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The work of stone in an Aphrodisias workshop
Dossier in brief
Place, time and memory in one narrative.
Tools, unfinished statues and apprentice exercises in an Aphrodisias workshop reveal the human work behind the marble.
Long-form story · Culture and memory · A link to today · deniz-doga
Narrative
Before looking at the final line on a marble surface, step back into the workshop. At Aphrodisias, sculptors occupied two rooms and an open working area in a small stoa north of the Council House. Between the Agora and the sanctuary of Aphrodite, their work belonged to the life of the city.
Sequence
Excavation in the late 1960s uncovered stoneworking tools, about twenty-five well-preserved statues at different stages of completion, and hundreds of fragments. Apprentice practice pieces were found here too. Skill had left traces in repeated attempts as well as in finished portraits.
Stops
Nearby marble quarries helped Aphrodisias become a major centre of sculpture. Bringing stone into the city was only the beginning: tools and unfinished pieces show the skill added to the material. [The city story](/en/hikaye/mermerin-hafizasi-afrodisias) follows that work through the image of Aphrodite and the public monuments.
Present-day link
An unfinished portrait in a toga offers another way to read the process. It is one of the finds suggesting that the workshop remained active at least around AD 400. Even without knowing who commissioned it, we can see a stage of the work preserved in stone. An unfinished statue is evidence of making as well as an incomplete object.
Periods
- Hellenistic era
- Roman era
- Eastern Roman era
- The Aegean today