Local identities in a common language: the iconography of Hellenistic funerary stelai from eastern Greek poleis

Die Ostgriechischen Grabreliefs, a corpus covering the funerary monuments of Greek islands and large parts of modern Anatolia, was published by E. Pfuhl and H. Möbius during the 1970s and provides the most comprehensive collection of grave stelai from the eastern Greek cities during the Hellenistic period. Unlike the Archaic and Classical funerary markers from Athens the material has received little attention to this day, especially in anglophone academia. The material is not only relevant in regard to the high number of surviving objects dating into the Hellenistic period, but also its iconographical diversity. Pfuhl and Möbius, while diligent in their efforts to provide a comprehensive corpus, chose to categorize the monuments typologically, thereby obscuring any sense of individuality that may be expressed in the way different cities represented the dead on grave monuments. This dissertation analyses the visual language of Hellenistic funerary stelae from eastern Greek poleis, thereby challenging the notion of a uniform "eastern Greek" iconography. The thesis focuses on the combination of tradition and innovation in the pictorial language of the monuments, exploring the visual language on both supra-regional and local levels. Rather than examining individual objects, the material is analysed on a broad scale. In applying the concept of peer polity interaction as framework for its methodology, it sheds light on the complex interactions between poleis and their influence on the creation and dissemination of motifs. By examining the funerary reliefs from Rhodes, Smyrna, Samos, Pergamon and Byzantium, as well as the adaptation of Classical sepulchral motifs into Hellenistic funerary iconography, the thesis demonstrates the diversity of the visual language in Eastern Greek cities. The thesis proposes a quantitative approach that goes beyond aesthetic evaluations and a focus on individual objects, exploring the individual visual languages of communities and their articulation of local and personal ideals in the memorialisation of the deceased.

Name dc:type.qualificationname

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Level dc:type.qualificationlevel

Doctoral

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

University of Cambridge

Year dc:date.issued

2025

Author dc:creator

• Strahlendorf, Sandra

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Osborne, Robin

• funeral stelai
• Hellenistic stelai
• grave stelai
• Hellenistic Greek
• material culture
• Greek archaeology
• sepulchral iconography
• Peer polity interaction (PPI)

Licence

• https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/bitstreams/6cb017d9-ce50-49dd-b29d-f1087a495c39/download
• http://purl.org/NET/rdflicense/allrightsreserved

Language dc:language

eng

DOI dc:identifier.doi

https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.126374

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.repository.cam.ac.uk:1810/397190