Sandra Strahlendorf

• BA Classical Archaeology (2009-2015), Ruprecht-Karls-University Heidelberg, First
• MA Classical Archaeology (2015-2018), Ruprecht-Karls-University Heidelberg and University of Leipzig, Distinction
• PhD Classics (2019-), Christ's College, University of Cambridge

I was always interested in the ways in which identity and status (gender, class, ethnos etc.) are communicated through iconography and visual narratives, particularly in Greek antiquity. The ability of individuals and communities to create a visual language that is understood by a large body of people (e.g. citizens of other poleis) but at the same time holds more detailed information for members of their own peer group, fascinates me. My thesis attempts to explain how civic and personal identity can be expressed on Greek funerary stelai from Asia Minor by analysing the iconographic language of the reliefs. It examines by which means different poleis use common iconographic themes and patterns to create new visual representations of their distinct values, and how individual citizens pictured themselves within this public framework to create a specific monument to their own memory.