Panel 7.6 – The Economy of Palmyrene Burial and Death


Organisation/Vorsitz:

  • Rubina Raja (Aarhus University)

Externer Diskutant:

  • Dietrich Boschung (Universität zu Köln)

Panel abstract

The aim of this session is to discuss the economy of death and burial in Palmyra and show the wide range of representations and production economy processes in Palmyrene funerary contexts. Funerary towers, hypogea and temple tombs were significant markers in the landscape and large necropolis stretched around the ancient city. An impressive high amount of portraits has been produced between AD 50 and AD 273, when Palmyra was sacked by the troops of the Roman emperor Aurelian. Many examinations of the identity of Palmyra's inhabitants, the history and archaeology of the city have been undertaken. Different influences from Greek and Roman cultural spheres can be detected. Simultaneously, influences from the Parthian realm are very profound in the Palmyrene visual culture. Such influences from a broad range of cultures came together in the local portrait tradition of Palmyra. The portraits show a wide range of variety in style. Whereas investigations on individualization and the importance of representing status and family relations have been pursued, the theme of economy in the funerary sphere has been under researched. Therefore, the topic of this session will focus on the organization of economy of death and the processes involved in this economy. This might enable us to understand the means of representation and answer questions about large-scale production and individualization: Did the carvers create an image that suited the wishes of the costumer or was the costumer restricted to buy a portrait off-the-shelf with little influence on facial features and the chosen attributes? We do know that the local limestone was used in the production of portraits, but where did the knowledge of carving came from? By examining the portraits and asking questions about identity and individuality, we are able to obtain more knowledge on the requirements and the functioning of the Palmyrene market. This will lead us to a better understanding of the economy of the death and the cult around death in Roman period Palmyra. The speakers are connected to the Palmyra Portrait Project, which is funded by The Carlsberg Foundation. The project has compiled the most complete corpus of Palmyrene funerary sculpture in a specially designed database. The database now consists of more than 3000 portraits. The Palmyrene material is the largest corpus of portrait sculpture of the Roman world outside of Rome itself.

Paper abstracts

1. Rubina Raja (Aarhus University)

Production processes: The relationship between tomb architecture and the funerary portraiture
Through a study of the relatively few in-situ contexts (a bit more than 100), which remain in the graves in Palmyra, this paper will address issues of the relationship between tomb architecture, decoration and the installations of the funerary portraiture in the graves. It is clear that there from the introduction of the earliest tomb type in which portraits were put up, namely the tower tomb, was a relationship between grave type and commemoration type (the portrait). Architectural shape and commemoration form went hand in hand. While the in-situ contexts, in terms of how the portraits might have related to each other within the graves, have been dealt with elsewhere (Krag and Raja forthcoming), it has not been addressed in which ways we might begin to trace production processes and chains from architecture, over decoration of the graves and the installation of the funerary portraits and/or sarcophagi. Until now it is not clear in which ways, if at all, these steps of planning and production might have related to each other. Did the commissioner of a grave already have a decorational scheme in mind when ordering a grave monument? And how did the various elements of the decorational schemes including the funerary portraits relate to each other? May we begin to disentangle the relationship between workshops, which would have been involved in the various steps of the process, by studying the in-situ contexts in detail?

 

2. Julia Steding (Aarhus University)

Tracing production processes in the Palmyrene funerary sculpture
When studying the surface of the Palmyrene loculus reliefs in detail, either more or less obvious traces of tools can be detected. The parallel grooves of the tooth chisel, single and multiple drill holes, abrasion of a rasp or the carving traces of the flat chisel – all these marks can be seen on the portraits and during the three centuries, the production techniques seem to change and adapt to the styles that came into use. Some of these changes will be discussed in two case studies, outlining the tooth chisel and the rasp, how the traces of these two tools look like on the Palmyrene portraiture and which chronology we can be built upon them. The question why the production techniques changed will be discussed all along. This includes a breakdown of production processes, which are essential when studying the making of reliefs or other carved stone products. Of course, every carver had an individual way of working but general processes can help to understand the sequence of tools and why they have been used or not used. The conscious choice of tools and also of the state to which a portrait was carved can add valid information to the stylistic analyses that have been done in the last centuries and years.

 

3. Olympia Bobou und Christian Svejgaard Lunde Jørgensen (Aarhus University)

Foreshortening or sculpture trait? Placement of loculi reliefs inside Palmyrene tombs
Often in Palmyrene funerary reliefs the head appears large in relation to the body, while the arms appear smaller. This phenomenon has been described as foreshortening. We would like to investigate the reasons behind the use of foreshortening, and the connection between foreshortening and the production economy of Palmyrene funerary reliefs.
One way of investigating if the phenomenon influences the production procedure is to examine whether foreshortening was used in other reliefs, i.e. votives. Another is to examine the location of reliefs inside the tombs.
Unlike contemporary painting, where foreshortening functions as a means of giving the illusion of an object receding further into the background, our hypothesis is that foreshortening functioned as a way of accentuating parts of the figure in funerary art. By comparing funerary with votive reliefs we can test if it was a salient feature of funerary sculpture. If so, then it can be understood as having an active influence on the production process, and formed a specific choice.
The next question is whether this was a choice of the sculptors, and formed part of their sculptural repertoire, or if it was prompted by the patrons, i.e. people buying and setting up the reliefs in the tombs. By examining the location of the reliefs, it may be possible to examine if foreshortening was used for the sake of creating visual impact, something that could imply that the reliefs were commissioned for specific locations inside the tomb. In order to test the hypothesis, we will be conduct a case study.