Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-8bhkd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-14T22:15:50.276Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

APHRODISIAN MARBLE FROM THE GÖKTEPE QUARRIES: THE LITTLE BARBARIANS, ROMAN COPIES FROM THE ATTALID DEDICATION IN ATHENS

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 September 2012

Donato Attanasio ,
Matthias Bruno ,
Walter Prochaska  and
Alì Bahadir Yavuz
Get access

Abstract

The marble of seven under-lifesize sculptures of barbarians, now in the archaeological museums of Naples, Venice and the Vatican, commonly considered to be Roman copies of the Pergamene Lesser Dedication in Athens, comes from the Göktepe marble quarries near Aphrodisias, as is shown by isotopic, electron paramagnetic resonance, trace analyses, and of petrographic data. Since this marble was used mostly by Aphrodisian artists, this finding confirms, on the basis of scientific data, previous hypotheses on the origin of the sculptors who manufactured the statues. Reliable discrimination from similar fine-grained Asiatic marbles, such as Docimium, is possible primarily on the basis of the composition of the Göktepe marbles, which have unusually low concentrations of manganese and high concentrations of strontium. Present knowledge of the history of the quarries and the distribution of their marbles seems to rule out the possibility that the sculptures date from the late Republican period and supports the opinion, previously proposed on stylistic grounds, that they were manufactured in Rome by Aphrodisian sculptors probably during the first half of the second century ad.

Il marmo di sette sculture di barbari, di dimensioni inferiori al vero, ora nei musei archeologici di Napoli, Venezia e del Vaticano, in genere considerate copie romane del Piccolo Donario pergameno in Atene, proviene delle cave di marmo di Göktepe vicino Afrodisia come dimostrato dalle analisi delle tracce, isotopiche ed EPR e dei dati petrografici. Poiché questo marmo era usato prevalentemente dagli artisti afrodisiensi, questo risultato conferma, sulla base di dati scientifici, le ipotesi formulate in precedenza sull'origine degli scultori che realizzarono le statue. La possibilità di discriminazione tra i marmi asiatici con grana simile, come il Docimium, è dovuta alla composizione dei marmi di Göktepe, che contengono concentrazioni insolitamente basse di manganese ed elevate di stronzio. L'attuale conoscenza della storia delle cave e la distribuzione dei loro marmi sembra escludere la possibilità di datare le sculture al periodo tardo-repubblicano e supporta l'idea, precedentemente formulata su base stilistica, che esse furono eseguite a Roma da scultori afrodisiensi probabilmente durante la prima metà del II secolo d.C.

Type
Articles
Information
Papers of the British School at Rome , Volume 80 , October 2012 , pp. 65 - 87
Copyright
Copyright © British School at Rome 2012

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Andreae, B. (1998) Eracle, Telefo e il re Mitridate VI del Ponto. Un esempio di propaganda politica contro i Romani in Asia Minore in età tardo ellenistica. Rendiconti della Pontificia Accademia di Archeologia 67: 111–22.Google Scholar
Attanasio, D. (2003) Ancient White Marbles: Analysis and Identification by Paramagnetic Resonance Spectroscopy. Rome, ‘L'Erma’ di Bretschneider.Google Scholar
Attanasio, D., Brilli, M. and Ogle, N. (2006) The Isotopic Signature of Classical Marbles. Rome, ‘L'Erma’ di Bretschneider.Google Scholar
Attanasio, D., Bruno, M., Yavuz, A.B. and Elçi, E. (2008) Aphrodisias and the newly discovered quarries at Göktepe. In Smith, R.R.R. and Lenaghan, J.L. (eds), Roman Portraits from Aphrodisias: 217–27. Istanbul, Yapı Kredi.Google Scholar
Attanasio, D., Bruno, M. and Yavuz, A.B. (2009) Quarries in the region of Aphrodisias: the black and white marbles of Göktepe (Muğla, Turkey). Journal of Roman Archaeology 22: 312–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Attanasio, D., Bruno, M. and Yavuz, A.B (2010) Villa Adriana e l'uso dei marmi afrodisiensi delle cave di Göktepe. In Sapelli-Ragni, M. (ed.), Villa Adriana una storia mai finita: 81–90. Milan, Electa.Google Scholar
Attanasio, D., Bruno, M. and Prochaska, W. (2011) The Docimium marble of the Ludovisi Gauls and other replicas of the Pergamene dedications. American Journal of Archaeology 115: 575–87.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Attanasio, D., Bruno, M. and Landwehr, C. (2012) I marmi scultorei di Caesarea Mauretaniae (Cherchel, Algeria). In Proceedings of the XIX Conference on Africa Romana, Sassari, December 2010: 483–96. Rome, Carocci.Google Scholar
Benndorf, O. (1876) Bemerkungen zur griechischen Kunstgeschichte. Mitteilungen des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts, Athenische Abteilung 1: 167–71.Google Scholar
Brunn, H. (1853) Geschichte der Griechischen Künstler I. Braunschweig, C.A. Schwetschke & Sohn.Google Scholar
Brunn, H. (1870) I doni di Attalo. Annali dell'Istituto di Corrispondenza Archeologica 46: 292–323.Google Scholar
Ciancio Rossetto, P. (2008) Ex oratorio e convento dei Filippini alla Chiesa Nuova: rinvenimento di una grandiosa struttura laterizia. Bullettino della Commissione Archeologica Comunale di Roma 109: 197–208.Google Scholar
Connors, J. (1998) (ed.) Francesco Borromini, Opus Architectonicum. Milan, Il Polifilo.Google Scholar
Gasparri, C. (2009) (ed.) Le sculture Farnese I. Le sculture ideali. Milan, Electa.Google Scholar
Germann, K., Holzmann, G. and Winkler, F.J. (1988) Determination of marble provenance: limits of isotopic analysis. In Herz, N. and Waelkens, M. (eds), Classical Marble: Geochemistry, Technology, Trade: 99–106. Dordrecht, Kluwer.Google Scholar
Ghini, G. (1999) Thermae Agrippae. In Steinby, E.M. (ed.), Lexicon Topographicum Urbis Romae V(T–Z): 40–2. Rome, Quasar.Google Scholar
Gorgoni, C., Lazzarini, L., Pallante, P. and Turi, B. (2002) An updated and detailed mineropetrographic and C-O stable isotopic reference database for the main mediterranean marbles used in antiquity. In Herrmann, J.J. Jr., Herz, N. and Newman, R. (eds), Interdisciplinary Studies on Ancient Stone: 115–31. London, Archetype.Google Scholar
Horn, R. (1937) Hellenistische Köpfe I: zur Datierung des kleinen attalischen Weihgeschenkes. Mitteilungen des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts, Römische Abteilung 52: 140–63.Google Scholar
Korres, M. (2004) The pedestals and the Akropolis south wall. In Stewart, A., Attalos, Athens, and the Akropolis: the Pergamene Little Barbarians and their Roman and Renaissance Legacy: 242–85. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Landwehr, C. (1985) Die Antiken Gipsabgüsse aus Baiae: Griechische Bronzestatuen in Abgüssen Römischer Zeit. Berlin, Mann.Google Scholar
Lippold, G. (1923) Kopien und Umbildungen Griechischer Statuen. Munich, C.H. Beck.Google Scholar
Mandi, V., Vassiliou, A., Maniatis, Y. and Grimanis, A.P. (1995) An evaluation of the contribution of trace elements to the determination of marble provenance. In Maniatis, Y., Herz, N. and Basiakos, Y. (eds), The Study of Marble and Other Stones Used in Antiquity: 207–12. London, Archetype.Google Scholar
Marszal, J.R. (2000) Ubiquitous barbarians: representations of the Gauls at Pergamon and elsewhere. In de Grummond, N.T. and Ridgway, B.S. (eds), From Pergamon to Sperlonga, Sculpture and Context: 191–234. Berkeley, University of California Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mattei, M. (1987) Il Galata Capitolino. Rome, ‘L'Erma’ di Bretschneider.Google Scholar
Matthews, K. (1988) Variability in stable isotope analysis: implications for joining fragments. In Herz, N. and Waelkens, M. (eds), Classical Marble: Geochemistry, Technology, Trade: 339–46. Dordrecht, Kluwer.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Matthews, K.J., Moens, L., Walker, S., Waelkens, M. and de Paepe, P. (1992) The re-evaluation of stable isotope data for Pentelic marble. In Waelkens, M., Herz, N. and Moens, L. (eds), Ancient Stones: Quarrying, Trade and Provenance: 203–12. Leuven, Leuven University Press.Google Scholar
Moreno, P. (1994) Scultura ellenistica. Rome, Istituto Poligrafico dello Stato.Google Scholar
Overbeck, J. (1882) Geschichte der Griechischen Plastik (third edition). Leipzig, J.C.Hinrichs‘sche Buchhandlung.Google Scholar
Palma, B. (1981) Il Piccolo Donario pergameno. Xenia 1: 45–84.Google Scholar
Palma, B. (1992) Appunti preliminari ad uno studio sul Piccolo Donario pergameno. In Bonacasa, N. and Di Vita, A. (eds), Alessandria e il mondo ellenistico-romano. Studi in onore di Achille Adriani I: 772–82. Rome, ‘L'Erma’ di Bretschneider.Google Scholar
Pensabene, P., Lazzarini, L., Soligo, M., Bruno, M. and Turi, B. (2000) The Parian marble blocks of the Fossa Traina. In Schilardi, D.U. and Katsonopoulou, D. (eds), Paria Lithos: Parian Quarries, Marble and Workshops of Sculpture: 527–36. Athens, Paros and Cyclades Institute of Archaeology.Google Scholar
Prochaska, W. and Grillo, S.M. (2010) A new method for the determination of the provenance of white marbles by chemical analysis of inclusion fluids: the marbles of the mausoleum of Belevi/Turkey. Archaeometry 52: 59–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ridgway, B.S. (1990) Hellenistic Sculpture I: the Styles of ca. 331–200 bc. Madison, Wisconsin University Press.Google Scholar
Roueché, C. and Erim, K.T. (1982) Sculptors from Aphrodisias: some new inscriptions. Papers of the British School at Rome 50: 102–15.Google Scholar
Smith, R.R.R. (1991) Hellenistic Sculpture. London, Thames & Hudson.Google Scholar
Spinola, G. (1996a) Il Commodo-Amazzone della Sala degli Animali. Bollettino. Monumenti, Musei e Gallerie Pontificie 16: 65–91.Google Scholar
Spinola, G. (1996b) Il Museo Pio Clementino I. Vatican, Tipografia Vaticana.Google Scholar
Steingräber, S. (2000) Pergamene influences on Etruscan Hellenistic art. In de Grummond, N.T. and Ridgway, B.S. (eds), From Pergamon to Sperlonga, Sculpture and Context: 235–54. Berkeley, University of California Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stewart, A. (2004) Attalos, Athens, and the Akropolis: the Pergamene Little Barbarians and their Roman and Renaissance Legacy. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Wenner, D.B., Havert, S. and Clark, A. (1988) Variations in stable isotopic compositions of marble: an assessment of causes. In Herz, N. and Waelkens, M. (eds), Classical Marble: Geochemistry, Technology, Trade: 325–38. Dordrecht, Kluwer.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yavuz, A.B., Attanasio, D., Elçi, H., Brilli, M. and Bruno, M. (2009) Discovery of preliminary investigation of the Göktepe marble quarries (Muĝla, Turkey): an alternative source of Aphrodisias marbles. In Jockey, P. (ed.), Marbres et autres roches de la Méditerranée antique: études interdisciplinaires: 93–109. Paris, Maisonneuve & Larose.Google Scholar