Putting Architectural Scuplture into its Archaeological Context

Abstract

The ‘meaning’ of architectural sculpture has long held the fascination of scholars. In the absence of inscriptional or literary evidence, however, scholars have often also allowed how they read a sculpture’s message to define the process of its creation. Such a procedure is unsatisfactory, especially in arenas where the process of design and placement - both of the architectural sculpture and its framing edifice - are crucial to understanding how the sculpture, and the structure as a whole, relate to their context. In this paper, I argue for the benefits of an archaeologically orientated response to the question of sculpture’s design and placement, focusing on a re-interpretation of the Siphnian Treasury at Delphi.