Maura K. Heyn

Dr. Heyn’s research focuses on funerary sculpture in the Roman empire, particularly the sculpture from the Syrian city of Palmyra. She is interested in issues of social identity, cultural change, ancient clothing and dress, and the archaeology of the body. Her current book project, Provincial Life, Roman Death: The Funerary Portraiture of Palmyra, analyzes the multifaceted ways in which funerary sculpture mediated social relations in the aftermath of Roman conquest. Other research interests include the mural decoration of the Temple of Bel in Dura-Europos, and the significance of hand gestures in Roman funerary portraiture.

There are 7 included publications by Maura K. Heyn :

TitleDateViewsBrief Description
Gesture and Identity in the Funerary Art of Palmyra 2010 3265 The funerary art from Palmyra, a city in the eastern Roman empire, offers us a glimpse into the creation of social identity in the aftermath of Roman conquest. The Palmyrene portraits are modeled on the Roman funerary relief but with interesting loca...
Gesture at Dura-Europos; A New Interpretation of the So-called 'scène énigmatique' 2016 945 An enigmatic mythological scene is painted on the east wall of the pronaos of the temple of Bel in Dura-Europos.1 The mural is not well known, and Mikhaïl Rostovtzeff suggested in 1938 that its interpretation was impossible, since it represented a si...
The Harvard Semitic Museum Palmyrene Collection 2018 428 Three Palmyrene funerary busts are part of the collections of the Harvard Semitic Museum. This article discusses the epitaphs, the portraits, and their stylistic features, summarizes the funerary busts’ documented history of possession, and offers a ...
Male Dress Habits in Roman Period Palmyra 2019 1716 Palmyra, ancient Tadmor, was in the first three centuries CE a flourishing trade node in theRoman Empire. Situated as the last stop on the Silk Road, camel caravans were reloaded ontodonkey caravans, and then went on to the areas west of Palmyra. Alt...
Monumental Development in Glanum: Evidence for the Early Impact of Rome in Gallia Narbonensis 2006 1488 This article challenges the prevailing opinion that the inhabitants of Gallia Transalpina were largely unaffected by Roman hegemony in the late second and early first centuries . The monumental development of the site of Glanum in the late second cen...
Status and Stasis: Looking at Women in the Palmyrene Tomb 2016 2079 The abundance of female funerary portraits from Palmyra makes them a tempting source for assessing the roles of women in ancient Palmyrene society. These bust-length portraits created in the first several centuries CE provide a wealth of detail on dr...
The Terentius Frieze in Context 2011 2682 As the sun set on James Henry Breasted’s single day of field work at Dura-Europos in 1920 he and his team stood in front of the north wall of the pronaos of the Temple of the Palmyrene Gods, Although paintings covered the entire extant wall, they had...