Roman Funerary Reliefs and North African Identity: A Contextual Investigation of Tripolitanian Mausolea and their Iconography Image - No Copyright Thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the University of Leicester by Julia Salome Nikolaus School of Archaeology and Ancient History University of Leicester April 2017 Cover Image: Relief of a camel with amphora and camel driver from Tuil el Cherm, near Mizda (>Tu001-A-01; Image: Brogan, SLS Archive). ii ABSTRACT Roman Funerary Reliefs and North African Identity: A Contextual Investigation of Tripolitanian Mausolea and their Iconography Julia Salome Nikolaus Thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the University of Leicester During the Roman-period, hundreds of mausolea were commissioned by the local Libyan elite in Tripolitania (Libya). While funerary sculpture was rare in pre-Roman Tripolitania, during the Roman period many were vividly decorated with symbolic and figural sculpture. This Ph.D. provides the first extended discussion and comprehensive catalogue of Tripolitanian mausolea and their decorations. Based on the data from this catalogue, it aims to highlight the broad spectrum of decorations, and seeks to demonstrate how aspects of Roman, pan-Mediterranean, and North African imagery were re-formulated to create an iconography with local relevance through which complex layers of identity, beliefs, and symbolism were expressed. After setting the mausolea within their historical, geographical, and social contexts, this Ph.D. will provide an overview of their main architectural types and the principal iconographic themes displayed. Next, the sculptural decorations will be investigated through select case studies by focusing on their regional context together with the inscriptions and the architecture of the monument, along with the local socio-economic circumstances. Finally, this study will explore how the iconography helped to express the different layers of identity of the commissioner, and how other actors, such as the viewer and the craftsmen, may have influenced the range of imagery that was ultimately displayed. This way we can detect subtle differences in the iconography of the sculptural decorations, which otherwise may stay hidden. Instead of viewing this funerary sculpture as a failed attempt of Roman art, or merely a product of resistance against Rome, this study demonstrates that the iconography was very complex. By contextualising the mausolea within their local setting, it becomes clear that North African, Roman, and pan-Mediterranean imagery was reinterpreted to convey messages that were relevant within the regional setting of Tripolitania, reflecting local socio- cultural concerns and identities. i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This thesis would not have been accomplished with the help and support of many people along the way. First and foremost, I would like to thank my Ph.D. supervisor David Mattingly for his invaluable advice and unwavering support throughout this, at times, difficult, endeavour. His endless enthusiasm and expertise in North African archaeology made me fall in love with the subject during my Masters at the University of Leicester, and his positive and supporting nature helped me immensely during my studies. I would also like to thank David in his capacity as field director first in Libya, and now in Morocco and for giving me the opportunity to work in those amazing countries and get to know its wonderful peoples. Another special thanks goes to my second supervisor David Edwards, for many long and stimulating discussions and his invaluable feedback on the final draft of the thesis, and for his friendship throughout. I am also very thankful to the University of Leicester for providing me with the funding for this research in the form of a scholarship. Much of this research would not have been possible without the permission of the Society for Libyan Studies that gave me access to their rich archive and to allow me to reproduce the relevant images and records that were held in their collections. The Society for Libyan Studies also provided me with a grant to conduct research in the archives at the British School at Rome, and at Aix-en-Provence, for which I am very grateful. Further thanks extends to the archivists and scholars at the British School at Rome and the Centre Camille Julian in Aix-en-Provence who helped me to locate look at relevant materials, in particular Véronique Blanc-Bijon, Alessandra Giovenco, and Valerie Scott. Furthermore, I would like to thank Phillip Kenrick for giving me his images of mausolea in Tripolitania, David Mattingly for providing his private images, and Muftah Al-Haddad for giving me the photographs of the object in the museum at Bani Ulid. I am indebted to Andrew Merrills and Craig Cipolla for their feedback and advice on my Ph.D. upgrade document. Martin Sterry has been particularly helpful in locating the mausolea on Google Earth, which was, at times, rather like finding a needle in a haystack. Further thanks goes to Nichole Sheldrick, with whom I had fruitful discussions about the archaeology of Tripolitania, and I am thankful for having had the opportunity to read her thesis, which was very inspiring for my own research. I also would like to thank her for her friendship and many good chats over lunch and drinks. I am also hugely indebted to Claire Gathercole, who had the painstaking task of proofreading the thesis. A very special thank you must go to Lady Olwen Brogan, whose work forms the foundation of this thesis. Without her meticulous recordings of the mausolea of Tripolitania, this thesis could not have been written. I wish I could have met this extraordinary woman to thank her in person. Furthermore, I would like to thank Susan Walker for many fruitful and inspiring discussions about art at the periphery of the Empire. I learned a great deal from her vast knowledge, experience, and expertise. I am also grateful for her advice and guidance as my PI on the ‘Libyan Antiquities at Risk’ project together with David Mattingly. It is a great pleasure to be part of a project that will help to protect the very monuments that I have studied over the last years. ii A huge thanks goes to all the staff at the School of Archaeology and Ancient History at the University of Leicester. It has been a pleasure to be part of such an open and friendly environment. Special thanks go to Simon James, who was my course coordinator during my Masters at Leicester, who helped us all to pull through that stressful year successfully. Neil Christie has been an invaluable source of advice during my Masters and Ph.D., for which I am grateful. I also would like to thank Emma-Jane Grahame for many good discussions about mortuary archaeology, Ruth Young for her support and friendship since I have been at Leicester, and Sarah Tarlow and Graham Shipley for their advice. Of course, nothing would ever work without the brilliant administrative team that helped me overcome many hurdles. Thank you so much Sharon North, Selina Thraves, Adam Thuraisingam, Rachel Godfrey, Kathie Ashley, and Lara Callaghan for your support and friendship. Special thanks also goes to Mark Pluciennik, who was greatly supportive during my time working for Distance Learning and throughout my Ph.D. I have had great times during time spent on fieldwork in North Africa, formed many lasting friendships and learned an immense amount about the practice of archaeology in the field. I extend my thanks to David Mattingly, Martin Sterry, Andrew Wilson, and Lisa Fentress, for giving me the opportunity to work on their projects and to learn from their experience. Much of my gratitude must go to the many friends at Leicester in particularly Beth McFadden, Daan Van Helden, Niccolò Mugnai, Hayley Dunn, Borbala Nyiri, Marcella Raiconi, Sarah Newstead, Maria Gatto, Tyr Fothergill, Sergio Gonzalez Sanchez, Tammy Macenka, Anna Booth, Denis Sami, Andy Valdez-Tullett, Martin Sterry, Meghann Mahoney, Rebecca Gordon, Andrea Zocci, Ahmad Saad, Mohamed Hesein, Mohamed Omar, and Ahmad Buzaian for many good times and great memories. A special thank you must go to Sabine Imperiale, Alemdina Knorr, Tina Bender, Verity Bennett, Alex McPerson, and Goshia Jakimow-Canton who have been great friends and invaluable support over the years. I am very grateful to my wonderful family who has always supported me along my way. I am forever indebted to my parents Roswitha and Erwin and my brother Sebastian, my grandmother Juliana, and my aunts Gisela and Friedel, whose unwavering support, love, and friendship helped me to achieve all I have accoplished. Last but not least, I would like to thank my fiancé, Nick Ray, without whom I would not have been able to complete this thesis. He brightened up long and gloomy thesis writing days and endlessly encouraged me along the way. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract ................................................................................................................................................i Acknowledgements .......................................................................................................................... ii List of Figures ................................................................................................................................ viii List of Tables .................................................................................................................................. xiv Introduction, Research Aims, Objectives, and Methodology ............ 1 1.1 Introduction ......................................................................................................................