Understanding Colossae through Material Culture

Abstract

The site of the settlement of Colossae had long been neglected. Its location was disputed, and even when the site was correctly identified it was seen as no more than a grassy mound that could offer little of interest. That misapprehension has been radically overturned by painstaking archaeological work and deeply reflective analysis of the surviving material culture of the site and beyond. Based on research that commenced in 1998, in this seminal volume Alan Cadwallader provides ‘as complete a coverage as possible of the material evidence of Colossae as can be recovered to date’ (p. 13). Cadwallader acknowledges that such evidence will grow in the coming years. However, given his unstinting labours over the last few decades, at the current time, this volume presents a comprehensive compendium and analysis of the available artefactual evidence pertaining to the material culture of Colossae. As such, this is a landmark work that makes the fruits of Cadwallader’s meticulous labour and scholarship readily available. The volume comprises a helpful introduction (pp. 19-42), followed by twelve main chapters, an Afterword, and a series of appendices and indices. The introduction provides readers with a number of fundamental orientations to the study of the ancient material world of Colossae, reflective of the ‘material turn’ in scholarship. Cadwallader outlines the beginnings of European interest in the sites of Asia Minor, and the scholarly journey that has led to seeking an understanding of both Colossae as well as the Pauline letters to the Colossians and to Philemon in light of the surviving material culture (pp. 35-36). The first chapter, ‘Colossae, a name in search of a city’ (pp. 43-69), tells the story of the elusive quest to identify the correct location of this ancient settlement. As is perhaps now better known, a fundamental confusion had been the identification of the nearby town of Honaz as being the site of ancient Colossae. Furthermore, in this chapter Cadwallader outlines how the material witnessed overturned the (still) often repeated view that Colossae was destroyed by an earthquake around 60 C.E. and subsequently left uninhabited (pp. 63-69). The second chapter, ‘Colossae, a city in search of a name’ (pp. 71-128), explores the orthographical variety in the spelling of the name Colossae and the impact of the re-naming of the settlement. As Cadwallader observes, ‘[t]his chapter explores these questions of the name(s) of Colossae and allows the material culture, from Colossae and elsewhere, to sketch a pathway through the complexity of three millennia towards a resolution. That resolution owes much to what appears to be the city’s own efforts (evident especially in its coins) in reshaping it identity by privileging (fictively) a Greek etymology for its name’ (p. 71). Understanding Colossae through Material Culture 1202115 EXT0010.1177/00145246231202115Book of the Month book-review2023