This lecture explores some aspects of the formal and stylistic language of limestone portrait busts from Roman Syria-Palaestina, dating to the second and third centuries AD and concentrated mainly in the necropoleis of Scythopolis and Samaria-Sebaste – though with parallels in the neighbouring Decapolis.

These works represent a distinct manifestation of regional artistic culture, produced by local workshops for a local market. Some of their features nevertheless point to a broader process of cultural interaction, most clearly recognisable in the faces of the portrayed individuals and in their participation in the phenomenon of the so-called Zeitgesicht – the “face of the age” shaped by imperial portraiture, often a key element for their dating.

While such connections are clearly perceptible, they reflect a network of complex and multidirectional exchanges rather than a simple one-way dynamics. On the one hand, the overall appearance of these portraits was shaped by the patrons’ expectations, the workshops’ own technical conventions, local formulas, and intended modes of display. On the other, rather than true assimilations to individual emperors, the portraits seem to reflect broader Zeitgesichter – defined above all by habitus, hair fashion, and expression – that emerged within a macro-regional framework.