| Summary: | This dataset represents the text and image data contained in the searchable database of the published evidence for statuary and inscribed statue bases set up after AD 284, that were new, newly dedicated, or newly re-worked. (This database was completed and made public in May 2012, with only some minor revisions thereafter). The deposit includes data for a small number of records that are not included in the public version, and the contents of some notes fields. Researchers are welcome to use the data for their own purposes but should acknowledge the original source, and re-use should not be for commercial purposes. Meanwhile, enquiries should go to LSA@classics.ox.ac.uk.
The original database was constructed as part of a major project funded by the AHRC. The text data has been deposited in FileMaker and the images are JPEGs. In order to run the data as a database, FileMaker Pro will be required. Ancient towns were filled with life-size bronze and marble figures – by the third century important cities of the empire could have over a thousand such statues. The habit of erecting statues in public to rulers, and to other dignitaries and benefactors, was a defining characteristic of the ancient world. The dedication of statues expressed the relationship between rulers and ruled and articulated the benefaction-and-honour system of city politics. Statues also played a significant role in defining civic identity, and in forming and perpetuating a city’s collective memory. In the fourth to sixth centuries AD, statues continued to be erected in many parts of the empire – but already the uniform practices of earlier imperial times had broken down and become attenuated. By the mid-seventh century, the statue-habit, once ubiquitous, had completely disappeared from the Roman world. Not even in Constantinople were new statues set up. The ‘Last Statues of Antiquity’ project investigated all evidence for new statuary of the period circa 280–650, as well as the slow decline (and eventual death) of the ancient statue-habit.
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