Chris S Lightfoot

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Greek and Roman Art, Freelance archaeologist

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CHRISTOPHER S. LIGHTFOOT, a specialist in ancient glass and Roman art, was a Curator at The Metropolitan Museum of Art from 1999 until 2019. He contributed to the reinstallation of the permanent Greek and Roman Galleries that opened in April 2007. He curated the Lod Mosaic exhibition in 2010–2011 and Ennion: Master of Roman Glass in 2014–2015. Educated at the University of Oxford, he earned his undergraduate and doctoral degrees (DPhil) in Literae Humaniores. He was formerly a Research Assistant in the Department of Greek and Roman Antiquities, The British Museum (1982–1986), and the Director of the Amorium Excavations Project, Turkey (1993–2014). He is now a freelance archaeologist.
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Phone: +905338876135

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City and Countryside in Byzantine Anatolia: Amorium.

Propontica 2/4, pp. 177–97., 2024

Amorium is a key site for the period AD 700-900 owing to its historical importance as the capital... more Amorium is a key site for the period AD 700-900 owing to its historical importance as the capital of the Anatolic Theme. The well preserved remains provide an exceptional opportunity to study the layout and function of the Byzantine city and its excavation sheds light on the transition, modification, and continuity of the settlement between the Late Roman and Byzantine periods. The evidence from twenty years of excavation points to the existence of a large and prosperous city during Early and Middle Byzantine times, where various trades and crafts were practised and which served as the centre of a vibrant rural community engaged in agriculture as well as animal husbandry. The destruction layers from the capture of Amorium by the Arabs in 838 create a fixed horizon and reference point for the entire archaeology and material culture of early to mid-ninth century Anatolia. Pottery and coin finds in particular provide good indicators of the level and nature of economic activity. In this study some conclusions are drawn from that material, and discussion of it is set in the context of other sites and the interpretation of finds there. The evidence from Amorium presents new insights that appear at odds with accepted views of the Byzantine world in the Early Middle Ages.

A New Interpretation and Dating for the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Roman Cubiculum

Adil Özme'nin Hatırası , 2024

This paper challenges the traditional interpretation and dating of the so-called Pompeian Second ... more This paper challenges the traditional interpretation and dating of the so-called Pompeian Second Style frescoes that decorate the walls of the Cubiculum, the highlight of the Roman collections in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. For most, if not all, scholars these highly ornate and complex wall paintings are dated to about 50–40 B.C. and survived virtually unchanged until the Roman villa at Boscoreale in which they were found in 1900 was buried by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in A.D. 79. Among other details attention is drawn to the depiction of a glass fruit bowl, which finds close parallels on other frescoes, notably in Villa A at Oplontis. These large glass bowls are widely accepted as representation of blown glass, a glass-working technique that was not known as early as the mid-first century B.C. Here it is argued that the imagery of blown glass bowls and, by inference, all the Second Style frescoes in the Cubiculum, could only have been produced in about A.D. 50. Such a redating of the wall paintings inevitably requires them to be considered as works reflecting not late Hellenistic tastes but early imperial Roman styles.

Chris S Lightfoot

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