Ancient city culture was inescapable in the societies where it prevailed. It suffused life to encompass almost everyone. Even the dead.
The Alexander Sarcophagus in the Istanbul Archaeological Museum is one of the most famous works of art that has been handed down to us from the Hellenistic period. Anyone who has walked around and looked at this extraordinary survival from the ancient world, now encased in its own glass sarcophagus in the museum, will surely not have come away untouched by its perfection and the way it brings the marble to life – its ornate decoration showing both people and animals engulfed in battle, with winners and losers alike in survival mode amid carnage and suffering – while the narrative of the sarcophagus conveys life and death. Few, however, will think about the fact that such a masterpiece of Hellenistic art was produced within the framework of lavish urban cultures in the Mediterranean East, and only placed in what was the tomb of a Persian governor – a satrap – thereafter.
This debt goes far beyond the shape of the sarcophagus obviously mirroring the symbolic centre and object of pride of every Hellenistic city, by taking the form of a large temple, complete with pediment and cornices. It is more significant that such a product most likely would not have come into existence without the backdrop of a city culture. Cities allowed for the development of chains of production, for the concentration of skills, for education of sculptors, and for the passing on of knowledge, as well as the accumulation of produce, materials, and wealth.
War Classics – With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa