Recherche par auteur > Steding Julia

Palmyrene portraits on loculus reliefs, sarcophagi, architectural elements, stelai, altars, and banqueting reliefs are well studied with different questions in mind. Their iconography has been explored over the last decades, also within the Palmyra Portrait Project. In the last years, their production was examined in more detail within the project, revealing the carving tools and techniques as well as changes in both over time. It has been argued that the production must have been customized, which means the customers of the portraits had a huge influence on the portraits' appearance. 

However, the carvers' skillset, the materiality of the local limestone, and the changing fashion over the three centuries of production majorly influenced the portraits. In this paper, the carvers and the spaces they worked in will be explored. With no archaeological evidence for carving workshops, the portraits and the graves themselves need to be taken into account and explored with the question in mind how and where the Palmyrene carvers worked. Additional information can be gained from the limestone quarries that are closely located to the city.