Klazomenian Sarcophagi in the Borderlands: An Ionian (Re)Vision

The painted terracotta sarcophagi of Klazomenai (ca. 650–450 BCE) are monuments that speak to a confluence of cultural and artistic interactions in Ionia and western Anatolia, yet the history of scholarship of these funerary objects has often been limited to connoisseurship studies that narrowly situate the sarcophagi within a tradition of mainland Greek vase painting. Borderlands theory views borderlands as sites of overlap between multiple cultures and accommodates more fluid and multivalent notions of identity; the theory constitutes the methodological framework of my analysis of Klazomenian sarcophagi, and informs how I explore their visual programs, forms, and associated Ionian identities. Through the lens of the borderland and Anzaldúa’s concept of lenguaje, I consider thematic motifs, production, and visual replication to resituate the sarcophagi within the context of contemporary elite burial practices in Achaemenid western Anatolia. I argue that using this approach we can better understand how these works negotiated and participated in a plurality of local and regional visual vocabularies, creating their own unique, symbolic, borderland mode of expression.