The muses and other statues of the Eastern Roman Baths of Gerasa, Jordan (2018 Campaign): Form and provenance

Abstract

The Eastern Roman Baths of the Deacapolis Gerasa, Jordan, represents one of the largest and best preserved Roman baths in the entire Bilad Al-Sham. It was built during the second half of the 2nd century CE and adorned by sculptures of imported precious marble, some have inscribed bases. The 2018 excavations11The Great East Baths of Gerasa were excavated during the 2018 campaign (September 1st – October 17th) by the joint project of the French Archaeological Mission to Jerash (MAFJ), the Department of Antiquities of Jordan (DoA) and the German Jordanian University (GJU). The marble sculptures under investigation were found by the French team and the participation of local workmen from the Gaza Refugee Camp under the supervision of the DoA representative and Dr. Thomas Lepaon, the then MAFJ director. A team from the DoA and students from the GJU worked simultaneously on the conservation, restoration and presentation of the sculptures under the guidance of Professor Dr. Thomas M. Weber-Karyotakis and the Italian conservator Franco Sciorilli. This team arranged a close cooperation with Professor Dr. Khaled al-Bashaireh from the Yarmouk University to investigate the marble provenance of the sculptures. unearthed a group of well preserved statues, although headless or broken, including six Muses (Melpomene, Clio, Urania, Erato and two as yet unidentified), Cybele, Dionysus, female head, draped female, etc. This study sheds light on ten statues of the new collection, and investigates their provenance by applying combined scientific analytical techniques associated with the recently published databases on the ancient marble quarries of the Mediterranean. The results showed that the six muses were most likely carved out of Pentelic marble (Mount Pentelikon, Attica, Greece) probably in one order from the same workshop, the enthroned Cybele statue is of Thassos-3 marble (Vathy-Saliara district, Thassos Island, Greece), the Dionysus statue and the female marble head are of Proconnesus-1 marble (Marmara Island, Turkey), and the torso of the draped female statue is of Paros-2 marble (Lakkoi, Valley of Chorodaki, Paros Island, Greece). The results agree with previous studies of provenancing sculptures uncovered at Gerasa, and other sites in Jordan and the Levant. They support the suggestion that Lakkoi produced medium-grained marble variety for carving out statues. The results give more evidence about the high state of the art of Gerasa during the Roman period.