American Journal of Archaeology

Although discovered more than 50 years ago near Amelia (Italy), a bronze cuirassed statue of Germanicus has gained relatively little attention. Represented on its elaborate breastplate is the death of Trojan Troilus at the hands of Achilles. The author of the principal monograph on the statue proposes that it originally portrayed King Mithridates VI, who saw himself as a new Achilles in his war against Rome. According to this theory, the depiction of the defeat of Troilus would have served as a reference to Mithridates’ victory over Rome, which traced its origins back to Troy. In the end, Mithridates was himself defeated by Sulla, who supposedly brought the statue back to Rome, where its head was replaced first with a portrait of Sulla and eventually with one of Germanicus. In this article, I argue that the portrait head of Germanicus was indeed a substitution, but not for a head of Mithridates or Sulla. The original portrait would instead have represented Caligula, whose head would have been replaced with that of his father, Germanicus, after Caligula’s assassination and damnation. My interpretation is based on decorative motifs, technical considerations, and a very different appraisal of the meaning in this context of the defeat of Troilus.

This article reexamines two blocks with archaistic reliefs found southwest of the forum of Roman Corinth in the mid to late 1970s. These blocks are dated to the Augustan period by style and have three divinities represented on each. I propose that the figures represented on the reliefs should be identified as Roman gods, not Greek ones, as all previous scholarship has claimed. This proposal leads to new identifications of the figures represented on the reliefs: the Genius and Fortuna of the Colony, Ceres, Liber, Libera, and Minerva, who represent the tutelary gods of the Early Roman colony. I offer a new suggestion for the function and location of the monument to which these reliefs originally belonged: an open-air sanctuary of the gods of the colony, located to the north of the Long Rectangular Building. This new interpretation of the reliefs also suggests some correctives to the methodology of iconographic interpretation in classical art and the conception of the cultural and religious identity of Corinth in the Roman period.

This article investigates a Roman marble portrait sculpture with divine attributes known as “Portrait Statue of a Woman as Cybele.” Now in the J. Paul Getty Museum, the portrait has been interpreted by scholars as depicting a priestess of the goddess. Although the figure’s main attributes (lion and turreted crown) are typical of the Phrygian divinity, she also presents elements belonging to other Roman goddesses primarily associated with the feminine virtues of chastity and fertility, such as Ceres (wheat and poppies) and Fortuna (cornucopia and rudder). This selected assortment of attributes indicates that the woman for whom this portrait was commissioned was interested not necessarily in assimilating herself to a particular divinity but rather in presenting herself as the embodiment of the principal virtues of a respectable Roman matron. Cut in the sculpture’s back is a rectangular cavity large enough to contain a receptacle with the cremated remains of the individual for whom this statue was made. The analysis of the cavity, portrait head, and divine attributes emphasizing the patron’s feminine qualities suggests a funerary use of the statue. This study contributes to a better understanding of funerary customs in the early Roman empire.

Spread throughout the necropoleis surrounding Pompeii are hundreds of humble stelae that share an unusual form. As rectangular standing stones topped with disks, they resemble stylized human busts; examples featuring carved hairstyles on the rear of the disk make clear that this association was intentional. Known as columelle, the grave markers were used from the first century B.C.E. through the first century C.E. not only at Pompeii but in all the cities of southern Campania. Traditionally, they have been understood as a continuation of the region’s pre-Roman funerary practice, despite there being no evidence for their use prior to the Roman period. This article presents a new interpretation. Rejecting the idea of direct precursors that have been lost, I argue that the columelle were new creations of the first century B.C.E. but that their form was archaizing, intended to evoke the past. They can be understood within a larger trend of this period, in which Italians across the peninsula stressed local identities tied to Italy’s historic regions, often by reviving, reimagining, or even inventing both material and nonmaterial traditions.

Nassos Papalexandrou
Department of Art and Art History
The University of Texas at Austin
2301 San Jacinto Boulevard
Campus D 1300
Austin, Texas 78712–1421
papalex@austin.utexas.edu

Works Cited

Bouras, C. 1964. “Les portes et les fenêtres en architecture byzantine: Étude sur leur morphologie, leur construction et leur iconographie.” Ph.D. diss., Université de Paris.

Bouras, C. 1965. Βυζαντινἀ σταυροθὀλια με νευρὠσεις. Dēmosieumata tou Archaiologikou deltiou 5. Athens: Υπηρεσία Αρχαιοτήτων και Αναστηλώσεως.

Bouras, C. 1967. Η αναστἠλωσις της στοἀς της Βραυρὠνος. Dēmosieumata tou Archaiologikou deltiou 11. Athens: Υπηρεσία Αρχαιοτήτων και Αναστηλώσεως.

Bouras, C. 1981. Η Νἐα Μονἠ της Χἰου: Ιστορἰα και αρχιτεκτονικἠ. Athens: Publication of the Commercial Bank of Greece for Emporike Trapeza.

Bouras, C. 2010. Βυζαντινἠ Αθἠνα. Αthens: Benake Museum.

Bouras, C., and L. Boura. 2002. Η ελλαδικἠ ναοδομἰα κατἀ τον 12o αιὠνα. Athens: Emporike Trapeza tes Hellados.

Bouras, C., R.W. Schultz, and S. Barnsley. 2015. Η αρχιτεκτονικἠ της Μονἠς του Οσἰου Λουκἀ. Athens: Melissa.

Korres, M. 2016, 29 July. “Farewell to Professor Bouras” (in Greek). Acropolis Restoration Service. www.ysma.gr/news/apoxairetismos-ston-ka8hghth-xaralampo-mpoyra.

Korres, M., and C. Bouras. 1983. Μελἐτη αποκαταστἀσεως Παρθενὠνος. Athens: Ministry of Culture and Sciences: Committee for the Conservation of the Acropolis Monuments.

• 1. Bouras 1964.
• 2. Bouras 1965.
• 3. Bouras 1967.
• 4. Korres and Bouras 1983.
• 5. Bouras 1981; Bouras and Boura 2002.
• 6. Bouras 2010; Bouras et al. 2015.
• 7. Korres 2016, 29 July.

Archaeology museums are one of the most important ways that our field communicates its findings to the wider public. The work of archaeology museums, however, is by no means simple. Archaeologists, curators, and museum directors have grappled with recent debates focusing on the politics of display, the cult of the masterpiece, the appeal to multiple publics, and the acquisition and ownership of cultural property. This is an exciting and fraught time for archaeological collections.

Despite long-standing scholarly interest in Roman “Aegyptiaca,” much work remains to be done to contextualize Egyptian or Egyptian-style material culture found in domestic settings. This need is especially pressing for “Nilotic scenes,” or wall paintings and mosaics depicting the Nile. While previous studies have identified general areas in ancient houses where such imagery was common, many questions remain open concerning the relationships between these Egyptian landscapes and their surrounding architectural installations, decorative ensembles, and artifactual assemblages. This study employs the frescoes from the garden triclinium of the Casa dell’Efebo, Pompeii, as a case study in the recontextualization of “Nilotica.” In contrast to older interpretations emphasizing Isis cult or anti-Egyptian stereotypes, a contextual analysis of this garden installation suggests new possibilities. Even as the Egyptian landscapes introduce a seemingly exotic element into domestic space, other aspects of the garden setting familiarize and domesticate the imagery. Simultaneously far away and familiar, the imagined landscapes of the garden transform domestic space into a microcosm of oikoumene and encourage viewers to engage in multiple possible ways with changing constructions of imperial, local, and cultural identities.