To My Family and Uğraş Uzun - Bilkent University

theme on these sarcophagi, on Istanbul B (Sidemara) (Fig. 23) and on the
Antakya Sarcophagus. The lion hunt scene of the Istanbul B differs from that of
the Antakya Sarcophagus in a number of ways: the scene was set on an “arcaded
type” chest, rather than a columnar one; the composition consists of five
horsemen, while there is a single horseman on the Antakya Sarcophagus; and
finally, Istanbul B is much later (dated to AD 250-5). In spite of these differences
between the two sarcophagi, the rarity of the lion-hunt theme on Asiatic columnar
sarcophagi testifies to the exceptional nature of the Istanbul B and the Antakya
sarcophagi.
Although the proposed time span of the Antakya Sarcophagus (AD 215-
25) allows the possibility that it was influenced by the Italian 3 rd -century lion-
hunt sarcophagi, this is not likely for two reasons. To begin with, none of the
examples of the Italian lion-hunt sarcophagi are columnar, instead, they are
carved as continuous friezes. In addition, there is a difference in composition
between the Italian and Asiatic hunt sarcophagi: the Italian sarcophagi show the
departure to the hunt and the actual hunt as sequential scenes, and the mounted
hunter is usually accompanied by Virtus, by whose urging he gets ready to throw
his javelin. However, on the Antakya Sarcophagus, only the actual hunt is
depicted and the mounted hunter is accompanied by a male attendant (Kleiner,
1992: 390). The composition and figure types on the Docimeum sarcophagi and
the Antakya Sarcophagus in particular are in fact influenced by a totally different
tradition than the Italian sarcophagi, mingling together Greek, Roman and local
iconography. The funerary symbolism, however, is probably the same for the 3 rd
century Italian lion-hunt sarcophagi and the Antakya Sarcophagus.
77