Contact

Roland R. R. Smith

(not currently teaching)

Lincoln Professor of Classical Archaeology, University of Oxford; Director, Aphrodisias Excavations

Research Interests

Art and visual cultures of the ancient Mediterranean world; historical interpretation of ancient representation and its relationship with social and political culture; archaeology of Greek cities of Eastern Roman Empire.

Current Activities

As director of New York University’s Excavations at Aphrodisias (since 1991), engaged in the study and publication of marble finds from the site: www.arch.ox.ac.uk/research/research_projects/aphrodisias. Recently completed a collaborative publication of the portrait statuary, which studies the character and use of honorific statues in an ancient city. Nearing completion of a monographic study of the reliefs from the Julio-Claudian Sebasteion, for which received a British Academy/ Philip Leverhulme Senior Research Fellowship in 2007-8). Most recently, with historian Bryan Ward-Perkins, has been awarded an Art and Humanities Research Council grant for a new project titled ‘The Last Statues of Antiquity’ (for three years, starting in 2009) to investigate the distinctive character of statue use in late antiquity, from AD 284 to 650: www.ocla.ox.ac.uk/statues.

Books

Smith, Roland R. R. and C. Ratté, eds. Aphrodisias Papers 4: New Research on the City and its Monuments (Journal of Roman Archaeology, Supplementary Series No. 70). Portsmouth, R. I.: Journal of Roman Archaeology, 2008.

Smith, Roland R. R. and Julia Lenaghan.Roman Portrait Statuary from Aphrodisias. Istanbul: Yap? Kredi, 2008.

Roman Portraits from Aphrodisias. Mainz am Rhein: Philipp Von Zabern, 2006.

Smith, Roland R. R. and Ahmet Ertu-.Sculptured for Eternity: Treasures of Greek, Roman and Byzantine Art in the Istanbul Archaeological Museum. Istanbul : Ertug & Kocabiyik, 2001.

Smith, Roland R. R. and C. Roueché, eds. Aphrodisias Papers 3.Ann Arbor, Mich., Journal of Roman Archaeology, 1996.

Aphrodisias 1: The Monument of C. Julius Zoilos. Mainz am Rhein: Philipp Von Zabern, 1993.

Smith, Roland R. R., Kenan Erim and Charlotte Roueché, eds.Aphrodisias Papers 1.Ann Arbor, Mich.: Department of Classical Studies, 1991.

Hellenistic Sculpture. London: Thames and Hudson, 1991.

Hellenistic Royal Portraits.New York: Oxford University Press, 1988.