Statue onorarie tardoantiche nella regione del Ponto: due togati al Museo Archeologico di Kastamonu

Late antique honorary statues in the Pontus region: two togates at the Kastamonu Archaeological Museum · The Kastamonu Museum preserves two significative togate statues. Despite the difficulty of defining a linear model of stylistic evolution of the honorific sculpture of the period, both these sculptures may be dated to the late antique period according to the typical fashion of the toga and to their sty-listic features. The execution of the headless togate statue, displayed at the Samsun Museum in 1938, is of remarkable quality and can be dated between the end of the 4th century AD and the beginning of the subsequent one. Unfortunately, there is no information con-cerning the original find context, and only with great caution it is possible to hypothesize its provenance from the area of the ancient city of Amisos. The presence of the toga and the bundle of rolls suggests that it may be an honorific statue of a high-ranking officer of the imperial administration, perhaps a provincial governor, or even an honorific statue of the emperor himself. The absence of the por-trait head and the lack of defining attributes, of the original colours of the garments and above all of the dedicatory inscription, make it impossible to identify both the rank and the function of the subject portrayed. The other togate torso was found at Taşköprü, on the banks of the river Amnias, at some point before 1940. The nature of the execution of the sculpture and the use of limestone would seem to indicate that the statue was produced locally during the first half of the 5th century AD; it must have been one of the civic ornaments of Pompeiopolis, a city whose remarkable late antique period is now gradually coming to light, thanks to the recent excavation project. This paper constitutes a small but significant piece of research for a better understanding of the urban and social assets of some Pontic cities in the late antique period and it may also constitute a first step for an overall analysis of the late antique sculpture of the region. This research may clarify the issue related to the possible existence of local/regional production and, finally, show the cultural and com-mercial links of the Pontic cities with both Constantinople and the other Asia Minor centers so far known whose sculpture workshops were active between the 4th and 5th century AD.