Images of Individuals, Dialogues of Current Discourses. Triggers of artistic transformations in the Roman Middle East between the 1st and 4th centuries CE

For a longer time, Sokołowski's interests have focused on the methods of human depiction in the arts of the Roman Middle East. His current project emerges from his previous study, which investigated the origins of funerary portrait reliefs from Roman Syria, and defined their stages of development against the backdrop of the social and cultural processes at the border of the Mediterranean and Asia in the first three centuries CE. The study involved the famous Palmyrene reliefs, but its scope was much broader, resulting in a complete picture of funerary reliefs from all parts of Syria. Such a dataset allowed a substantial revision in the state of the art, and a deeper interpretation of the material, which permitted abandoning the prevailing narrowly stylistic Helleno- and Romanocentric art-historical perspective. At the moment, Sokołowski leaves Syrian tombs, and analyses expressions of identities as local responses to Roman globalisation in other regions of the Roman Levant-Syria-Palaestine, Arabia, and Cyprus. He looks not only into funerary portraits, but also case studies of other artistic forms: sculptures in the round, terracotta figurines, and mosaics. As a result, a detailed chronology of artistic transformations from several sites can be constructed, following the rhythm of social change. Based on that, it will be possible to discuss the formation of regional workshops and artistic koine as a product of cultural dialogue between the people of Roman East and the wider Roman visual tradition, but also with other artistic traditions present in the region. This undertaking entails a serious shift in approach to Roman art.

His other research interests focus on the cultural history of the object, provenance studies, and the use of archaeological objects in museum collections and heritage research.