Four - Horizons

Summary

Chapter 4 surveys some of the many memory horizons available to the inhabitants of Roman Anatolia interested in the physical traces of the past. Rome loomed large throughout much of the region, but Anatolian interpreters of antiquities also tapped into historical traditions that did not recognize Rome as a center, including ones that modern scholars associate more readily with Mesopotamia, Iran, the Levant, and the Caucasus. This chapter shows how some traces of the past served to substantiate different, conflicting, and even contradictory historical narratives at local, regional, and transregional scales. The conclusions to this chapter summarize my opinions on archaeophilia as it is attested specifically in Roman Anatolia.