To My Family and Uğraş Uzun - Bilkent University

The columnar sarcophagi were, therefore, produced in Phrygia and
transported from there in a mostly finished state. It has long been argued that the
unfinished parts of the Docimeum sarcophagi, principally the portrait heads, were
completed by travelling craftsmen directly sent from the workshops to the point
of destination, although the suggestion has not been proven yet (Rodenwaldt,
1933: 206; Wiegartz, 1974: 376; Strong and Claridge, 1976: 206; Waelkens,
1982: 70; Ramage and Ramage, 1995: 207; Cormack, 1997: 147). It may well
have been that local craftsmen completed these parts, as indicated by the
widespread imitation of the ornamentation of the sarcophagi in other areas, and
thus the creation of an Empire-wide “marble” or “Asiatic” style characterized by
deep drilling for black and white effects, and sharp outlines (Strong, 1961: 45;
Ward-Perkins, 1980: 331- 332; Dodge, 1991: 39).
In Phrygia, in fact, there had been a long tradition of burying the dead in
sarcophagi, but it lost its importance in the Hellenistic Age, when grave reliefs
and grave steles were abundantly produced (Koch, 2001: 14). The major period
of production of sarcophagi began in c.AD 140, either independently, or under
the influence of Rome (Koch, 2001: 14, 83). In the 2 nd century, sarcophagi
production in Docimeum grew in production and trade capacity to surpass that of
Athens (Mount Pentellicus), another major sarcophagus producer, but about AD
200, however, the production and export of Docimeum sarcophagi fell behind
Athens for unknown reasons (Koch, 2001: 83), and production ended completely
at about AD 260-70 (Wiegartz, 1965: 31; Waelkens, 1982: 71). It is suggested
that some of the stone cutters went to Rome to continue carving sarcophagi in
other marbles, while others stayed in Anatolia and carved in other sculptural
centres (Koch, 2001: 170, 172).
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