Research Interests:
Art and visual cultures of the ancient Mediterranean world; historical interpretation of ancient representation and its relationship with social and political culture; archaeology of Greek cities of Eastern Roman Empire.
Current Activities:
As director of New York University’s Excavations at Aphrodisias (since 1991), engaged in the study and publication of marble finds from the site: www.arch.ox.ac.uk/research/research_projects/aphrodisias. Recently completed a collaborative publication of the portrait statuary, which studies the character and use of honorific statues in an ancient city. Nearing completion of a monographic study of the reliefs from the Julio-Claudian Sebasteion, for which received a British Academy/ Philip Leverhulme Senior Research Fellowship in 2007-8). Most recently, with historian Bryan Ward-Perkins, has been awarded an Art and Humanities Research Council grant for a new project titled ‘The Last Statues of Antiquity’ (for three years, starting in 2009) to investigate the distinctive character of statue use in late antiquity, from AD 284 to 650: www.ocla.ox.ac.uk/statues.
Books:
Smith, Roland R. R. and C. Ratté, eds. Aphrodisias Papers
4: New Research on the City and its Monuments (Journal of Roman Archaeology,
Supplementary Series No. 70). Portsmouth,
R. I.: Journal of Roman Archaeology, 2008.
Smith, Roland R. R. and Julia Lenaghan.Roman Portrait Statuary from
Aphrodisias. Istanbul: Yap? Kredi, 2008.
Roman Portraits from Aphrodisias. Mainz am Rhein: Philipp Von Zabern, 2006.
Smith, Roland R. R. and Ahmet Ertu-.Sculptured for Eternity: Treasures
of Greek, Roman and Byzantine Art in the Istanbul Archaeological Museum. Istanbul : Ertug & Kocabiyik, 2001.
Smith, Roland R. R. and C. Roueché, eds. Aphrodisias
Papers 3.Ann Arbor, Mich., Journal of Roman Archaeology, 1996.
Aphrodisias 1: The Monument of C. Julius Zoilos. Mainz am Rhein: Philipp Von Zabern, 1993.
Smith, Roland R. R., Kenan Erim and Charlotte Roueché,
eds.Aphrodisias Papers 1.Ann
Arbor, Mich.: Department of Classical Studies, 1991.
Hellenistic Sculpture.
London: Thames and Hudson, 1991.
Hellenistic Royal Portraits.New York: Oxford
University Press, 1988.