documented during the grand excavations at Ostia and elsewhere, they show the only remaining traces of processes that were typical for the transformation of the late antique into the early medieval city. Finally, the results of the project will be related to other archaeological sites. In this way, our research will allow conclusions about the ‘biographies’ of ancient sculptures and about late antique domestic culture more generally.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: Italy
• Cooperation Partners: Dr. Alessandro D' Alessio; Dr. Cristina Genovese
• Co-Investigator: Professorin Dr. Vilma Ruppiene