Rationes decorus. Doric friezes in Central Italy

The aim of the present study is to go beyond traditional typological analysis in developing various historical models on the basis of further spatial and chronological diversification. The main intention is to define the diachronic evolution of certain patterns of architectural decoration in central Italy and its dependence on superimposed cultural-historical and socioeconomic processes. The yet understudied Late Republican monuments with doric friezes provided the sample for this case-study. The empirical analysis of the material record focused on questions of technical execution and regional diversity. Proceeding from single objects, a systematic approach of combined typological sequencing led to further clustering by geographical occurrence and stylistic dependencies. This second stage of analysis provided the basis for the final chronological and spatial evaluation. The reconstruction of original building contexts for dispersed architectural pieces was an important precondition for this kind of research. All these results were finally combined in order to obtain a valid historical interpretation. In archaeological scholarship a paradigm of "Hellenisation" has been established to explain cultural merging processes in the regions of central Italy from about 150 BC to the early Imperial period. In this model, the diffusion of various forms and styles of decoration was often ascribed to the activity of mobile Greek workshops or the aesthetic preferences of certain social classes. However, from the typological analysis and diachronic mapping of monuments decorated with Doric friezes a thoroughly different picture emerged. One of the main results of this study is the coherent typology of motivic features, which was implemented on a sample of 206 buildings decorated with Doric friezes. By means of this data a typologically induced dating for each monument became possible for the first time. Proceeding from this new chronological framework and going beyond traditional methods of seriation, a previously lacking diachronic mapping of stylistic variety was achieved. Instead of motifs emanating from Rome into the periphery, a complex network of small-scale interrelations could be deduced from the patterns of spatial and chronological diffusion. The study of well-preserved monuments led to the reconstruction of the ornamental repertoire as well as the organisation of individual local workshops. Finally, several stages of motivic and stylistic transfer concerning sacred and funeral buildings were linked to different processes of political restructuring, spanning the period from the Social War to the veteran settlements and municipalisation of Early Augustan times. The conventional all-embracing model of Late Republican architectural decoration being used for the display of a more and more `hellenised` elite insufficiently manages to explain such a complex nexus of social and cultural phenomena. Instead, in the framework of this study the main focus was set on the examination of interregional and intralocal reception processes as the driving power behind cultural change. In this way, the use and distribution of architectural decoration was recognised as a sensible tracer for changing perceptions of the built environment and, thus, as a significant source for the cultural history of Late Republican central Italy.