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The Indian “Lakshmi” Figurine from Pompeii as an Emblem of East-West Trade in the Roman Early Imperial Era
Weinstein, Laura Renee
Weinstein, Laura Renee
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Abstract
In 1938 Amedeo Maiuri, as Superintendent of Archaeology at Pompeii, made an unprecedented discovery that remains a unicum: a small ivory statuette of extraordinary craftsmanship, presumed to have been imported from India during the height of Roman and Indian trade in the first century AD. Scholars knew from the textual sources that trade had flourished for centuries between Rome and Arabia, India, and with India as a conduit, China. Roman objects excavated at Indian sites such as Arikamedu, Kolhapur, Pattanam, etc, highlighted that bustling commercial relationship. However, the droves of spices, cloth, wood and gems that the ancient writers and the Periplus Maris Erythraei reported as having been exported from India to Rome had long vanished or become impossible to provenance. Some luxurious ivory ornaments had been found, but none pinpointed Indian craftsmanship. Instead, Maiuri’s intricately carved 24-cm tall female figure, securely traceable to India prior to AD 79, is the best, if not only, ancient Indian object found on Roman soil, to date. In the 80 years since its discovery, research on this object has been sporadic. Many art historians still do not know of its existence. The Thesis attempts to reconstruct the path from creator to end user in a cosmopolitan world, imagining the 6000 km journey the statuette might have made from India to Pompeii, updating iconography and function debates, and putting the find spot debate to rest. Moreover, this paper highlights specific artifacts in the storerooms of the National Archaeological Museum of Naples as well as interesting footnotes in previously published papers that could benefit from fresh study. This paper attempts to rectify the misperception that lack of artifacts in the West signifies lack of activity, creating a fuller picture of this unusual object, a fascinating testament to the avid exchange among prosperous civilizations two thousand years ago.
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Master of Arts in Art History -- John Cabot University, Spring 2019.
Date
2019
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Keywords
Pompeii (Extinct city, Italy), Excavations (Archaeology)
Citation
Weinstein, Laura Renee. "The Indian “Lakshmi” Figurine from Pompeii as an Emblem of East-West Trade in the Roman Early Imperial Era". Master's Thesis, John Cabot University, Rome, Italy. 2019.