From Portrait to Divine Image: Two Statues from Heraclea Sintica in Roman Macedonia (original) (raw)
2024, Archaeologia Bulgarica
This article focuses on two statues found in Heraclea Sintica, an ancient city in southwestern Bulgaria. The first statue dates back to the second half of the 3rd – 4th c. AD and has been attributed to the type of female portrait known in the scientific literature as Small Herculaneum Woman. The second statue, dated to the 2nd – 3rd c. AD, has been interpreted as an honorific portrait statue, possibly depicting a girl from prominent family of the polis. The iconographic and typological analysis has allowed us to identify the sculptures’ place within the artistic tradition of Roman Macedonia and to suggest an alternative interpretation of their meaning
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This is an edited volume of papers delivered at a conference ”Heraclea Sintica: from Hellenistic polis to Roman civitas (4th c. BC — 6th c. AD)“, which took place on September 19-21, 2013 in Petrich, Bulgaria. CONTENTS: L. Vagalinski, E. Nankov. Preface E. Nankov. In Search of a Founder and the Early Years of Heraclea Sintica M.-G. Parissaki. Reconstructing the Tribal History of the Middle Strymon Valley: The Impact of the Muletarovo Inscription G. Mitrev. On the Borders and Urban Territory of Heraclea Sintica D. Garbov. Roman and Early Byzantine Rural Landscapes along the Middle Strymon: A Preliminary Overview L. Vagalinski. Recent Archaeological Data about Heraclea Sintica I. Cholakov. Handcraft Production in Heraclea Sintica (On Archaeological Data) S. Alexandrova. The Black-Slipped Pottery from Heraclea Sintica (1st — 4th c. AD) S. Neykova. Scientific and Ethical Approaches to the Restoration of Terracotta Finds from Heraclea Sintica S. Ivanov, Sv. Filipova. Numismatic Data from the Archaeological Excavations at Heraclea Sintica Located on the Hill of Kozhuh, Petrich Municipality E. Paunov. The Bronze Coinage of Heraclea Sintica J. Bozhinova. Hellenistic and Roman Necropolis near the Village of Rupite, Petrich Municipality M. Andonova. The Coins from the Necropolis ”Metlata“ near the Village of Rupite (F. Muletarovo), Municipality of Petrich E. Nankov, D. Stoyanova. Stone Door of a Roman Tomb from the Necropolis of Heraclea Sintica M. Koleva. Towards Roman Provincial Art: Small Pieces from Heraclea Sintica R. Milcheva. Roman Gravestones with Portraits from the Middle Struma Valley
A New Marble Female Statue in Heraclea Sintica
Archaeologia Bulgarica, 2021
A marble statue of a girl is the focus of this publication. It was found during archaeological excavations in 2020 in the ancient Macedonian and Roman city of Heraclea Sintica, located in the southwest corner of Bulgaria. The sculpture belongs to the so-called Niobid Louvre-Naples female statue type. The Heraclean specimen dates to the 1 st-3 rd c. AD. The sculpture is a local production.
Heraclea Sintica and Some of Its Recently Found Marble Sculptures
Archaeologia Bulgarica, 2020
This article publishes four antique marble sculptures dated from the 1 st c. BC to the 3 rd / 4 th c. AD: a female portrait; a statue of the type "togatus"; a statue of the type "Small Herculaneum woman"; and the upper part of the torso of a male statue. The statues were found during archaeological excavations in 2018-2019 at the site of Heraclea Sintica (SW Bulgaria). From the middle of 4 th c. BC to the middle of 5 th c. AD Heraclea Sintica was the urban center of the region of the Middle Struma River valley. Largely on the basis of the archaeological results, the sculptures are discussed against the background of the historical development of this ancient city.
Most artefacts in prehistoric and ancient times were created for practical purposes, and therefore the term techne — craft was used for all types of art objects until late Hellenistic times. From the perspective of the aristocratic circle, the craftsmen (slaves — servi, freedmen — lib-ertini, and metoikoi) were seen as humble members of society, working for the needs of others. But the utilitarian purpose of artefacts did not prevent craftsmen from expressing their artistic perceptions, depending to a greater or lesser extent on their skill and talent. Since the roots of Classical archaeology stem from collecting ancient art objects 1 , attention of the early researchers was focused primarily on them. Even today, in a survey text on Greek and Roman art, paintings and sculptures are emphasized above all other art forms. It was common for almost every ancient artefact to be evaluated from an artistic point of view, which is an elitist approach. Therefore, the older studies favoured artefacts with greater artistic value, while objects with less significant artistic qualities found in Roman provinces were totally neglected. An excellent example of this approach is the group of gravestones whose original and primary purpose was marking the tomb, followed by a religious commemorative aim; thus different styles and types of monuments were developed. The gravestones set up on the slopes of the mountains in the valley along the middle course of the Vardar river (ancient Axios), from (Titov) Veles in the North to Demir Kapija in the South (Republic of Macedonia), have a very specific iconographic composition and style. They were therefore named the Kavadarci type stelae, after the biggest town in the region, but the name of Tikveš type stelae is much more appropriate 2. This type of stelae with non-figural and stylized motifs shown in the relief zone: both in the relief field and in the pediments are very rare in other parts of Macedonia. Apart from this unusual kind of motif, we have specific types of stelae with a relief field in the form of an arch or arched niche on the columns shown in the relief field. The stelae with two relief fields were rare in Macedonia, and always displayed figural motifs in the upper field, and non-figural ones, mostly agricultural tools, in the lower one [10, ill. II] (Fig. 1, Table of types). 1 Antiquarianism led to Archaeology as a science. 2 Registered by Nikola Vulić before World War II, therefore collected and stored in the Skopje Museum, and after the war in the local museums of (Titov) Veles, Kavadarci, Negotino, etc.
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