To My Family and Uğraş Uzun - Bilkent University

Sarcophagus (Fig. 8) is one, and Istanbul G (the Sarcophagus of Claudia Antonia
Sabina) (Fig. 9) is another. The hair styles of these portrait heads have been used
to suggest a date for these sarcophagi (Wiegartz, 1965: 27).
There are various suggestions concerning the origins of the architectural
decoration on the chests of the Asiatic columnar sarcophagi and the figures set
within this architectural frame (Rodenwaldt, 1933: 193-194; Toynbee, 1971: 272;
Koch and Sichtermann, 1982: 478). It has been suggested that they continue the
“heroon”, or “temple-tomb” tradition of Anatolia, embodied in the “Nereid
Monument” at Xanthos (Fig. 10), the “Mausoleum” at Halikarnassos (Fig. 11),
the “Heroon” at Limyra (Fig. 12) and the “Belevi Tomb”, all of which have
figures set between columns (Elderkin, 1939: 102-104; Wiegartz, 1965: 23;
Borchhardt, 1978; Fedak, 1997: 176; Mansel, 1999: 423; Borchardt, 1999; Koch,
2001: 169). According to another suggestion, Pompeian Fourth Style wall
paintings were the prototypes of Asiatic columnar sarcophagi (Stryzygowski,
1907:119-121), such as a wall painting in the triclinium of one Pompeian house
(Fig. 13) (Reg. I., Ins. 3, No. 25): in this, the gabled-lunette-gabled pediment
sequence with the figures set between the columns is similar to the architectural
form of the columnar sarcophagi.
A third suggestion is that the columnar sarcophagi were made to resemble
contemporary Roman buildings, such as nymphaea, propylaea, and the scaenae
frontes of theaters (Cormack, 1997: 147). Some of the examples that could have
inspired the forms of the columnar sarcophagi are the façade of the Library of
Celsus (Fig. 14), the West Gate of the Agora and the Middle Harbour Gate at
Ephesos, the theater façades at Aspendos (Fig. 15) and Aizanoi, and the propylon
of the south agora at Miletus (Fig. 16) (Wiegartz, 1965: 14). This suggestion
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