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.

The completed research project on the Architecture of Roman Asia Minor has shown that there certainly existed a uniform building practice throughout the Roman Empire during the Imperial period (1st to 3d centuries A.D.). This is mainly due to increased connectivity, both in physical terms such as an excellent road system and other means of transportation, but also an intensified transfer of knowledge to all regions of the empire. The modern term globalization is sometimes used to describe this phenomenon, and it indeed seems appropriate, even though the Mediterranean world per se is not global in the modern sense of the word. Concurrently, Roman buildings had regional characteristics. The project could investigate the architecture of Asia Minor during the Roman Imperial period. It became apparent that various factors influenced local properties, among them local resources. At the latest since the Hellenistic period building with regionally available, high quality stones became common practice in Asia Minor. This continued throughout the Imperial period and prevented the emergence of a brick industry as know e. g. from Italy. Another important factor is the political and cultural situation in the cities of Asia Minor. A fair amount of buildings was financed by local benefactors (sometimes also female) who could influence building programs by their decision for certain building types. All in all, it can be said that the project provides a new approach on the local characteristics of architecture in Asia Minor, which on the one hand goes beyond the study of individual monuments. At the same time, the results of the research provide a more detailed analysis than overarching handbooks on Roman architecture in general.