Lepcis Magna

Sommaire  :

Architecture
- Émilie CHASSILLAN, Pérennité ou disparition du jardin dans l’habitat résidentiel en Gaule romaine entre le Haut-Empire et l’Antiquité tardive ?
- Nicolas LAMARE, L’influence de l’architecture théâtrale sur le décor des fontaines monumentales
- Yann GOUBIN, Les monuments publics en Asie Mineure à l’époque flavienne
Iconographie
- Aurélie FAULX-BRIOLE ROCHER, Du remploi dans la statuaire : autour d’un portrait masculin retravaillé du Musée de Lepcis Magna
- Céline MESNARD, L’iconographie biblique des premiers siècles : héritage, transmission et innovation
- Magdalena WOŹNIAK, L’influence byzantine dans l’art nubien

Il n. 23, n.s. III, di Quaderni di Archeologia della Libya mantiene l’articolazione scelta per la nuova veste della rivista. Anche il prossimo numero avrà carattere miscellaneo (n. 24, n.s. IV, 2021), mentre quello successivo (n. 25, n.s. V, 2022), sarà dedicato alla pubblicazione degli Atti del Convegno tenutosi a Roma, Istituto di Studi Romani, 26-27 ottobre 2017, dal titolo Mausolea and Funeray Landscape of Ancient North Africa. Acculturation and Regional Identity. Tutti gli articoli, pubblicati in italiano o in inglese, sono introdotti da un abstract in inglese. Grazie all’intensa cooperazione con i colleghi del Dipartimento di Antichità della Libia (DoA), anche il n. 22 è provvisto della traduzione integrale dell’Editoriale e degli abstracts di tutti i contributi in lingua araba e di una controcopertina illustrata. L’Editoriale a cura di Mohamed Faraj Mohamed al-Faloos, illustra l’attività del DoA da lui diretto per la salvaguardia del patrimonio culturale libico nonostante le difficoltà finanziarie e politiche della situazione attuale. La tradizionale sezione di Articoli e note ospita un ventaglio di contributi su temi eterogenei relativi alla Cirenaica (produzioni musive), alla Sirte (architettura e decorazione di una tomba ipogeica), alla Tripolitania (circolazione dei marmi e decorazione architettonica, monumenti funerari, ricognizioni archeologiche), alla storiografia in arabo della conquista islamica della Libia, nonché le memorie di personalità significative legate alla ricerca archeologica in Libia, recentemente scomparse: Enrica Fiandra, Sebastiano Tusa e Ettore Janulardo. La rubrica Archivi e Risorse Digitali per il patrimonio storico e archeologico del Nord Africa, a cura di Luisa Musso, presenta un report preliminare sul progetto di digitalizzazione e di catalogazione dell’Archivio Storico della Missione congiunta italo-libica “Tempio Flavio”.
Quaderni di Archeologia della Libya. n. 23, n.s. III
Quaderni di Archeologia della Libya, 23
2021, 294 pp.
Brossura, 21,5 x 28 cm
ISBN: 9788891322203
ISSN: 0079-8258

Since 1995 the Archaeological Mission to Libya of Roma Tre University has carried out several surveys in the territory and suburbs of Lepcis Magna. Besides the survey of the archaeological and historical sites, the Roma Tre team has also had the opportunity to observe and record the development of the landscape through periods of war and peace. In this article, the issues related to the cultural heritage in the area of the modern city of Khoms and in the Lepcis hinterland are analysed and particular consideration is given to the damage and destruction that has occurred since the Italian occupation (1911) until the present day. The Lepcitanian/Khoms territory is an interesting case study in which the cultural heritage has been, and still is, at risk due to 'civilian' and 'conflict' causes. Besides the damage that occurred during the Italo-Turkish War and – to a minor extent – during WWII, the main damage seems to have occurred in the last sixty years due to the expansion of Khoms and to the ongoing unstable political situation in which the lack of central government control is playing an important role. In particular, since 2011, Islamic fundamentalists have demolished in these areas several ancient marabouts, destroying one of the most characteristic aspects of the Tripolitanian/Libyan cultural landscape.

This paper discusses the discovery, in 1924-1925, of an ancient marble head at the bottom of the Hudson river in New
York. The event had significant media coverage thanks to the interest of the editorial board of The New York Times.
Among the hypotheses taken into account to explain the bizarre location of its discovery, prof. Bruno Roselli (1887-
1970) suggested that the Roman portrait may have been picked up from Lepcis Magna and accidentally swallowed up
by the New York bay at the beginning of the 19th century from the US Navy schooner commanded by Captain David
Porter. Another hypothesis linked the marble head to John C. King Van Rensselaer who bought it in New York and lost
it when a ferry boat caught on fire in the Hudson around 1830.
The second part of the paper deals with the dating and a possible interpretation of the portrait, currently housed at
the Millesgården Museum, in Lidingö (Stockholm). A replica in the Vatican Museums, Chiaramonti Museum, probably
belonging to a cuirassed statue, and may be another one, although idealized, in the Capitoline Museums, Palazzo
Senatorio, together with its formal analysis and comparisons, suggest that the portrait type could belong to an eminent
Roman personality (imperator?) who lived between the second triumvirate and the early Augustan age. The portrait
is indeed distinguished by individual traits and by a hairstyle influenced by those of Octavian’s portraits, particularly
the ‘Prima Porta type’, even if characterized with the distinctive detail of long hair strands on the neck. The Fasti
Triumphales provide a list of names that could be take into account, however, it is not possible to hypothesize a specific
identification. Both replicas of the ‘Chiaramonti-Millesgården type’ can be associated with an urban production.
Moreover, the proposed date of the Millesgården portrait to early Augustan age (27-20 BC) seems to be too early for an
honorary statue to be displayed in a public space at Lepcis Magna. This date precedes the Punic town becoming a typical
‘Roman’ city in its public appearance, the transformation of which occurred only between the end of the first century
BC and the beginning of the following one.

En 1995, à la demande du Départment des Antiquités de Libye, la Mission de l'Université Roma Tre dirigée par Luisa Musso commença la prospection archéologique du territoire de Leptis Magna, menacé par l'expancion des constructions et de l'agriculture, ainsi que par les travaux pharaoniques du percement d'un canal qui devait porter les eaux fossiles du Sahara dans les villes de la côte (la Grande Rivière). Depuis cette date, plus de 80 kmq furent prospectés et environ 400 sites documentés