The Architecture of Roman Asia Minor

The project aims to provide the first monograph devoted exclusively to the architecture of Roman Asia Minor from the 1st century BCE to the 4th century CE. To a great extent, Roman architecture is considered an empire-wide phenomenon and almost always viewed from the perspective of the city of Rome. Even meticulous studies rarely address local characteristics but consider them merely as incidental peculiarities. Contrary to this overall impression, the Roman architecture of Asia Minor is shaped by local characteristics and a regional identity that makes it unique within the building activity of the Roman Empire. Because no study can expect to provide a thorough analysis of the vast number of buildings in Asia Minor from this period, this study takes a thematic approach. The subject will be explored along five main themes: 1) Natural resources and their effect on building technique; 2) the political and cultural situation in the poleis of Asia Minor and how each encourages specific building types; 3) the formation of specific architectural types emerging from local tradition and Roman influence; 4) formal aspects of architectural decoration and how it compares to other monuments in the Roman Empire; and 5) the chronological development of the monuments within the corpus of Asia Minor architecture of the Roman period. It is the unique qualities of the architecture of Roman Asia Minor that this study proposes to analyze. The planned study will provide a new basis for our understanding of the rich corpus of monuments from Roman Asia Minor. Simultaneously, it will allow us to expand the focus of our understanding from the urban center of Rome to another major region and serve as a case study for regional identity and local characteristics of architecture within an empire-wide building culture.

No additional funding sources recorded.