The ancient sarcophagus reliefs

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The ancient sarcophagus reliefs ( ASR , formerly Die ancient sarcophagus reliefs , also short sarcophagus corpus ) is a scientific-archaeological corpus work , in which as many Greek and Roman sarcophagi as possible , which are now no longer only in the area of ​​the former Greco-Roman world, but can also be found in Northern Europe and North America.

Sarcophagus from the 3rd century AD in the Museum of Agrigento

history

Research into Roman sarcophagi began in the late Middle Ages. Pope Sixtus IV had a museum built on the Capitol in Rome in 1471 , in which sarcophagi were also exhibited. In 1550 the plan evidently matured to publish all sarcophagi from Rome and its surroundings in one corpus. Various copperplate engravings were made for this. The plan was not implemented, but the copperplate engravings were collected in the so-called Codex Coburgensis . Part of the work has been lost, but added today in the middle of the 16th century mainly by a copy of the Codex Coburgensis incurred but qualitatively less quality Codex Pighianus missing parts. Both works are still of inestimable value today, especially in the case of lost and (partially) destroyed sarcophagi. Even Johann Joachim Winckelmann narrated in his work Monumenti antichi inediti many sarcophagus reliefs, but they are distorted to some extent. As in the works of Giovanni Battista Piranesi , who depicted various sarcophagi in his copper engravings, the reliefs in these works are not systematically recorded.

As the first modern scientist, Professor Otto Jahn from Bonn took up the idea of ​​a sarcophagus corpus again. After his death in 1869, the central management of the Imperial German Archaeological Institute transferred the continuation of the project to Friedrich Matz the Elder in 1870 . After his death in 1874, Carl Robert took over the continuation of the project. The first four volumes of the Corpus were published under his aegis. The project was later continued by the archaeologists Gerhart Rodenwaldt , Friedrich Matz the Younger , Bernard Andreae and Guntram Koch ; Klaus Fittschen and Walter Trillmich are currently editors in addition to Koch . To date, 25 volumes have been published. To mark the 125th anniversary of the plant, a symposium was held in Marburg in 1995 with specialists from 15 countries.

Structure of the corpus

Compared to other archaeological corpora ( Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum , Corpus Speculorum Etruscorum and others), only relatively few volumes have appeared to date. It depends on the type of publication. In contrast to other works, publications are not published according to chronological or geographical aspects, but according to thematic aspects. The individual sub-areas are:

  • I: The sarcophagi with representations from human life
  • II: Mythological Cycles
  • III: Individual gods and heroes
  • IV: The Dionysian sarcophagi
  • V 1: The sea creatures on the ancient sarcophagus reliefs
  • V 2: The Roman erotic sarcophagi
  • V 3: The muses sarcophagi
  • V 4: Seasons sarcophagi
  • VI: The decorative Roman sarcophagi
  • VII: The younger Etruscan stone sarcophagi
  • VIII: The sarcophagi of the western areas of the Roman Empire
  • IX: The sarcophagi of Greece and the Danube provinces
  • X & XI: NA
  • XII: The mythological sarcophagi.

Thus, if possible, all sarcophagi on a specific topic in the world must be opened before a volume can be completed. Often pioneering work has to be done, since even sarcophagi in museums are often insufficiently indexed and not infrequently not even archived graphically. Thus, the editors of the volumes have to personally examine many of the sarcophagi and take pictures. This is often problematic because, on the one hand, it is not always easy to get permission, and on the other hand, quite a few sarcophagi have been built as spoilage in churches and modern villas and are therefore difficult to access. Each sarcophagus appears with technical information (place of storage, origin, dimensions, dating or suggested dating and older literature) as well as a description and, if possible, pictures in the corresponding volume. Color photographs are still not possible for financial and technical reasons, which is why some sarcophagi with paint residues cannot be reproduced adequately.

Since, in addition to the 25 volumes, countless other individual studies were created through the work on the Corpus, the scientific performance is to be rated much higher than is visible when only looking at the previous volumes. The work on the corpus, which is carried out today under the umbrella of the German Archaeological Institute, will continue for a long time. The individual volumes are published today by Gebr. Mann Verlag in Berlin .

literature

  • Guntram Koch : 125 years of the sarcophagus corpus. A major German research project is celebrating its anniversary. In: Ancient World . 26, 1995, pp. 365-377.

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