Aphrodisias: a city of marble and sculptors

The explanations distinguish finds, interpretations and open questions. Sources appear at the end of the page.

What the source says

According to the UNESCO World Heritage Centre, the site lies in southwestern Turkey, in the upper valley of the Morsynus River, and consists of two components: the archaeological site of Aphrodisias and the marble quarries northeast of the city. "The temple of Aphrodite dates from the 3rd century BC and the city was built one century later"; elsewhere the page says that Aphrodisias was founded as a city-state in the early 2nd century BC. The wealth of Aphrodisias, according to the page, came from the marble quarries and the art produced by its sculptors. Source 1.

Under Roman rule

The page relates that because the city shared a close interest in the goddess Aphrodite with Sulla, Julius Caesar and the emperor Augustus, it obtained a privileged "tax-free" political status from the Roman senate. Many elaborately decorated structures were erected "during the period of Roman rule", all made from the local marble. The Sebasteion, an elaborate cult complex for the worship of Augustus and the Julio-Claudian emperors, is presented as a distinctive integration of Hellenistic, Roman and Aphrodisian artistic traditions. Source 1.

Sculptors and inscriptions

According to UNESCO, Aphrodisias has one of the very few known and systematically excavated sculpture workshops of the Roman Empire, which provides a fuller understanding of the production of marble sculpture than anywhere else in the Roman world. The city's sculptors were "major participants" in the Empire's art market between the 1st and 5th centuries AD, and in late antiquity (4th-6th centuries AD) they were in great demand for marble portrait busts. The page also mentions the site's 2,000 surviving inscriptions. These are UNESCO's assessments. Source 1.

Dating and periods

The temple of the 3rd century BC and the city-state of the early 2nd century BC fall within the Hellenistic period on this site (334-133 BCE); the structures erected "during the period of Roman rule" and the Sebasteion for Augustus and the Julio-Claudian emperors belong to the Roman period (133 BCE-330 CE). The article is therefore placed in both periods. The sculptors' activity between the 1st and 5th centuries AD and the demand for them in the 4th-6th centuries cross the site's boundary at 330 CE, and the conversion of the Temple of Aphrodite into a cathedral, "around AD 500", falls in the Byzantine period; the article is not placed in that period, because its question is how the city came into being. Source 1.

What the page does not say

The page gives the sculpture workshop no date of its own beyond calling it a workshop "of the Roman Empire", does not say which sculptures were made there, and does not date the theatre, the agora, the two bath complexes or the city walls. Nor does it say how the 2,000 inscriptions are distributed over time. The answer to how a city of sculptors comes about, local marble, local sculptors and privileges from Rome, is therefore UNESCO's summary, not a detailed demonstration. Source 1.

Scope of reading: the UNESCO World Heritage Centre page on Aphrodisias was read on 24 October 2026. The excavation publications, the sculpture catalogues and the editions of the inscriptions were not read.