Archaeophilia in CommageneThis thesis deals with archaeophilia — “the pervasive human impulse to use objects as historical evidence” (Rojas 2019) — in Late Hellenistic and Roman North Syria (ca. 70 B.C.-253 A.D.). I build on recent scholarship that has called attention to later engagement with Iron Age material remains and suggest that the sanctuary of Nemrud Dağ, built by the Late Hellenistic king of Commagene Antiochos I, is partly the product of emulation of Syro-Anatolian relief-decorated courts produced in the same region during the Iron Age (ca. 950-700 B.C.). I further argue that Antiochos would have taken these and other Iron Age remains as material traces of the presence of earlier Achaemenid kings from whom he claimed descent, and that he emulated relief-decorated courts to visually associate himself with the legacy of his illustrious forefathers. With this insight, I discuss evidence of archaeophilia from Roman Commagene and neighboring Cyrrhestice, and argue that Antiochos’ sculpture and Roman-period archaizing images of the Syro-Anatolian Storm God are manifestations of a broader trend of fascination with pre-classical remains as evidence for the past in Late Hellenistic and Roman North Syria. In so doing, I argue that scholars’ focus on questions of religious practice and identity has precluded discussion of how groups with different understandings of the same traces of the past interacted with those traces in much the same way: as evidence of their pasts in the region.Newgarden, DanielcreatorRojas, Felipethesis advisorSilvia, ZacharyreaderBrown University. Archaeology and the Ancient Worldsponsor2025text_resourcesborn digitalEnglishSenior thesis (AB)--Brown University, 2025Archaeology and the Ancient WorldthesesAntiochus I, King of Commagene, active 69 B.C.-30 B.C.Turkey--Nemrut Dağı MoundJupiter Dolichenus (Roman deity)AntiquarianismMiddle East--CommageneAttribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)In Copyright10.26300/gvc6-kd43