In his new book, Markus Wolf offers the results of his detailed study of the agora of the Greek city of Solunt in Sicily. The complex consisting of a large two storey winged stoa as well as of other buildings, among which a bouleuterion, is investigated on the base of a new architectural survey of all the preserved architectural elements and new proposals for their reconstruction. A comprehensive comparative section deals with the agora of Solunt and its buildings within the wider picture of the architecture of public squares in Southern Italy and Sicily. Furthermore, comparisons are established with the Greek motherland and Asia Minor in order to obtain a comprehensive picture and a new perspective on the public architecture of the Hellenistic period.
The starting point of this new study by Markus Wolf is the agora of Solunt in Sicily, which has been investigated through an architecturalsurvey of the whole site and of all its preserved architectural components in order to offer new reconstruction proposals of the buildings. So the agora located on an elongated terrace on the slope of the hill was framed by a two storey U shaped winged stoa which was used for a variety of both administrative and sacral purposes. A roofed public cistern was annexed to the north and further up on the slope on the terrace of the theatre there was the “Odeon”, a bouleuterion, and an open air sacred enclosure, the so called rectangular building. The treatment of the slopes and the organization of the different levels for various purposes can be considered the most peculiar characteristic of the agora of Solunt. The reorganization of the public city center took place around the middle of the 2nd century BC. Following the 1997 publication of the theatre of Solunt by Armin Wiegand which appeared in the 12th volume of the Sonderschriften, the discussion of the other buildings completes our knowledge of the appearance of the public space of the city.
A comprehensive comparative section presents a discussion of this agora and its buildings within the wider picture of the architecture of stoas and bouleuteria as well as of public spaces in southern Italy and Sicily. While the research of the German Archaeological Institute in Magna Graecia had mainly been concentrated on the archaic and classical period, now for the first time the research in this region focuses on the public architecture of the late Hellenistic age. The framing of the agora with public buildings and more specifically with stoas is attested in the most ancient, archaic example of Megara Hyblaea and is then subsequently established in all the Hellenistic agorai, as it is evident in the Sicilian examples of Halaesa, Iaitas, Segesta, Morgantina and Kamarina, where the stoas, as it is the case in Solunt, define and regularly circumscribe the borders of the square.
Furthermore, the work makes a comparison with similar complexes in the Greek motherland as well in Asia Minor, in order to obtain a comprehensive picture and a new perspective on the public architecture of the Hellenistic age. Moving from the analysis of the monuments, this study offers an important base for further investigations on the Hellenistic era also from the point of view of other disciplines, such as classical archaeology or ancient history.
„[G]razie alla ricchezza della documentazione collezionata e alla notevole quantità di dati spesso inediti messi a disposizione della comunità scientifica, il libro di Markus Wolf consentirà un notevole passo in avanti nello studio dell’architettura della Sicilia nord-occidentale in età ellenistica.“
Von: Riccardo Olivito
In: Bonner Jahrbuch Bd. 214 (2014), S. 334-336.
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„Alle zukünftigen Forschungen zu westgriechischen Agorai (werden) auf diese sorgfältige und detaillierte Dokumentatiion und Rekontruktion der Angora von Solunt zurückgreifen (...), die mit der Einordnung der Angora in den Kontext griechischer und kleinasiatischer öffentlicher Platzanlagen weit über eine einfache Sacherschließung hinausgeht. Dank dieser soliden Vorlage können in Zukunft weitergehende, übergreifende Fragestellungen z.B. aus den Bereichen der Architektur- und Raumsoziologie zu westgriechischen Agorai in Angriff genomen werden.“
Von Barbara Sielhorst
In: Göttinger Forum für Altertumswissenschaft 17 (2014) 1185-1189,
http://gfa.gbv.de/dr,gfa,017,2014,r,23.pdf.
Dr.-Ing. habil. Markus Wolf was born in 1965 and studied architecture and building history at the Technical University of Munich and preservation of ancient monuments at the University of Bamberg. As assistant in the department of building history at the BTU Cottbus he completed his dissertation on the houses of Solunt, with which he obtained his doctorate in 2000. Subsequently, he carried out research projects at the German Archaeological Institute of Rome on the temple buildings of Pompeii (habilitation 2005), the agora of Solunt and the Hellenistic sanctuaries in Sicily. He is currently carrying out research on the Hellenistic altars and sanctuaries in Campania. His main research interest is the Hellenistic architecture in southern Italy.
Seit 1973 erscheinen in der renommierten Reihe „Sonderschriften des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts Rom“ Monographien zu bedeutenden Forschungen in Italien und Nordafrika. In Vorbereitung sind Studien zu herausragenden Bauten der griechisch-römischen Antike wie dem Poseidontempel in Paestum, den Befestigungen des antiken Syrakus oder dem Kolosseum in Rom.
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