Om stenar kunde spela. Framställningen av musiker och ljudlandskap på Trajanuskolonnen

Abstract

This thesis aims to explore the representations of musicians and soundscapes on the column of Trajan in Rome. While many different parts of the column have been explored thoroughly, the musicians are not such a part. As such, this thesis aims to explore this gap in research as well as explore how the soundscapes have been represented on the column. By sorting and grouping scenes with musicians into different groups, this thesis has been able to find patterns of representation such as musicians being represented in religious scenes more often than in military scenes and the fact that there seem to be some compositional overlap between the different groups in how the musicians are represented. Grounding the thesis in a theoretical approach that uses the presumed audience and their experiences as a guide for how to represent different scenes, it is argued that part of the reason for musicians being more present in religious scenes than in military ones is because the roman audience were more aware of the actual religious soundscapes. As such they would be more able to recognize when religious scenes were represented “wrongly” compared to military scenes. This thesis has provided a start for looking at the musicians on Trajan’s column, as well as on trajanic or monumental art as a whole, as well as what kinds of soundscapes were represented and which soundscapes might have been known by the roman populace.