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The Ajanta Caves (Ajiṇṭhā leni; Marathi: अजिंठा लेणी) in Aurangabad district of Maharashtra, India are about 30 rock-cut Buddhist cave monuments which date from the 2nd century BCE to about 480 or 650 CE. The caves include paintings and sculptures described by the government Archaeological Survey of India as "the finest surviving examples of Indian art, particularly painting", which are masterpieces of Buddhist religious art, with figures of the Buddha and depictions of the Jataka tales. The caves were built in two phases starting around the 2nd century BCE, with the second group of caves built around 400–650 CE according to older accounts, or all in a brief period of 460 to 480 according to the recent proposals of Walter M. Spink. The site is a protected monument in the care of the Archaeological Survey of India, and since 1983, the Ajanta Caves have been a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The caves are located in the Indian state of Maharashtra, near Jalgaon and just outside the village of Ajinṭhā 20°31′56″N 75°44′44″E), about 59 kilometres from Jalgaon railway station on the Delhi – Mumbai line and Howrah-Nagpur-Mumbai line of the Central Railway zone, and 104 kilometres from the city of Aurangabad. They are 100 kilometres from the Ellora Caves, which contain Hindu and Jain temples as well as Buddhist caves, the last dating from a period similar to Ajanta. The Ajanta caves are cut into the side of a cliff that is on the south side of a U-shaped gorge on the small river Waghur, and although they are now along and above a modern pathway running across the cliff they were originally reached by individual stairs or ladders from the side of the river 35 to 110 feet below.
The area was previously heavily forested, and after the site ceased to be used the caves were covered by jungle until accidentally rediscovered in 1819 by a British officer on a hunting party. They are Buddhist monastic buildings, apparently representing a number of distinct "monasteries" or colleges. The caves are numbered 1 to 28 according to their place along the path, beginning at the entrance. Several are unfinished and some barely begun and others are small shrines, included in the traditional numbering as e.g. "9A"; "Cave 15A" was still hidden under rubble when the numbering was done. Further round the gorge are a number of waterfalls, which when the river is high are audible from outside the caves.
The caves form the largest corpus of early Indian wall-painting; other survivals from the area of modern India are very few, though they are related to 5th-century paintings at Sigiriya in Sri Lanka. The elaborate architectural carving in many caves is also very rare, and the style of the many figure sculptures is highly local, found only at a few nearby contemporary sites, although the Ajanta tradition can be related to the later Hindu Ellora Caves and other sites.
HISTORY
Like the other ancient Buddhist monasteries, Ajanta had a large emphasis on teaching, and was divided into several different caves for living, education and worship, under a central direction. Monks were probably assigned to specific caves for living. The layout reflects this organizational structure, with most of the caves only connected through the exterior. The 7th-century travelling Chinese scholar Xuanzang informs us that Dignaga, a celebrated Buddhist philosopher and controversialist, author of well-known books on logic, lived at Ajanta in the 5th century. In its prime the settlement would have accommodated several hundred teachers and pupils. Many monks who had finished their first training may have returned to Ajanta during the monsoon season from an itinerant lifestyle.
The caves are generally agreed to have been made in two distinct periods, separated by several centuries.
CAVES OF THE FIRST (SATAVAHANA) PERIOD
The earliest group of caves consists of caves 9, 10, 12, 13 and 15A. According to Walter Spink, they were made during the period 100 BCE to 100 CE, probably under the patronage of the Satavahana dynasty (230 BCE – c. 220 CE) who ruled the region. Other datings prefer the period 300 BCE to 100 BCE, though the grouping of the earlier caves is generally agreed. More early caves may have vanished through later excavations. Of these, caves 9 and 10 are stupa halls of chaitya-griha form, and caves 12, 13, and 15A are vihāras (see the architecture section below for descriptions of these types). The first phase is still often called the Hinayāna phase, as it originated when, using traditional terminology, the Hinayāna or Lesser Vehicle tradition of Buddhism was dominant, when the Buddha was revered symbolically. However the use of the term Hinayana for this period of Buddhism is now deprecated by historians; equally the caves of the second period are now mostly dated too early to be properly called Mahayana, and do not yet show the full expanded cast of supernatural beings characteristic of that phase of Buddhist art. The first Satavahana period caves lacked figurative sculpture, emphasizing the stupa instead, and in the caves of the second period the overwhelming majority of images represent the Buddha alone, or narrative scenes of his lives.
Spink believes that some time after the Satavahana period caves were made the site was abandoned for a considerable period until the mid-5th century, probably because the region had turned mainly Hindu
CAVES OF THE LATER OR VAKATAKA PERIOD
The second phase began in the 5th century. For a long time it was thought that the later caves were made over a long period from the 4th to the 7th centuries CE, but in recent decades a series of studies by the leading expert on the caves, Walter M. Spink, have argued that most of the work took place over the very brief period from 460 to 480 CE, during the reign of Emperor Harishena of the Vakataka dynasty. This view has been criticized by some scholars, but is now broadly accepted by most authors of general books on Indian art, for example Huntington and Harle.
The second phase is still often called the Mahāyāna or Greater Vehicle phase, but scholars now tend to avoid this nomenclature because of the problems that have surfaced regarding our understanding of Mahāyāna.
Some 20 cave temples were simultaneously created, for the most part viharas with a sanctuary at the back. The most elaborate caves were produced in this period, which included some "modernization" of earlier caves. Spink claims that it is possible to establish dating for this period with a very high level of precision; a fuller account of his chronology is given below. Although debate continues, Spink's ideas are increasingly widely accepted, at least in their broad conclusions. The Archaeological Survey of India website still presents the traditional dating: "The second phase of paintings started around 5th – 6th centuries A.D. and continued for the next two centuries". Caves of the second period are 1–8, 11, 14–29, some possibly extensions of earlier caves. Caves 19, 26, and 29 are chaitya-grihas, the rest viharas.
According to Spink, the Ajanta Caves appear to have been abandoned by wealthy patrons shortly after the fall of Harishena, in about 480 CE. They were then gradually abandoned and forgotten. During the intervening centuries, the jungle grew back and the caves were hidden, unvisited and undisturbed, although the local population were aware of at least some of them.
REDISCOVERY
On 28 April 1819, a British officer for the Madras Presidency, John Smith, of the 28th Cavalry, while hunting tiger, accidentally discovered the entrance to Cave No. 10 deep within the tangled undergrowth. There were local people already using the caves for prayers with a small fire, when he arrived. Exploring that first cave, long since a home to nothing more than birds and bats and a lair for other larger animals, Captain Smith vandalized the wall by scratching his name and the date, April 1819. Since he stood on a five-foot high pile of rubble collected over the years, the inscription is well above the eye-level gaze of an adult today. A paper on the caves by William Erskine was read to the Bombay Literary Society in 1822. Within a few decades, the caves became famous for their exotic setting, impressive architecture, and above all their exceptional, all but unique paintings. A number of large projects to copy the paintings were made in the century after rediscovery, covered below. In 1848 the Royal Asiatic Society established the "Bombay Cave Temple Commission" to clear, tidy and record the most important rock-cut sites in the Bombay Presidency, with John Wilson, as president. In 1861 this became the nucleus of the new Archaeological Survey of India. Until the Nizam of Hyderabad built the modern path between the caves, among other efforts to make the site easy to visit, a trip to Ajanta was a considerable adventure, and contemporary accounts dwell with relish on the dangers from falls off narrow ledges, animals and the Bhil people, who were armed with bows and arrows and had a fearsome reputation.
Today, fairly easily combined with Ellora in a single trip, the caves are the most popular tourist destination in Mahrashtra, and are often crowded at holiday times, increasing the threat to the caves, especially the paintings. In 2012, the Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation announced plans to add to the ASI visitor centre at the entrance complete replicas of caves 1, 2, 16 & 17 to reduce crowding in the originals, and enable visitors to receive a better visual idea of the paintings, which are dimly-lit and hard to read in the caves. Figures for the year to March 2010 showed a total of 390,000 visitors to the site, divided into 362,000 domestic and 27,000 foreign. The trends over the previous few years show a considerable growth in domestic visitors, but a decline in foreign ones; the year to 2010 was the first in which foreign visitors to Ellora exceeded those to Ajanta.
PAINTINGS
Mural paintings survive from both the earlier and later groups of caves. Several fragments of murals preserved from the earlier caves (Caves 9 and 11) are effectively unique survivals of court-led painting in India from this period, and "show that by Sātavāhana times, if not earlier, the Indian painter had mastered an easy and fluent naturalistic style, dealing with large groups of people in a manner comparable to the reliefs of the Sāñcī toraņa crossbars".
Four of the later caves have large and relatively well-preserved mural paintings which "have come to represent Indian mural painting to the non-specialist", and fall into two stylistic groups, with the most famous in Caves 16 and 17, and apparently later paintings in Caves 1 and 2. The latter group were thought to be a century or more later than the others, but the revised chronology proposed by Spink would place them much closer to the earlier group, perhaps contemporary with it in a more progressive style, or one reflecting a team from a different region. The paintings are in "dry fresco", painted on top of a dry plaster surface rather than into wet plaster.
All the paintings appear to be the work of painters at least as used to decorating palaces as temples, and show a familiarity with and interest in details of the life of a wealthy court. We know from literary sources that painting was widely practised and appreciated in the courts of the Gupta period. Unlike much Indian painting, compositions are not laid out in horizontal compartments like a frieze, but show large scenes spreading in all directions from a single figure or group at the centre. The ceilings are also painted with sophisticated and elaborate decorative motifs, many derived from sculpture. The paintings in cave 1, which according to Spink was commissioned by Harisena himself, concentrate on those Jataka tales which show previous lives of the Buddha as a king, rather than as an animal or human commoner, and so show settings from contemporary palace life.
In general the later caves seem to have been painted on finished areas as excavating work continued elsewhere in the cave, as shown in caves 2 and 16 in particular. According to Spink's account of the chronology of the caves, the abandonment of work in 478 after a brief busy period accounts for the absence of painting in caves such as 4 and 17, the later being plastered in preparation for paintings that were never done.
COPIES
The paintings have deteriorated significantly since they were rediscovered, and a number of 19th-century copies and drawings are important for a complete understanding of the works. However, the earliest projects to copy the paintings were plagued by bad fortune. In 1846, Major Robert Gill, an Army officer from Madras presidency and a painter, was appointed by the Royal Asiatic Society to replicate the frescoes on the cave walls to exhibit these paintings in England. Gill worked on his painting at the site from 1844 to 1863 (though he continued to be based there until his death in 1875, writing books and photographing) and made 27 copies of large sections of murals, but all but four were destroyed in a fire at the Crystal Palace in London in 1866, where they were on display.
Another attempt was made in 1872 when the Bombay Presidency commissioned John Griffiths, then principal of the Bombay School of Art, to work with his students to make new copies, again for shipping to England. They worked on this for thirteen years and some 300 canvases were produced, many of which were displayed at the Imperial Institute on Exhibition Road in London, one of the forerunners of the Victoria and Albert Museum. But in 1885 another fire destroyed over a hundred paintings that were in storage. The V&A still has 166 paintings surviving from both sets, though none have been on permanent display since 1955. The largest are some 3 × 6 metres. A conservation project was undertaken on about half of them in 2006, also involving the University of Northumbria. Griffith and his students had unfortunately painted many of the paintings with "cheap varnish" in order to make them easier to see, which has added to the deterioration of the originals, as has, according to Spink and others, recent cleaning by the ASI.
A further set of copies were made between 1909 and 1911 by Christiana Herringham (Lady Herringham) and a group of students from the Calcutta School of Art that included the future Indian Modernist painter Nandalal Bose. The copies were published in full colour as the first publication of London's fledgling India Society. More than the earlier copies, these aimed to fill in holes and damage to recreate the original condition rather than record the state of the paintings as she was seeing them. According to one writer, unlike the paintings created by her predecessors Griffiths and Gill, whose copies were influenced by British Victorian styles of painting, those of the Herringham expedition preferred an 'Indian Renascence' aesthetic of the type pioneered by Abanindranath Tagore.
Early photographic surveys were made by Robert Gill, who learnt to use a camera from about 1856, and whose photos, including some using stereoscopy, were used in books by him and Fergusson (many are available online from the British Library), then Victor Goloubew in 1911 and E.L. Vassey, who took the photos in the four volume study of the caves by Ghulam Yazdani (published 1930–1955).
ARCHITECTURE
The monasteries mostly consist of vihara halls for prayer and living, which are typically rectangular with small square dormitory cells cut into the walls, and by the second period a shrine or sanctuary at the rear centred on a large statue of the Buddha, also carved from the living rock. This change reflects the movement from Hinayana to Mahāyāna Buddhism. The other type of main hall is the narrower and higher chaitya hall with a stupa as the focus at the far end, and a narrow aisle around the walls, behind a range of pillars placed close together. Other plainer rooms were for sleeping and other activities. Some of the caves have elaborate carved entrances, some with large windows over the door to admit light. There is often a colonnaded porch or verandah, with another space inside the doors running the width of the cave.
The central square space of the interior of the viharas is defined by square columns forming a more or less square open area. Outside this are long rectangular aisles on each side, forming a kind of cloister. Along the side and rear walls are a number of small cells entered by a narrow doorway; these are roughly square, and have small niches on their back walls. Originally they had wooden doors. The centre of the rear wall has a larger shrine-room behind, containing a large Buddha statue. The viharas of the earlier period are much simpler, and lack shrines. Spink in fact places the change to a design with a shrine to the middle of the second period, with many caves being adapted to add a shrine in mid-excavation, or after the original phase.
The plan of Cave 1 shows one of the largest viharas, but is fairly typical of the later group. Many others, such as Cave 16, lack the vestibule to the shrine, which leads straight off the main hall. Cave 6 is two viharas, one above the other, connected by internal stairs, with sanctuaries on both levels.
The four completed chaitya halls are caves 9 and 10 from the early period, and caves 19 and 26 from the later period of construction. All follow the typical form found elsewhere, with high ceilings and a central "nave" leading to the stupa, which is near the back, but allows walking behind it, as walking around stupas was (and remains) a common element of Buddhist worship (pradakshina). The later two have high ribbed roofs, which reflect timber forms, and the earlier two are thought to have used actual timber ribs, which have now perished. The two later halls have a rather unusual arrangement (also found in Cave 10 at Ellora) where the stupa is fronted by a large relief sculpture of the Buddha, standing in Cave 19 and seated in Cave 26. Cave 29 is a late and very incomplete chaitya hall.
The form of columns in the work of the first period is very plain and un-embellished, with both chaitya halls using simple octagonal columns, which were painted with figures. In the second period columns were far more varied and inventive, often changing profile over their height, and with elaborate carved capitals, often spreading wide. Many columns are carved over all their surface, some fluted and others carved with decoration all over, as in cave 1.
The flood basalt rock of the cliff, part of the Deccan Traps formed by successive volcanic eruptions at the end of the Cretaceous, is layered horizontally, and somewhat variable in quality, so the excavators had to amend their plans in places, and in places there have been collapses in the intervening centuries, as with the lost portico to cave 1. Excavation began by cutting a narrow tunnel at roof level, which was expanded downwards and outwards; the half-built vihara cave 24 shows the method. Spink believes that for the first caves of the second period the excavators had to relearn skills and techniques that had been lost in the centuries since the first period, which were then transmitted to be used at later rock-cut sites in the region, such as Ellora, and the Elephanta, Bagh, Badami and Aurangabad Caves.
The caves from the first period seem to have been paid for by a number of different patrons, with several inscriptions recording the donation of particular portions of a single cave, but according to Spink the later caves were each commissioned as a complete unit by a single patron from the local rulers or their court elites. After the death of Harisena smaller donors got their chance to add small "shrinelets" between the caves or add statues to existing caves, and some two hundred of these "intrusive" additions were made in sculpture, with a further number of intrusive paintings, up to three hundred in cave 10 alone.
A grand gateway to the site, at the apex of the gorge's horsehoe between caves 15 and 16, was approached from the river, and is decorated with elephants on either side and a nāga, or protective snake deity.
ICONOGRAPHY OF THE CAVES
In the pre-Christian era, the Buddha was represented symbolically, in the form of the stupa. Thus, halls were made with stupas to venerate the Buddha. In later periods the images of the Buddha started to be made in coins, relic caskets, relief or loose sculptural forms, etc. However, it took a while for the human representation of the Buddha to appear in Buddhist art. One of the earliest evidences of the Buddha's human representations are found at Buddhist archaeological sites, such as Goli, Nagarjunakonda, and Amaravati. The monasteries of those sites were built in less durable media, such as wood, brick, and stone. As far as the genre of rock-cut architecture is concerned it took many centuries for the Buddha image to be depicted. Nobody knows for sure at which rock-cut cave site the first image of the Buddha was depicted. Current research indicates that Buddha images in a portable form, made of wood or stone, were introduced, for the first time, at Kanheri, to be followed soon at Ajanta Cave 8 (Dhavalikar, Jadhav, Spink, Singh). While the Kanheri example dates to 4th or 5th century CE, the Ajanta example has been dated to c. 462–478 CE (Spink). None of the rock-cut monasteries prior to these dates, and other than these examples, show any Buddha image although hundreds of rock-cut caves were made throughout India during the first few centuries CE. And, in those caves, it is the stupa that is the object of veneration, not the image. Images of the Buddha are not found in Buddhist sailagrhas (rock-cut complexes) until the times of the Kanheri (4th–5th century CE) and Ajanta examples (c. 462–478 CE).
The caves of the second period, now all dated to the 5th century, were typically described as "Mahayana", but do not show the features associated with later Mahayana Buddhism. Although the beginnings of Mahāyāna teachings go back to the 1st century there is little art and archaeological evidence to suggest that it became a mainstream cult for several centuries. In Mahayana it is not Gautama Buddha but the Bodhisattva who is important, including "deity" Bodhisattva like Manjushri and Tara, as well as aspects of the Buddha such as Aksobhya, and Amitabha. Except for a few Bodhisattva, these are not depicted at Ajanta, where the Buddha remains the dominant figure. Even the Bodhisattva images of Ajanta are never central objects of worship, but are always shown as attendants of the Buddha in the shrine. If a Bodhisattva is shown in isolation, as in the Astabhaya scenes, these were done in the very last years of activities at Ajanta, and are mostly 'intrusive' in nature, meaning that they were not planned by the original patrons, and were added by new donors after the original patrons had suddenly abandoned the region in the wake of Emperor Harisena's death.
The contrast between iconic and aniconic representations, that is, the stupa on one hand and the image of the Buddha on the other, is now being seen as a construct of the modern scholar rather than a reality of the past. The second phase of Ajanta shows that the stupa and image coincided together. If the entire corpus of the art of Ajanta including sculpture, iconography, architecture, epigraphy, and painting are analysed afresh it will become clear that there was no duality between the symbolic and human forms of the Buddha, as far as the 5th-century phase of Ajanta is concerned. That is why most current scholars tend to avoid the terms 'Hinayana' and 'Mahayana' in the context of Ajanta. They now prefer to call the second phase by the ruling dynasty, as the Vākāţaka phase.
CAVES
CAVE 1
Cave 1 was built on the eastern end of the horse-shoe shaped scarp, and is now the first cave the visitor encounters. This would when first made have been a less prominent position, right at the end of the row. According to Spink, it is one of the latest caves to have been excavated, when the best sites had been taken, and was never fully inaugurated for worship by the dedication of the Buddha image in the central shrine. This is shown by the absence of sooty deposits from butter lamps on the base of the shrine image, and the lack of damage to the paintings that would have been happened if the garland-hooks around the shrine had been in use for any period of time. Although there is no epigraphic evidence, Spink believes that the Vākāţaka Emperor Harishena was the benefactor of the work, and this is reflected in the emphasis on imagery of royalty in the cave, with those Jakata tales being selected that tell of those previous lives of the Buddha in which he was royal.
The cliff has a more steep slope here than at other caves, so to achieve a tall grand facade it was necessary to cut far back into the slope, giving a large courtyard in front of the facade. There was originally a columned portico in front of the present facade, which can be seen "half-intact in the 1880s" in pictures of the site, but this fell down completely and the remains, despite containing fine carving, were carelessly thrown down the slope into the river, from where they have been lost, presumably carried away in monsoon torrents.
This cave has one of the most elaborate carved façades, with relief sculptures on entablature and ridges, and most surfaces embellished with decorative carving. There are scenes carved from the life of the Buddha as well as a number of decorative motifs. A two pillared portico, visible in the 19th-century photographs, has since perished. The cave has a front-court with cells fronted by pillared vestibules on either side. These have a high plinth level. The cave has a porch with simple cells on both ends. The absence of pillared vestibules on the ends suggest that the porch was not excavated in the latest phase of Ajanta when pillared vestibules had become a necessity and norm. Most areas of the porch were once covered with murals, of which many fragments remain, especially on the ceiling. There are three doorways: a central doorway and two side doorways. Two square windows were carved between the doorways to brighten the interiors.
Each wall of the hall inside is nearly 12 m long and 6.1 m high. Twelve pillars make a square colonnade inside supporting the ceiling, and creating spacious aisles along the walls. There is a shrine carved on the rear wall to house an impressive seated image of the Buddha, his hands being in the dharmachakrapravartana mudra. There are four cells on each of the left, rear, and the right walls, though due to rock fault there are none at the ends of the rear aisle. The walls are covered with paintings in a fair state of preservation, though the full scheme was never completed. The scenes depicted are mostly didactic, devotional, and ornamental, with scenes from the Jataka stories of the Buddha's former existences as a bodhisattva), the life of the Gautama Buddha, and those of his veneration. The two most famous individual painted images at Ajanta are the two over-life size figures of the protective bodhisattvas Padmapani and Vajrapani on either side of the entrance to the Buddha shrine on the wall of the rear aisle (see illustrations above). According to Spink, the original dating of the paintings to about 625 arose largely or entirely because James Fegusson, a 19th-century architectural historian, had decided that a scene showing an ambassador being received, with figures in Persian dress, represented a recorded embassy to Persia (from a Hindu monarch at that) around that date.
CAVE 2
Cave 2, adjacent to Cave 1, is known for the paintings that have been preserved on its walls, ceilings, and pillars. It looks similar to Cave 1 and is in a better state of preservation.
Cave 2 has a porch quite different from Cave one. Even the façade carvings seem to be different. The cave is supported by robust pillars, ornamented with designs. The front porch consists of cells supported by pillared vestibules on both ends. The cells on the previously "wasted areas" were needed to meet the greater housing requirements in later years. Porch-end cells became a trend in all later Vakataka excavations. The simple single cells on porch-ends were converted into CPVs or were planned to provide more room, symmetry, and beauty.
The paintings on the ceilings and walls of this porch have been widely published. They depict the Jataka tales that are stories of the Buddha's life in former existences as Bodhisattva. Just as the stories illustrated in cave 1 emphasize kingship, those in cave 2 show many "noble and powerful" women in prominent roles, leading to suggestions that the patron was an unknown woman. The porch's rear wall has a doorway in the center, which allows entrance to the hall. On either side of the door is a square-shaped window to brighten the interior.
The hall has four colonnades which are supporting the ceiling and surrounding a square in the center of the hall. Each arm or colonnade of the square is parallel to the respective walls of the hall, making an aisle in between. The colonnades have rock-beams above and below them. The capitals are carved and painted with various decorative themes that include ornamental, human, animal, vegetative, and semi-divine forms.
Paintings appear on almost every surface of the cave except for the floor. At various places the art work has become eroded due to decay and human interference. Therefore, many areas of the painted walls, ceilings, and pillars are fragmentary. The painted narratives of the Jataka tales are depicted only on the walls, which demanded the special attention of the devotee. They are didactic in nature, meant to inform the community about the Buddha's teachings and life through successive rebirths. Their placement on the walls required the devotee to walk through the aisles and 'read' the narratives depicted in various episodes. The narrative episodes are depicted one after another although not in a linear order. Their identification has been a core area of research since the site's rediscovery in 1819. Dieter Schlingloff's identifications have updated our knowledge on the subject.
CAVE 4
The Archeological Survey of India board outside the caves gives the following detail about cave 4: "This is the largest monastery planned on a grandiose scale but was never finished. An inscription on the pedestal of the buddha's image mentions that it was a gift from a person named Mathura and paleographically belongs to 6th century A.D. It consists of a verandah, a hypostylar hall, sanctum with an antechamber and a series of unfinished cells. The rear wall of the verandah contains the panel of Litany of Avalokiteśvara".
The sanctuary houses a colossal image of the Buddha in preaching pose flanked by bodhisattvas and celestial nymphs hovering above.
CAVES 9-10
Caves 9 and 10 are the two chaitya halls from the first period of construction, though both were also undergoing an uncompleted reworking at the end of the second period. Cave 10 was perhaps originally of the 1st century BCE, and cave 9 about a hundred years later. The small "shrinelets" called caves 9A to 9D and 10A also date from the second period, and were commissioned by individuals.
The paintings in cave 10 include some surviving from the early period, many from an incomplete programme of modernization in the second period, and a very large number of smaller late intrusive images, nearly all Buddhas and many with donor inscriptions from individuals. These mostly avoided over-painting the "official" programme and after the best positions were used up are tucked away in less prominent positions not yet painted; the total of these (including those now lost) was probably over 300, and the hands of many different artists are visible.
OTHER CAVES
Cave 3 is merely a start of an excavation; according to Spink it was begun right at the end of the final period of work and soon abandoned. Caves 5 and 6 are viharas, the latter on two floors, that were late works of which only the lower floor of cave 6 was ever finished. The upper floor of cave 6 has many private votive sculptures, and a shrine Buddha, but is otherwise unfinished. Cave 7 has a grand facade with two porticos but, perhaps because of faults in the rock, which posed problems in many caves, was never taken very deep into the cliff, and consists only of the two porticos and a shrine room with antechamber, with no central hall. Some cells were fitted in.
Cave 8 was long thought to date to the first period of construction, but Spink sees it as perhaps the earliest cave from the second period, its shrine an "afterthought". The statue may have been loose rather than carved from the living rock, as it has now vanished. The cave was painted, but only traces remain.
SPINK´S DETAILED CHRONOLOGY
Walter M. Spink has over recent decades developed a very precise and circumstantial chronology for the second period of work on the site, which unlike earlier scholars, he places entirely in the 5th century. This is based on evidence such as the inscriptions and artistic style, combined with the many uncompleted elements of the caves. He believes the earlier group of caves, which like other scholars he dates only approximately, to the period "between 100 BCE – 100 CE", were at some later point completely abandoned and remained so "for over three centuries", as the local population had turned mainly Hindu. This changed with the accession of the Emperor Harishena of the Vakataka Dynasty, who reigned from 460 to his death in 477. Harisena extended the Central Indian Vakataka Empire to include a stretch of the east coast of India; the Gupta Empire ruled northern India at the same period, and the Pallava dynasty much of the south.
According to Spink, Harisena encouraged a group of associates, including his prime minister Varahadeva and Upendragupta, the sub-king in whose territory Ajanta was, to dig out new caves, which were individually commissioned, some containing inscriptions recording the donation. This activity began in 462 but was mostly suspended in 468 because of threats from the neighbouring Asmaka kings. Work continued on only caves 1, Harisena's own commission, and 17–20, commissioned by Upendragupta. In 472 the situation was such that work was suspended completely, in a period that Spink calls "the Hiatus", which lasted until about 475, by which time the Asmakas had replaced Upendragupta as the local rulers.
Work was then resumed, but again disrupted by Harisena's death in 477, soon after which major excavation ceased, except at cave 26, which the Asmakas were sponsoring themselves. The Asmakas launched a revolt against Harisena's son, which brought about the end of the Vakataka Dynasty. In the years 478–480 major excavation by important patrons was replaced by a rash of "intrusions" – statues added to existing caves, and small shrines dotted about where there was space between them. These were commissioned by less powerful individuals, some monks, who had not previously been able to make additions to the large excavations of the rulers and courtiers. They were added to the facades, the return sides of the entrances, and to walls inside the caves. According to Spink, "After 480, not a single image was ever made again at the site", and as Hinduism again dominated the region, the site was again abandoned, this time for over a millennium.
Spink does not use "circa" in his dates, but says that "one should allow a margin of error of one year or perhaps even two in all cases".
IMPACT ON MODERN INDIAN PAINTINGS
The Ajanta paintings, or more likely the general style they come from, influenced painting in Tibet and Sri Lanka.
The rediscovery of ancient Indian paintings at Ajanta provided Indian artists examples from ancient India to follow. Nandlal Bose experimented with techniques to follow the ancient style which allowed him to develop his unique style. Abanindranath Tagore also used the Ajanta paintings for inspiration.
WIKIPEDIA
Timber Café
2010
Furniture and architecture are cut from the same cloth in this proposal for a sustainable pop-up restaurant.
Massive timber panels are a carbon negative alternative to steel and concrete construction. Sustainably-farmed timber offcuts are laminated in European factories into panels 3 meters wide by up to 16.5 meters in length. Ranging in thicknesses up to 250mm, the panels are robotically trimmed to the designer's CAD drawings. Entire walls are cut in one piece and openings for windows and doors can be cut out in almost any shape. Once cut, the panels can be flat packed for shipment worldwide.
BAKOKO's pop-up timber cafe which takes advantage of solid timber's unique benefits. The temporary building can be flat packed into a standard 40' shipping container and erected with a crane in a mere day. Once assembled, this wooden box is remarkably self-stable. It does not need a permanent foundation, making it suitable almost anywhere.
In order to minimize waste, BAKOKO has designed the restaurant's seating and tables to be easily assembled from parts cut from the timber panels. The empty cut-outs become the window openings, bringing light into the restaurant. If the restaurant needs to be re-packed, the furniture can be easily disassembled and re-inserted into the walls.
ティンバーポップアップカフェ
ティンバーパネル（木板）を刳り貫いたパーツを組み立てて造られた建物と家具でできた、サステイナブルなポップアップ（移設可能な）レストラン・カフェ。
大きなティンバーパネルは、鉄骨とコンクリートに取って代わるCO2の排出量が少ないエコロジーな建設材料である。サステイナブルに生産された木材の破片は、ヨーロッパの工場でラミネートされ、幅3M最長で16.5Mの長さのパネルに再生される。パネルの厚さは様々で、最大で250mm。そのパネルは、デザイナーのＣＡＤ図面を元に、機械的に刳り貫かれる。一枚のパネルから、窓やドア（どんな形も刳り貫き可能）が刳り貫かれた壁が出来上がる。仕上がったパネルは、フラットパックの状態で世界中に輸送が可能である。
ＢＡＫＯＫＯのポップアップティンバーカフェは、このユニークなティンバーパネルの性能と刳り貫き工法の技術のベネフィットを最大限に生かしたプロジェクトです。仮設のカフェは、40フィートのコンテイナーに収まるようにフラットパックで配送され、現場でクレーンを使用して、一日で組み立てられる。
組み立てられた木の箱は、それ自身の強度でサポートされ、永久的な基礎構造を必要としないので、どの場所にも気軽に設置可能である。
廃棄物を最小限に抑える為、レストランとカフェの家具を壁になるティンバーパネルから刳り貫き、そのパーツを組み立ててテーブルと椅子を製作するデザインを開発した。家具のパーツの刳り貫きが建物の窓になり、建物内部の採光を担っている。レストランを新しい場所に移す際は、建物と家具を解体して、各々のパーツに戻しフラットパックの状態にして、簡単に移動ができる仕組みである。
Photo was taken on 27th October, 2018 at Trentham Falls, Victoria.
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Don't forget to follow me on:
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Jax Ko: Proposal
UNLEASH UR CREATIVE HU$TLER (or fake it 'til you make it): a utilitarian book bridging reverie & reality.
Photo by Jennifer Hughes
ROMA ARCHEOLOGIA E RESTAURO ARCHITETTURA: Update - The Forum and Temple of Trajan in Rome (2018-20): "L’evidenza archeologica ha dimostrato che il tempio c’è.” With New Comments & New Information Courtesy of Prof. James E. Packer (18 March 2020).
PDF = wp.me/pbMWvy-5t
Note: I have actually been working on this brief notice on the The Forum and Temple of Trajan in Rome (2019-2020) since May 2020 onwards (1), but, with the recent Italian 'Chinese virus’ Crisis in late Feb thru March 2020, I have been sidelined communicating, discussing and attempting help my dear friend in Rome.
ROMA ARCHEOLOGIA E RESTAURO ARCHITETTURA: Update - The Forum and Temple of Trajan in Rome (2018-20): "L’evidenza archeologica ha dimostrato che il tempio c’è.” With New Comments & Information Courtesy of Prof. James E. Packer (18 March 2020).
Update - Rome recently in late January 30 2020 and in early 11-13 December 2019, the numerous Italian scholars in Rome affiliated with the long-term research and studies of the Forum and Temple of Trajan at the two following conference’s (see below) presented and discussed the results of their recent work on the Forum and Temple of Trajan, see:
I). Rome - LA TOPOGRAFIA DELL’AREA A NORD DEL FORO DI TRAIANO. Giornata di studio. Rome, the Auditorium dell’ Ara Pacis (30 January 2020).
Abstract - La giornata di studio è finalizzata a confrontare differenti esperienze della ricerca archeologica riguardanti un’area di grande importanza nella topografia antica della città. In essa infatti doveva trovarsi il grande tempio di Traiano e Plotina divinizzati la cui esatta localizzazione e consistenza sono, da anni, al centro di un intenso dibattito fra gli specialisti. Verranno anche presentati i risultati di nuovi scavi effettuati dalla Scuola Spagnola [see: note 2] nei sotterranei della sua sede di via di S. Eufemia oltre a quelli delle indagini realizzate dalla Città Metropolitana di Roma nel sottosuolo di palazzo Valentini. Si ripercorreranno le tappe della scoperta degli auditoria adrianei di piazza Venezia, a cura del Parco Archeologico del Colosseo, e verranno esposte nuove teorie riguardanti alcuni dei principali monumenti esistenti in antico nell’area oggetto di studio. Infine saranno illustrati i risultati più recenti della ricerca sulla topografia e sulla decorazione architettonica del Foro di Traiano.
Fonte / source:
--- Convegno La topografia dell’area nord del Foro di Traiano/ 30 de Enero de 2020. Rome, EEHAR [the Spanish School of History and Archaeology in Rome] (01/2020) (accessed late January 2020).
www.eehar.csic.es/convegno-la-topografia-dellarea-nord-de... (3).
Surprisingly, after a lengthy search on the internet, apparently no one from the Italian TV or newspaper media (print, internet or social media resources) in Rome reported on the furthcoming or actual ‘La topografia dell’area nord del Foro di Traiano’ conference on 30 January 2020? But, then again since mid-t0-late 2019 and up-to early 2020, for some unknown reason compared to past years (2008-18), the recent news of the archaeological & restoration work in the area of the Imperial Fora of Rome has not been covered by the Italian media? (4).
The only mention of the ‘La topografia dell’area nord del Foro di Traiano’ conference (30 January 2020) is brief notice recently posted on the following Facebook page:
I.1. Dr. Riccardo Montalbano (ed.), Qualche breve considerazione sul convegno "LA TOPOGRAFIA DELL'AREA A NORD DEL FORO DI TRAIANO", in: Topografia di Roma antica / Topography of Ancient Rome. Facebook (01 Feb. 2020) (accessed 19 March 2020).
Fonte / text & foto / sources:
Dr. Riccardo Montalbano (ed.), Topografia di Roma antica / Topography of Ancient Rome. Facebook (01 Feb. 2020). www.facebook.com/groups/540545102790727/
Nel corso della giornata di studi sono emersi numerosi dati inediti e sono stati proposti spunti di grande interesse. In particolare:
1). Presenza di un incredibile palinsesto murario rinvenuto nelle cantine della nuova sede della Escuela Española de Historia y Arqueología en Roma, in via di Sant'Eufemia (intervento: Antonio pizzo e Massimo Vitti). L'elemento più interessante, a mio avviso, è la presenza di resti riferibili a un colombario (datazione proposta: età augustea), che solleva nuovi problemi circa la linea pomeriale nella zona (chiaramente connesso con le mura repubblicane che, come noto, correvano lungo la sella poi cancellata a partire dall'età domizianea).
2). Rilettura complessiva delle 3 aule - Auditoria vs Athenaeum - con la novità riguardante un presunto ingresso da sud, costituito dalla "quinta" rinvenuta nel 1932 e ora messa in connessione con il sistema delle tre aule. Questo fronte, movimentato da una grande abside, avrebbe schermato l'irregolare disposizione retrostante (intervento: R. Rea).
3). Templum divi Traiani et Plotinae: secondo P. Baldassarri la presenza del tempio, un ottastilo con colonne da 50 piedi, è giustificata dalla grande fondazione rinvenuta (la cui larghezza però non è sufficiente a giustificare la fronte del tempio così come immaginato; per questo motivo, essa viene riferita solo alla scalinata del tempio, dunque all'interasse tra le guance della scalinata di accesso frontale), oltre che dalle camerelle di fondazione. In questa ricostruzione, non si rinuncia al grande portico a ferro di cavallo (a mio avviso, lo sviluppo a est della domus B di palazzo Valentini sembra far escludere questa soluzione). Bellissimi i frammenti architettonici rinvenuti, tra cui uno splendido frammento di rilievo con grifo.
4). Nuovi preziosi dati vengono dalla zone biblioteche del foro di Traiano e, in particolare, dall'esplorazione della cappella sepolcrale della chiesa del Ss. Nome di Maria e dalle strutture individuate (parte della biblioteca orientale). I nuovi dati permettono di articolare nel dettaglio il sistemare delle scale e degli accessi.
Inoltre, si ripropone un'altra alternativa circa l'ingresso del Foro da nord, con un grande arco di ingresso (intervento R. Meneghini - E. Bianchi), arco che secondo E. La Rocca è da identificare con l'arco partico noto dalle fonti letterarie (intervento E. La Rocca).
5). Interessantissime le osservazioni sul frammento 36b della Forma Urbis, la cui iscrizione sinora era stata letta com TEM PL (um) e identificato con il complesso campense dedicato a Matidia. La novità, correttamente rilevata, consiste nella presenza di un separatore e un'eccessiva spaziature tra TEM - PL, da leggere come Tem(plum) Plotinae (come proposto). Ciò apre interessanti prospettive sia epigrafiche (questione della dedica del tempio e della titolatura inversa tra Traiano e Plotina), sia topografiche (collocazione del frammento rispetto alla griglia della FUM).
6). Di grande utilità, infine, le considerazione su tutto l'apparato decorativo del foro (intervento L. Ungaro) e sui frammenti di ordine gigante rinvenuti nell'area (intervento M. Milella). Ma su questi temi, sutor ne ultra crepidam…
II). Rome - Dr. Paola Baldassarri (Città Metropolitana di Roma Capitale), “L'area a Nord della Colonna Traiana e il Tempio dei divi Traiano e Plotina : riflessioni in merito alle indagini di Palazzo Valentini.” Conférence - Topographie et urbanisme de la Rome antique, Caen, France (11-13 Dec. 2019).
During the conference Dr. Baldassarri presented the following lecture on the “L'area a Nord della Colonna Traiana e il Tempio dei divi Traiano e Plotina,” in Caen, France (Dec. 2019). This presentation briefly discusses the recent series of excavations below the Palazzo Valentini in 2018-19, also based upon her recent published work on the Temple in the following journal articles (including two published works in English [2011, 2014-15]).
Fortunately, the various presentations at the recent Conference - Topographie et urbanisme de la Rome antique, Caen, France (11-13 Dec. 2019), with these presentation lectures recorded and now available on You-tube as of mid-January 2020. Note: several screenshots taken from Dr. Baldassarri’s video and converted into photographs are also republished here.
--- Dr. Paola Baldassarri (Città Metropolitana di Roma Capitale), “L'area a Nord della Colonna Traiana e il Tempio dei divi Traiano e Plotina : riflessioni in merito alle indagini di Palazzo Valentini.” Conférence - Topographie et urbanisme de la Rome antique, Caen, France (11-13 Dec. 2019). You-Tube (17 January 2020) [24:50].
www.youtube.com/watch?v=2uoeQ1MVDR0&t=313s
As mentioned Dr. Baldassarri’s lecture presentation is based upon several of her recently published works (2012-18) on the “il Tempio dei divi Traiano e Plotina” several as cited and available in PDF (particularly in RM 122 [2016], pp. 171-202) as listed here below :
--- Paola Baldassari (2018), “Gli scavi Palazzo Valentini e il Templum Divi Traiani et Divae Plotinae: omaggio di Adriano divis parentibus.” [Unpublished] paper / lecture read at the following conference in Rome = ‘Il Convegno Internazionale “adventus Hadriani 118 – 2018”’. Rome, Italy (4 July 2018). aha.uniroma2.it/it/ S.v., independent.academia.edu/PBaldassarri
--- Paola Baldassarri, (2017), “Templum divi Traiani et divae Plotinae : nuovi dati dalle indagini archeologiche a Palazzo Valentini.” RendPontAcc. 89, pp. 599-648. (Abstract in Italian & English). [= Part. II of] “FORO TRAIANO: ORGANIZZAZIONE DEL CANTIERE E APPROVVIGIONAMENTO DEI MARMI ALLA LUCE DEI RECENTI DATI DI PALAZZO VALENTINI.”
www.pont-ara.org/index.php?module=Pubblicazioni&func=...
--- Paola Baldassarri (2016), “Indagini archeologiche a Palazzo Valentini. Nuovi dati per la ricostruzione del tempio di Traiano.” RM 122, pp. 171-202 [in PDF]. (Abstract in English).
--- Paola Baldassarri (2015), “Le indagini archeologiche a Palazzo Valentini (Roma) e il tempio dei divi Traiano e Plotina,” pp. 1689 - 1756 [in PDF], in: Paola Ruggeri et al., L’Africa romana Momenti di continuità e rottura: bilancio di trent’anni di convegni L’Africa romana. Vol. II., Rome: Carocci editore (2015).
www.academia.edu/32087781/Paola_Baldassarri_Le_indagini_a...
--- Paola Baldassarri (2013), “Alla ricerca del tempio perduto: indagini archeologiche a Palazzo Valentini e il templum Divi Traiani et Divae Plotinae.” Arch.Cl. 64., pp. 371–481 [in PDF]. (Abstract in English).
www.academia.edu/29206723/Alla_ricerca_del_tempio_perduto...
--- Paola Baldassarri; Antonella Lumacone & Luca Salvatori (2012), “Nuove indagini archeologiche a Palazzo Valentini. Il tempio dei divi Traiano e Plotina.” Forma Urbis, XVII, 5 (May 2012): 45-52 [in PDF]. wp.me/pPRv6-2ab
For a brief summary by Dr. Baldassarri research on the Temple of Trajan in English (2011, 2014 & 2015), see:
--- ROMA ARCHEOLOGIA e RESTAURO ARCHITETTURA. ROMA – rinvenimenti sotto Palazzo Valentini – l´esistenza e una porzione di un edificio che potrebbe essere l´introvabile Tempio del Divo Traiano. LA REPUBBLICA (19/05/2007) & Luisa Napoli & Paola Baldassarri, RESEARCH ARTICLE – Palazzo Valentini: Archaeological discoveries and redevelopment projects. Frontiers of Architectural Research, Vol. 4.2 (June 2015): 91-99. wp.me/pPRv6-4VP
--- ROMA ARCHEOLOGICA & RESTAURO ARCHITETTURA: “Roberto Del Signore & Paola Baldassarri, Provincia di Roma, “The multimedia museum: an original meeting between antiquities and innovation in the Roman domus of Palazzo Valentini,” Conference – ATHENS, GREECE (2 OCT. 2014) [PDF], pp. 1-81. [And Foto: Dott.ssa Arch. Maria G. Ercolino (2014)].
--- Paola Baldassarri (2011), “Archaeological Excavations at Palazzo Valentini: a residential area in the shade of the Trajan’s Forum,” pp. 43-67 [in PDF], in: Mustafa Sahin et al., 11th INTERNATIONAL COLLOQUIUM ON ANCIENT MOSAICS, Bursa October 16th–20th 2009, Istanbul : Uludağ University (2011).
www.academia.edu/29207218/Archaeological_Excavations_at_P...
III). Rome, the ‘Il Foro di Traiano’ and the ‘il Tempio di Traiano e Plotina’ and the Sovrintendenza Capitolina / “Il Foro di Traiano / Il tempio che non c’è.” (April 2019) (re-accessed March 2020).
Sometime in March and or April 2019, after nearly a decade of providing no new useful information on the Imperial Fora (2008-19), the Sovrintendenza Capitolina ai Beni Culturali's webpage for the Fori Imperiali (Roman Antiquity [and now thru through the Modern era]) finally updated its website with the new information as listed here below:
--- Sovrintendenza Capitolina (April 2019 [March 2020]) = “Home » Patrimonio » Roma antica » Aree archeologiche » Fori Imperiali.” =
www.sovraintendenzaroma.it/i_luoghi/roma_antica/aree_arch....
“L’area prima dei Fori, Il Foro di Cesare, Il Foro di Augusto, Il Templum Pacis, Il Foro di Nerva, Il Foro di Traiano, Mercati di Traiano e Museo dei Fori Imperiali, La Terrazza domizianea & I Fori Imperiali dal Medioevo ad oggi.” And “Bibliografia essenziale” & “Fori Imperiali - Dati archivio.”
In the section of the Sovrintendenza’s website devoted to the Forum and Temple of Trajan, now listing the following information =
1.1). Sovrintendenza Capitolina / “Il Foro di Traiano / Il tempio che non c’è.” (April 2019 [March 2020]). www.sovraintendenzaroma.it/content/il-tempio-che-non-c%E2...
‘Il tempio che non c’è - Nel Foro di Traiano mancava il tempio, edificio che abbiamo visto invece costantemente presente negli altri Fori Imperiali. In passato si riteneva che un gigantesco tempio dedicato a Traiano e Plotina divinizzati (e comunque non a una divinità “tradizionale”, come era sempre accaduto) fosse stato edificato dal successore di Traiano, ossia Adriano (117-138 d.C.) al limite settentrionale del complesso, in un’area sostanzialmente corrispondente a quella in cui oggi si trova Palazzo Valentini. Le ricerche effettuate in tempi recenti nei sotterranei del Palazzo hanno invece riportato alla luce resti, anche consistenti, di edifici d’abitazione, ridimensionando o escludendo così la presenza di un tempio in questo punto.’
An alternative website, the 'fori-imperiali.info' (April 2019), re-publishes the same information from the Sovrintendenza's website: "Roma antica » Aree archeologiche » Fori Imperiali »", with the exception of providing an English Language version, as follows:
'The temple that isn’t there - Within Trajan’s Forum there is no temple, a building which is present in all the other Imperial Fora. In the past it was believed that an enormous temple had been built to celebrate the deified Trajan and Plotina (and not as a “traditional” divinity as had always been the case). This temple was believed to have been built by Trajan’s successor Hadrian (117-138 A.D.) at the northern edge of the complex, in an area that is essentially where Palazzo Valentini stands today. Recent researches carried out in the basement of that building has brought to light ruins of private habitations, some quite substantial, which would appear to exclude the presence of such a temple in that area or at least reduce its possible size.'
Additional information in English on the Forum / Temple of Trajan in English, cited from Fori-imperiali.info “I Fori Imperiali” (April 2019) = fori-imperiali.info/ & “Il Foro di Traiano / Il tempio chenon c’è” .http://fori-imperiali.info/005-2/ (Accesssed April 2019) (re-accessed March 2020).
The Sovrintendenza's website on 'il foro di Traiano » il tempio che non c’è' offers no attribution to the source of the photograph (i.e., digital reconstruction of the Forum / Temple of Trajan); while the 'fori-imperiali.info' website cites, the following information:
"Ipotesi ricostruttiva del Tempio di Traiano (J. Packer)." This image of the Tempio di Traiano (i.e. J. Packer), was originally published in the following work: “Fig. 15 - Conjectural reconstruction of the Temple of Divine Trajan and the temenos (J. Burge)”, facing page 112; see: J. E. Packer, with John Burge (2003), “TEMPLUM DIVI TRAIANI PARTHICI ET PLOTINAE: a debate with R. Meneghini.” JRA 16 (2003): 109-113.
Note: Just recently Prof. Packer was kind enough to allow me to republish online a copy of his following 2003 work [in PDF] (see below in section # IV):
--- James E. Packer, with John Burge (2003), “TEMPLUM DIVI TRAIANI PARTHICI ET PLOTINAE: a debate with Roberto Meneghini.” JRA 16, pp. 109-136 [now in PDF].
The revision of the Sovrintendenza Capitolina / “Il Foro di Traiano / Il tempio che non c’è.” (April 2019), might be based upon a series of recent articles published by Dr. Eugenio La Rocca (2018) & Dr. Roberto Meneghini (2018) on the Forum and Temple of Trajan. In the former article by Prof. La Rocca basically dismisses the interesting research and will argued conclusions for the ‘traditional’ location and architectural design of Temple of Trajan (similar to that of J. E. Packer [2003]), as then published in Dr. Baldassarri RM 122 (2016 ): 171-202 (as cited above) (5).
--- ROMA ARCHEOLOGIA e RESTAURO ARCHITETTURA: Eugenio La Rocca, Il tempio dei divi Traiano e Plotina, l’arco partico e l’ingresso settentrionale al foro di Traiano: un riesame critico delle scoperte archeologiche. Veleia, No. 5 (2018): 57-107 [in PDF]. wp.me/pPRv6-4LR
Abstract: The temple of the divi Trajan and Plotina, the Parthian arch and the northern entrance to the Trajan forum: a critical review of archaeological discoveries. There is some reliable evidence from antique sources about the templum divi Traiani, thanks to which it is known that the templum was connected with the column of Trajan, although they do not clarify neither the morphology of the building nor its actual location. The recent excavations carried out in the foundations of the palazzo Valentini have not shed some light on the problem. The reproduction of the gigantic temple, with 8 × 10 (or 9) Egyptian granite columns of 50 feet height, is still based on the hypothetical reconstruction of the northern area of the Trajan forum drawn by Guglielmo Gatti [= based on his grandfather’s notes] and by Italo Gismondi. Something the results of new investigations do not actually allow it. Furthermore, the proposed solutions do not take into account the Parthian arch of Trajan, whose placement at the southern entrance of the Trajan forum, as suggested by Rodolfo Lanciani and Italo Gismondi, can no longer be sustained. It is likely that the arch, whose construction was started in May of 116 A. D. and it was still ongoing at the time of Trajan’s death on the 7th of August of 117 A. D., was instead the main entrance of the forum, that is, the northern one, in an area affected by the building interventions of Hadrian, whose entity and motivations, unfortunately, fly from us. The existence of the Parthian arc in the area partially occupied by the templum divi Traiani, at least according to the most recent proposals of reconstruction, compels to revise the Hadrian’s setting of the Trajan forum to the north of the columna cochlis.
--- ROMA ARCHEOLOGIA e RESTAURO ARCHITETTURA: Lucrezia Ungaro, Traiano e la costruzione della sua immagine nel Foro | Trajan and the construction of his representation, Veleia, No. 5 (2018): 151-177 [in PDF]. wp.me/pPRv6-4LF
Abstract – The discovery of a new colossal portrait of Trajan occurred during the preparation of the exhibition «Trajan. Building the Empire, creating Europe», gave a renewed reading of the complex figurative program wanted by the emperor in his Forum. In the framework of his political, military and social action, the Forum is in fact the highest representation of his virtus imperatoria and of the maiestas populi romani. In particular, the portraits of the Traianus Father and of the so-called Agrippina / Marcia are reconsidered, in the light of a possible gallery dedicated to Trajan’s genetic family and his models, such as Julius Caesar. Equal attention is devoted to the distribution of sculptures and reliefs discovered in forensic spaces, to their hierarchical relationship in the huge space of the square. Finally, the proposal to recognize the porticus porphiretica in the three-segmented hall is reconsidered, examining preliminarily the known porphyry sculptures attributable to the Forum, and some fragments preserved in the deposits of the Museum of the Imperial Fora, thus getting new interest.
--- ROMA ARCHEOLOGIA e RESTAURO ARCHITETTURA: Roberto Meneghini, L’Arco di Traiano partico nel Medioevo. Veleia, No. 5 (2018): 180-188 [in PDF]. wp.me/pPRv6-4LV
Abstract: The hypothesis, put forward by Eugenio La Rocca in this same volume, of the presence of the Arcus Parthicus of Trajan in the area immediately to N of the Trajan’s Column seems to be confirmed by the medieval tradition. In fact, in the area are cited from historical sources and archives, the Arch of the Foschi di Berta (in reality cannot be precisely positioned), and an Arcus Traiani Imperatoris that would be exactly in correspondence with the structures found in the recent excavations of the subsoil of Palazzo Valentini, now of the Provincia or the Città Metropolitana di Roma.
Likewise, Dr. R. Meneghini and Dr. L. Ungaro in published a series of conference presentations on the Forum and Temple of Trajan for the recent Traiano exhibit in Rome (2017-18), see:
--- Roberto Meneghini, I Fori Imperiali / Il Foro di Traiano, pp. 1-20 [in PDF], in: Traiano: Costruire L’Impero, Creare L’Europa (Trajan: Constructing the Empire, Creating Europe), Mercati di Traiano, Museo dei Fori Imperiali, Rome (08/05/2018), 29 November 2017–16 September 2018. wp.me/pPRv6-4LF
--- Lucrezia Ungaro, Dai frammenti alle ricomposizioni, dai depositi ai nuovi progetti di allestimento, pp. 1-76 [in PDF], Traiano: Costruire L’Impero, Creare L’Europa (Trajan: Constructing the Empire, Creating Europe), Mercati di Traiano, Museo dei Fori Imperiali, Rome (08/05/2018), 29 November 2017–16 September 2018. wp.me/pPRv6-4LF
For a review of the Traiano Exhibit (2017-18) and additional information, see:
Traiano: Costruire L’Impero, Creare L’Europa (Trajan: Constructing the Empire, Creating Europe), Mercati di Traiano, Museo dei Fori Imperiali, Rome, 29 November 2017–16 September 2018, curated by Claudio Parisi Presicce, Marina Milella, Simone Pastor, and Lucrezia Ungaro.
--- ROMA ARCHEOLOGIA e RESTAURO ARCHITETTURA: Online Museum Review – Jeremy Hartnett, Marketing Trajan at the Museo dei Fori Imperiali. AJA 122.4 (Oct. 2018): 1-6 [in PDF], s.v, Roberto Meneghini | Lucrezia Ungaro (2018) [in PDF] & s.v., Prof Arch. P. Martellotti / Dott.ssa Arch. B. Baldrati (1999-2002).https://wp.me/pPRv6-4LF
IV). ROMA ARCHEOLOGIA e RESTAURO ARCHITETTURA: Update - The Forum and Temple of Trajan in Rome (2018-20): "L’evidenza archeologica ha dimostrato che il tempio c’è.” With New Comments & New Information Courtesy of Prof. James E. Packer (18 March 2020).
Rome, the Temple of Trajan: “…La scoperta non è sensazionale perché anche in passato si era parlato della possibile esistenza del Tempio di Traiano sotto Palazzo Valentini. La presenza della domus aveva fatto passare di moda l’ipotesi. L’evidenza archeologica ha dimostrato che il tempio c’è. Un impulso alla ricerca viene anche dallo scavo di Roberto Egidi (Soprintendenza statale) che messo in luce l’Athenaeum e che non è famoso come [Prof. Andrea] Carandini e [Prof. Eugenio] La Rocca! Peccato che verrà presto ricoperto. La situazione nel complesso frena gli entusiasmi.”
Comment Former Senior Director with the MIBACT and Italian archaeologist,
personal communication to M. G.Conde (08 December 2011) (6).
Since the fall 2019 and up-to the 30 January 2020, with having access now to Dr. Baldassarri’s recent work on the Temple of Trajan in Rome = the notice of the "LA TOPOGRAFIA DELL'AREA A NORD DEL FORO DI TRAIANO", Rome Conference in Jan. 2020; her conference video presentation in Caen, France in mid-December 2019 and several of her recently published articles, notably the RM 122 (2016 ): 171-202.
I would like to offer a personal comment on Dr. Baldassarri’s recent work on the Temple of Trajan (2018-20), as noted in her RM 122 (2016 ): 171-202, she fundamentally completely ignores the invaluable previously work conducted on the Forum of Trajan by Prof. James E. Packer (2006, 2003, 2001 & 1997)? In her reconstruction of the history of the excavations and studies of the temple in the 19th, along with her new digital reconstruction of the temple itself. With the exception of the few architectural remains of the Temple brought to light underneath the Palazzo Valentini (2005 onwards), her work is fundamentally continuing the work and similar design plans of Prof. Packer’s earlier work on the Temple?
For the benefit of the non-Italian independent researchers, university students and scholars interested in the research and studies of the Forum and Temple of Trajan (2017-2020), after discussing with Prof. Packer the recent work of Dr. Baldassarri, Dr. La Rocca and Dr. Meneghini (2017-20), although he is currently engaged in his forthcoming book on the Theater of Pompey in Rome. He found the new research on the Temple of Trajan very interesting. As for his recent and past work in Forum of Trajan, see the following:
--- James E. Packer [on Facebook] (15 May 2015). Personal comments in reference to: “I FORI IMPERIALI – “Un marmo sopra l’altro così rialzeremo le colonne del Foro di Traiano.” LA REPUBBLICA (15 May 2015). wp.me/pPRv6-2Y1
--- James E. Packer (2013a), [Review of] “The Atlante: Roma antica revealed,” ANDREA CARANDINI (a cura di) con PAOLO CARAFA, ATLANTE DI ROMA ANTICA. BIOGRAFIA E RITRATTI DELLA CITTÀ (Mondadori Electa 2012). 2 vols. Pp. 1086, pls. XVII + 276 + 37 map
sections. ISBN 978-88-370-8510-9. EUR. 150.” JRA 26 (Nov., 2013), pp. 553-561.
(Abstract). doi.org/10.1017/S104775941300041X & wp.me/pPRv6-1S5
--- James E. Packer (2013b), interview with J. E. Packer, in: T.E. Watts, “Rome Walk: Imperial Fora II-Trajan’s Forum and Market,” Rome: You-Tube (22 Nov. 2013), [1:00:13]. Interview with J. E. Packer, during a school group tour visit to the Forum of Trajan & the Forum of
Caesar. Rome: You-Tube (22 Nov. 2013), [1:00:13]. wp.me/pPRv6-2pu
--- James E. Packer (2008a), “Italo Gismondi and Pierino Di Carlo: ―Virtualizing Imperial Rome for 20th-Century Italy.” AJA Online Review Article, 112.3 (July), pp. 1-6 [PDF]. AJA Online Edition.
www.ajaonline.org/online-review-article/254 & PDF = wp.me/pPRv6-2GB
Prof. James E. (2008b), “The Column of Trajan: the topographical and cultural contexts.” JRA 21, pp. 471-478 [PDF]. (Abstract) doi.org/10.1017/S104775940000478 & PDF = wp.me/pPRv6-1sv
--- James E. Packer (2006), “Digitizing Roman Imperial architecture in the early 21st century: purposes, data, failures, and prospects,” pp. 309-320; in: L. Haselberger and J. Humphrey (eds)., Imaging Ancient Rome. Documentation – Visualization – Imagination. Proceedings of the Third Williams Symposium on Classical Architecture, 2004. JRA Supplementary Series 61 (2006). Index summary, JRA Supl. 61 (2006).
--- James E. Packer, with John Burge (2003), “TEMPLUM DIVI TRAIANI PARTHICI ET PLOTINAE: a debate with Roberto Meneghini.” JRA 16, pp. 109-136 [in PDF] (7).
--- James E. Packer (2001a), The Forum of Trajan in Rome: A Study of the Monuments in Brief. University of California Press (2001), pp. 1-235. (Preview & abstract in Google Books).
books.google.com/books?id=Tn7zf3ecm2wC&source=gbs_nav...
--- James E. Packer (2001b), Il Foro di Traiano a Roma: breve studio dei monumenti. Rome: Edizioni Quasar (2001), pp. 1-256. (Tradotto in italiano da Elisabetta Ercolini [translated into Italian by Elisabetta Ercolini]). (Abstract and summary) =
www.edizioniquasar.it/sku.php?id_libro=481&bef=1638&a...
--- James E. Packer (1997a), “Report from Rome: The Imperial Fora, a Retrospective.” AJA 101 (Apr., 1997), pp. 307-330 [PDF]. (Abstract) www.jstor.org/stable/506512 & PDF = wp.me/pPRv6-2oq
And for two important peer-review articles in English and Italian on Prof. Packer’s work on the Forum of Trajan (2001 & 1997), see:
--- Tom Stevenson (2002), [Review of] “James E. Packer & John Burge, The Forum of Trajan in Rome: a Study of the Monuments in Brief (2001).” PRUDENTIA Vol 34, No 1, pp. 101-105 [PDF]. prudentia.auckland.ac.nz/index.php/prudentia/article/view...
--- Francesco Ferretti, (2001), “Foro di Traiano – Notiziario bibliografia”: J. E. Packer, Forum of Trajan Vol. I-III; R. Meneghini, F. di Traiano, RM 105 (1998); & E. La Rocca, F. di Traiano, RM 105 (1998); in: Notiziario bibliografico di Roma e Suburbio, 1997-2001. BCom Vol. 102 (2001), pp. 399-400 [PDF]. wp.me/pPRv6-4BX
Hope the readers will have found this brief notice of the Forum and Temple of Trajan useful.
Thank you Martin G. Conde
Washington DC, USA (20 March 2020).
A special thank you to Prof. James E. Packer and also Dr. Arch. Barbara Baldrati, Gianni De Dominicis & Alvaro Di Alvariis of Rome, Italy; all being very kind and contributing and sharing their important and invaluable work on Rome with me.
Their various works on Rome can be accessed via a search on the following website:
ROMA ARCHEOLOGIA E RESTAURO ARCHITETTURA 2010-20.
ROME – THE IMPERIAL FORA: SCHOLARLY RESEARCH & RELATED STUDIES.
rometheimperialfora19952010.wordpress.com/
Notes and Additional Information:
For a collection of research materials (in PDF’s and images) on the recent and past excavations and studies of the Forum, Temple and Markets of Trajan (1998-2020), see:
ROMA ARCHEOLOGICA & RESTAURO ARCHITETTURA. Il Foro di Traiano: Tempio di Traiano - Colonna di Traiano - Basilica Ulpia - scavi (1998-2020, 1989-1997, & 1928-33). | The Forum of Trajan: Temple of Trajan - Column of Trajan - Basilica Ulpia - excavations (1998-2020, 1989-1997, & 1928-33).
-- Forum of Trajan =
www.flickr.com/photos/imperial_fora_of_rome/sets/72157600...
--- Temple of Trajan =
www.flickr.com/photos/imperial_fora_of_rome/sets/72157594...
1). This brief summary on the Forum and Temple of Trajan (2018-20) is part of my forthcoming paper entitled:
ROMA ARCHEOLOGICA & RESTAURO ARCHITETTURA. The Temple of Divine Trajan in Rome, 2010-20. A Review of the Italian & International Studies - "L’evidenza archeologica ha dimostrato che il tempio c’è,” (2011). With Additional Contributions by Dr. Arch. Barbara Baldrati, Gianni De Dominicis & Alvaro Di Alvariis. Versus the Sovrintendenza Capitolina ai Beni Culturali - ‘Il tempio che non c’è,’ (2019); 1-25 [in PDF]. By Martin G. Conde, Independent Researcher. Washington DC, USA. (March 2020) mgconde@yahoo.com
2). For news of the restoration of the New Spanish School of History and Archaeology on the Via di Sant'Eufemia in Rome, see:
--- Valencia, a 15 de abril de 2010, Cleop reformará la nueva sede de la Escuela española de Historia y Arqueología del Centro Superior de Investigaciones Científicas en Roma (2010) [in PDF].
www.cleop.es/media/pdf/ESCUELA%20DE%20HISTORIA%20Y%20ARQU...
--- Salvatore Nicoletti, “SCUOLA SPAGNOLA DI STORIA E ARCHEOLOGIA, ROMA
INTEGRAZIONI SPAZIALI.” IOARCH 68, Jan. & Feb. (2017): 50-52 [in PDF].
3). List of the presenters at the ‘La topografia dell’area nord del Foro di Traiano’ - Conference (30/01/2020).
ORE 9,15 - INTRODUZIONE (Presiede Eugenio La Rocca)
ORE 9,30 - Antonio Pizzo, Massimo Vitti, Il Pomerio, i sepolcri e il Foro di Traiano.
ORE 10,15 - Francesca de Caprariis, Traiano tra Campidoglio e Campo Marzio
ORE 11,00/11,30 - PAUSA
ORE 11,30 - Rossella Rea, Gli auditoria di piazza Venezia.
ORE 12,15 - Paola Baldassarri, Il Tempio dei divi Traiano e Plotina e i suoi disiecta membra: novità dalle indagini a Palazzo Valentini.
ORE 13,00/15,00 PAUSA PRANZO (Presiede Domenico Palombi)
ORE 15,00 – Elisabetta Bianchi, Roberto Meneghini, Il Foro di Traiano a nord della Basilica Ulpia.
ORE 15,40 - Eugenio La Rocca. L’arco Partico di Traiano
ORE 16,20/16,50 PAUSA
ORE 16,50 - Claudio Parisi Presicce, Una nuova proposta per la localizzazione del Tempio di Plotinae del divo Traiano.
ORE 17,30 - Lucrezia Ungaro, Per un abaco delle sculture del Foro di Traiano
ORE 18,10 – Marina Milella, Resti marmorei di architetture di grandi dimensioni.
4). Rome, News of the Forum of Trajan and Via Alessandrina excavations (2019-20).
Since 2019, Dr. Arch. Federico Celletti working on the Via Alessandrina site (2017-20) has been kind enough to share with me his personal photographs of the ongoing excavations at the site (see references cited here below). While recently on 21 Feb. 2020, during an official visit by the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan in Rome, the administration of the City of Rome exhibited several of the architectural elements and decorations recently recovered from the Forum of Trajan excavations (see below). While the only news in English on the recent Forum of Trajan excavations is the “Dagli scavi ai Fori Imperiali riemerge la testa del dio Dioniso,” in: NOTES FROM ROME 2018-19; PBSR 87 (2019): 309-316 [in PDF] (see below).
--- ROMA ARCHEOLOGIA e RESTAURO ARCHITETTURA: Foro di Traiano / Via Alessandrina – Gli scavi e le scoperte in corso. Foto: Dr. Arch. Federico Celletti / Facebook (09/03/2020). S.v., Virginia Raggi & President of the Republic of Azerbaijan (21/02/2020). wp.me/pPRv6-5cR
--- ROMA ARCHEOLOGIA e RESTAURO ARCHITETTURA: Raggi riceve il presidente della Repubblica Azerbaigian – esposti i reperti archeologici provenienti dagli scavi archeologici dell’area di i Fori Imperiali & via Alessandrina. President of the Republic of Azerbaijan [English & Italiano] (21/02/2020). wp.me/pPRv6-5cH
--- ROMA ARCHEOLOGICA e RESTAURO ARCHITETTURA: “Dagli scavi ai Fori Imperiali riemerge la testa del dio Dioniso,” in: NOTES FROM ROME 2018-19; PBSR 87 (2019): 309-316. Foto: Dr. Arch. Federico Celletti / FACEBOOK, Rome (24 May 2019). wp.me/pPRv6-59q
5). ROMA ARCHEOLOGIA e RESTAURO ARCHITETTURA: ROME – “Trajan’s Temple, Column and Forum / Templum Divi Traiani” in: VR Back To The Past. CARLO CESTRA DIGITAL PRODUCTIONS 2010-19 (04/2019). For an alternative digital reconstruction / video of the ‘Templum Divi Traiani’ see the following work of Carlo Cestra, Senior CG Artist = ROME – Trajan’s forum: This is part of the project named VR Back To The Past, a collection of virtual reality tours I am working on. Here is the digital reconstruction of the north-western part of the Trajan’s Forum in Rome (beside the “Basilica Ulpia”) with the Trajan’s Column and the Temple. The Temple of Trajan (Templum Divi Traiani et Plotinae), Trajan’s Column area.
Fonte | source:
— Carlo Cestra, Senior CG Artist – Trajan’s forum (04/2019).
6). Also see: ROMA ARCHEOLOGIA e RESTAURO ARCHITETTURA: Andrea Carandini, Paolo Carafa, & Fabio Cavallero, Il TEMPIO dei DIVI TRAIANO e PLOTINA ROMA ANTICA – ESCLUSIVO, ARCHEOLOGIA VIVA, Rivista: N. 149 / mese: Sett.-Ott. 2011, pp. 47-54 [PDF pp. 1-5].
7). For the earlier and recent discovery of the Trajanic inscriptions in the Forum of Trajan and the L’Athenaeum di Adriano, see:
--- ROMA ARCHEOLOGIA e RESTAURO ARCHITETTURA: Rome, the Metro C Archaeological Surveys – the Piazza Madonna di Loreto, Sector (# S14/B1). The Discovery of New Inscriptions & Architectural Elements of the Temple of Trajan? (January 20th, 2011).
www.flickr.com/photos/imperial_fora_of_rome/5374055767
--- ROMA ARCHEOLOGICA & RESTAURO ARCHITETTURA: Dott.ssa Paola Baldassarri – Nuovi dati per la ricostruzione del tempio di Traiano, (2015-16), Dr. Antonio Lopez Garcia, L’Athenaeum di Adriano (2015) & Marmo – Dedica ai divi Traiano e Plotina, MUSEI VATICANI (2017).
SDASM.CATALOG: 00093318
SDASM.TITLE: CL-84 variant proposal
SDASM.CORPORATION NAME: Canadair
SDASM.DESIGNATION: CL-84
SDASM.CREATION PLACE: Canada
SDASM.ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: CL-84 variant proposal
SDASM.TAGS: CL-84 variant proposal
It's a proposal Jim, but not as we know it! This appeared along the Backs, but it eventually emerged that it's not a real proposal, but one for a "college marriage". I haven't worked here for very long - only 15 years - so this concept is a bit of a mystery to me. There are more details in this article from the Cambridge News.
The article says:
"The marriage means you get college children. It’s all fairly informal. Husband and wife are given freshers the next year and they become their college children. You are allocated them and are generally responsible for getting them drunk."
Yes, just like a real family. You take your children out and ply them with strong drink!
[D2_01391]
A surprise trip to Oregon for this Texas girl so her guy could propose at Richardson's Rock Ranch. The ring was hidden inside an amethyst geode. I posed as a rock expert and guide and took pictures of the proposal. It was sooo sweet!!
Photo was taken on 27th October, 2018 at Trentham Falls, Victoria.
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