I monumenti funerari della Dacia: nuovi studi, note integrative e precisazioni
In: Archeologia Classica: 57, 2007
Permalink: http://digital.casalini.it/2634440
The author discusses an overview of the art-historical aspects and social implications of the funerary monuments of Roman Dacia presented by Carmen Ciongradi in the JRA suppl. 2004. Ciongradi's attempt to establish close links between the typological choices and social status of the clients, or even their ethnic origin, is not completely successful. Different tastes in military and civilian environments are constantly stressed, but they hardly correspond to the social realities of the province. The types and forms of monuments and the material used are taken as keys for the analysis, which does not take into account the appearance of the monument on the whole, with its figural and symbolical components. Both the alleged North-Italic influence on possibly earlier stelae of Sarmizegetusa and an "orientalizing taste" which should have to do with large-scale exploitation of the local marble quarry in the Antonine age and later (requiring workshops from Asia Minor for urban embellishment) go largely undemonstrated. The thesis that aediculae and stelae of the Norico -Pannonian area are similar to much Dacian output because of the military taste of the customers cannot be sustained. In fact, Dacia's cultural pattern (mainly a regional variant) is deeply rooted in the broader context of the Central and North Danubian countries, and many common features have long been recognized.