Überlegungen zu Bildhauerwerkstätten im spätantiken Ephesos. Mit einem Beitrag »Zur Herkunft der Marmore der untersuchten Proben« von Walter Prochaska

The article is intended as a suggestion for discussing late antique portrait statues with greater caution and in a more differentiated way with regard to an absolute‑chronological dating, which is only based on a classification of the statues into typological‑stylistic groups.

A potential additional aid for classification and dating those statues is suggested: the searching for the provenance of the sculptures by examination of the stone material (marble) and the localization of the relevant quarries. Connected to this research is the question whether the sculptors made a determined selection of quarries for the use of the marble in their workshops. Marble analyses were used to provide insights into the regional origin of the production of portrait statues; thus, the identification of local workshops can be discussed. Based on the results of scientific isotope analyses of Ephesian late antique togati – LSA 1036 and LSA 1037 are made of medium‑grained Ephesian marble (extraction site Ephesus I) – a sculpture workshop in Ephesus can be assumed for those statues. The marble of a himation statue (LSA 708. 737), which has its statuary equivalent in Aphrodisias, derives from Aphrodisias, but whether this means that it can also be assigned to an Aphrodisiac workshop should be left open for discussion. The sculptures LSA 698 and LSA 707 with their fine‑grained marble analysed as that from Docimium (Roeder I) show a remarkably high quality.