Greco-Roman Metal Sculpture from the Oriental Provinces of the Roman Empire and the bordering Arabian Lands. Studies on Iconography, Style, and Fabrication (Sculptures from Roman Syria III: The Metal Statuary)

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The planned study aims at providing a contribution to the clarification of the art historic interdependence between the prospering ancient regions of the Arabic realm which laid beyond the limits of the Roman Empire (Arabian peninsula, Mesopotamia) and the Levantine areas, the Roman provinces of Syria, Arabia and Palestine (in Arabic geography the Bilad al-Sham). The chronological interval of research extends from the times of the Macedonian conquest (332 BC) until the rise of Islam (7th century AD). As a sector of the ancient art production, the metal sculpture is a convenient field because the preserved amount of documents is limited, the scientific investigation of comparable sculptural material out of stone and terracotta has proceeded during the past decades, and the evidence of the metal objects in terms of their technical fabrication may be estimated as rather promising. Due to the present political situation the documentation of the sculptural material cannot anymore be conducted; it has, however, been widely completed by Thomas M. Weber-Karyotakis during his travels and long stays in the region. Questions which can only been solved by autopsy may be answered in reviewing selected items preserved today in the collections in Europe or America. The technological aspects of the metal sculpture will be revealed by the close cooperation with Jacques Seigne who directed the French excavation of the Roman metal casting workshop in the premises of the Zeus sanctuary at Jerash. The thorough investigation of the preserved sculptural material out of metal requires the engagement of three specialist trained in the field of Classical Archaeology with profound experiences in the said geographic area (director of the project with Thomas M. Weber-Karyotakis as an involved scientist and additionally one scientific cooperator). The internationality and interdisciplinarity is given by the agreed cooperation with the French architect Professor Dr Jacques Seigne (Tours), with the Jordanian specialist in metallurgy Professor I. Lutfi Khalil (Amman) and as advisor Professor Dr. Gerhard Zimmer (Eichstätt), the leading German specialist on ancient casting technologies. Concerning the literary and epigraphic sources the French experts Prof. Dr. Pierre-Louis Gatier (Lyon), Prof. Dr. Maurice Sartre (Tours) und Prof. Dr. Julien Aliquot (Lyon) approved their support orally. Concerning the old-Semitic, especially the old south-Arabian votive inscriptions, the Jordanian specialists in this field, the Professors Dres Omar Ghul and Hani Hayajneh (both Yarmouk University Irbid) will cooperate.