Travelers’ Accounts of Roman Statuary in the Near East and North Africa: From Limbo and Destruction to Museum Heaven

Attitudes toward Roman statuary during the fourth to seventh centuries partly conditioned what survived into later centuries; but except for deeply buried material, it was later attitudes that, in all their variety, conditioned the small proportion of survivals that has come down to us, and that now fill our museums. Based on the accounts of travelers and scholars who visited Greece, Turkey, Palestine, Egypt, and North Africa, this chapter provides an overview of the fate of figured sculpture from the Middle Ages to the beginnings of the age of mass tourism. It suggests that it is incorrect to believe either