Publisher's Synopsis
This volume offers a fresh and nuanced analysis of Palmyrene funerary reliefs and their production in order to shed light not just on the people they depicted, but on the individuals responsible for their creation. Across a range of different case studies, the author explores the making of single portraits from the local limestone, examining how Palmyrene carvers worked, the techniques they used, the tools they employed, the ways in which style and technique changed over time, and the mode of production that was in place. In doing so, the volume offers not just a detailed study of limestone carving and the techniques that underpinned Palmyra's famous portraits, but also offers a significant contribution to wider research on funerary portraiture of the city and in Roman Syria.
