Tomb Paintings of Achaemenid Anatolia between East and West
Abstract
The diverse array of funerary traditions in Achaemenid Anatolia includes tombs with polychrome painted walls. With the exceptions of a few examples, however, most painted monuments in Lydia, Lycia, and Phrygia have succumbed to deterioration and destruction from a combination of natural and human causes. Only in exceptional cases, the fragmentary preservation allows the reconstruction of original paintings. This paper focuses on two digitally reconstructed painted tomb chambers in Tatarlı and Karaburun, dating to the first half of the fifth century BCE based on criteria such as the image program, iconography, and style. It aims to illuminate the ways in which artistic conventions that originated in both classical and non-classical cultural spheres were combined on memorial architecture to represent the local elite that emerged in Anatolia under the Achaemenid rule.
Citation
Summerer, Lâtife. "Tomb Paintings of Achaemenid Anatolia between East and West." Pourdavoud Center: Achaemenid Workshop 1 (April 13, 2023).
About the Speaker
Lâtife Summerer
Arkin University of Creative Arts and Design
Lâtife Summerer is Professor of Archaeology and History of Art at the Arkin University of Creative Arts and Design in Kyrenia, Cyprus. She studied Classical Archaeology at the Ludwig-Maximilians- University in Munich, Germany, received her PhD in 1996, and completed her habilitation thesis in 2005 at the same university. She conducted excavations at the Roman city Pompeiopolis in Northern Anatolia (2006–2016) and archaeological surveys in Kelainai/Apameia Kibotos, Afyonkarahisar Province (2008–2011) in Turkey. She carried out a repatriation and restoration project on the looted, painted wooden tomb chamber Tatarlı in Phrygia (fifth century BCE), and curated the temporary exhibition “Tatarlı. The Return of Colours” in Istanbul in 2010. She co-edited the catalogue of the exhibition “Tatarlı” and two volumes about Kelainai-Apamaia Kibotos, the royal residence of Achaemenid kings in Anatolia. She also published several articles on ancient Anatolia and Cyprus. Currently, she is carrying out a project on the final reconstruction of the Tatarlı tomb chamber in the New Museum of Afyonhisar.