This research project, generously funded by the Leverhulme Trust, argued for the vital role that visual material culture played in the experience of civic festivals in the eastern provinces of the Roman Empire. It has resulted in several significant publications (see below), and research is ongoing.
Religious festivals were times when the civic community came together to present an image of itself to outsiders, but they also reflected the hierarchies which existed within the city itself. This project examines for the first time the active roles played by coins, inscriptions, art and architecture in asserting and negotiating communal civic identities and social hierarchies. Past studies primarily used material culture as evidence, from which to reconstruct the details of individual festivals. This timely reassessment recognised the agency of visual media.
The project brought together an interdisciplinary team with specialist skills in epigraphy, numismatics and art to provide a holistic view of the ways material culture created meaning in ancient Graeco-Roman festival culture.
Project Team
PI and Researcher of Art/Architecture: Professor Zahra NewbyLink opens in a new window
Research Fellow (numismatics): Dr Dario Calomino
Research Fellow (epigraphy): Dr Naomi Carless-Unwin
Outputs:
The results of the project have been published in a number of articles and book chapters, as well as in an edited volume:
Edited Volume:
Newby, Z. (ed.) 2023. The Material Dynamics of Festivals in the Graeco-Roman East. Oxford Studies in Ancient Documents.
Includes Introduction, Chapter and Conclusion by Newby and one chapter each by Carless Unwin and Calomino, as well as contributions from scholars working on related projects.
Journal Articles:
Calomino, D. 2020. ‘Severan Cistophori: Mint and interpretation’, Numismatic Chronicle 180: 143-156.
Calomino, D. 2020. ‘Caracalla and the divine: emperor worship and representation in the visual language of Roman Asia Minor’, Anatolian Studies 70: 153-179.
Carless-Unwin, N. 2020. ‘Basket-bearers and gold-wearers: epigraphic insights into the material dimensions of processional roles in the Graeco-Roman East’, Kernos 33: 89-125.
Newby, Z and Calomino, D. 2022. ‘The Materiality of Greek Festivals in the Roman East: The View from Perge’, Asia Minor. An International Journal of Archaeology in Turkey 2: 41-54.
Newby, Z. 2024. 'Athletes in the city: the dynamics of inscribed victory statues in Roman Asia Minor', Nikephoros. Zeitschrift fur Sport und Kultur im Altertum 30: 91-124.
Book Chapters:
Carless Unwin, N. 2021. ‘The epigraphic curve in Phrygia and its borderlands’, in Epigraphic Culture in the Eastern Mediterranean in Antiquity, ed. K. Nawotka. Routledge: pp 144-165.
Calomino, D. 2023. ‘Inspecto nummo...The materiality of coin imagery and inscriptions in the Roman world’, in New approaches to the materiality of text in the ancient Mediterranean: from monuments and buildings to small portable objects, eds., E. Angliker and I. Bultrighini. Brepols. Turnhout. 79-94.
Carless Unwin, N. 2023. ‘Epigraphy and the Power of Precedence in Asia Minor’, in New approaches to the materiality of text in the ancient Mediterranean: from monuments and buildings to small portable objects, eds., E. Angliker and I. Bultrighini. Brepols. Turnhout.
Carless Unwin, N. 2024. 'Festivals and Civic Culture', in The Oxford Handbook of Greek Cities in the Roman Empire, eds. M. Hallmannsecker and A. Heller. Oxford University Press.
Calomino, D. 2025. 'The spectacle building on the coins of Heraclea Pontica', in Rooms in the Mansions of History. Studi in Onore di Maria Cristina Molinari. Roma 3 Press.
Newby, Z. 2026. ‘Celebrating Pythian Games: Hellenism and local identity in civic festivals of Asia Minor’, in E. Bowie and C. Maciver eds., The Fabric of Hellenism, Edinburgh University Press. 139-165.
Forthcoming
Monographs are in progress as follows:
Calomino, D. Pride, Profit and Prestige. Greek Festival Culture and Civic Coinages in the Roman East (31 BC – 297 AD).
Carless-Unwin, N. Inscribing Festival Culture in the Graeco-Roman East.
