Bust of a Palmyrene named Male dated to c.150. Palmyrene funerary art often gazes directly at the viewer, causing eye contact to be made. The bust is now at the Harvard Art Museum (1998.3)
At the opening of a new art exhibit on the faces of ancient Palmyra at the Museo archeologico nazionale di Cividale del Friuli in the northern Italian city of Friuli, prominent Near Eastern archaeologist Paolo Matthiae remarked that 70% of the city's monuments destroyed by ISIS could possibly be reconstructed.
In part, the reconstruction of the city may be achieved with the use of digital technologies such as 3D printing. However, as the exhibit highlights: not only the archaeological remains of Palmyra, but also the people that lived there must be part of this reconstruction. A look at these faces and the current attempts to preserve them digitally give us a sense of the women, men, and children that populated this ancient city.
Previously called Tadmor, Palmyra was a major trade location that was incorporated into the Roman province of Syria under the reign of the Roman emperor Tiberius. The portraiture on funerary monuments placed in the cemeteries from ancient Palmyra, as well as the epitaphs that often commemorated the dead on the stones, allow us a visceral glimpse into the lives, families, and fashion of the people who populated the town in a way that few other epitaphs do. Many of the busts make direct eye contact with the viewer and force them to consider the dead.
Gravestone with funerary banquet likely from Palmyra now at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC. (2nd-3rd century CE). Online Publications Edited By Steven Paneccasio 10/31/13.
Many busts of Roman-era Palmyrenes now populate museum collections across the U.S. and Europe. The Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC, the Penn Museum in Philadelphia and the Harvard Art Museum all have substantial Palmyrene collections. However, many funerary busts remained in situ within the city or at the National Museum of Palmyra until it was taken by ISIS.
Hundreds of these damaged busts were also saved by archaeologists and researchers before ISIS took the city in May 2015. Now a new project undertaken in Italy has begun to reconstruct these busts and then to repatriate them to Syria. As one news outlet noted, the reconstruction and repatriation of these pieces are, in a way, also a memorial for those who died to save them: "Modern technology was used in their restoration, which is also being hailed as a tribute to Khaled al-Assad, former head of antiquities at Palmyra who was murdered by IS in 2015 at the age of 82." It should be noted that Qassem Abdullah Yehya, the Deputy Director of the DGAM Laboratories, also protected the Palmyra site and was killed by ISIS.
As I have discussed in regard to the use of 3D printing to reconstruct the now-destroyed Arch of Palmyra, there are indeed ethics that need to apply to the use of 3D printing. The recent Italian restoration, which repaired the busts using nylon powder and a 3-D printer, will perhaps provide a set of best practices for the return of restored works to the site.
In addition to these efforts, digital archaeologists and museum professionals working with photogrammetric data and 3D modeling are allowing even more exploration of these objects online. The 3D modeling site Sketchfab has a few models of Palmyra busts currently on the site, and National Geographic also has a stunning online model of a woman from Palmyra.
Maliku of Palmyra, sculpture from the ancient city-state of Bust from the 'Palmyra in Syria' exhibit in the National Museum of Scotland (Edinburgh). Model on Sketchfab by user JesusMolina
The last two years have seen a particular focus on the loss of the monumental architecture and structures of Palmyra. This has been exemplified in the continued debate over whether leaving the Palmyrene ruins as they allow for the memory of the destruction of ISIS to be better remembered, or whether the city should be rebuilt completely as a message of resistance. However, as recent museum shows and 3D modeling projects demonstrate, reconstructing and engaging directly with the faces of ancient Palmyrenes is a pivotal way to make contact with the humanity of any city--ancient or modern. As we remember the faces of those that lived in ancient Syria, we should perhaps also reflect on the lives of modern Syrians still suffering in the face of this conflict.
Source
No comments:
Write σχόλια