Roman Sculpture: Limestone Memorial Tablet

Inv. No.: 02.001
Provenance: probably from Sicily
Date: 4th century AD
Height: 188mm
Length: 244mm
Depth: 57 mm
 
A rectangular limestone memorial tablet inscribed with five lines of Greek:

ΕΠΑΓΑΘΕ

ΧΡΗΣΤΕ

ΚΑΙΑΜΕΜ

ΠΤΕΧΑΙΡΕ

ΕΖ[ΗΕ]ΤΗ?Ο

This translates as follows: "Epagathus, good and blameless, farewell. He lived 70 years."* The single name and record of lifespan are features typically found in Christian epitaphs while the use of Greek was common on funerary tablets in Sicily where the Greek language, introduced by earlier Greek colonists, persisted alongside Latin during the period of the Roman Empire. The letters are roughly carved and irregularly laid out. The tablet is extensively chipped around the edges, particularly on the bottom and the right-hand side. Three irregular chunks are missing from the bottom edge while the top right-hand corner has a large piece missing from the front face of the tablet. An indentation towards the top of the right-hand side was perhaps made to hold a clamp. There is a small chip below this recess. A light brown incrustation covers the surface, but the white of the limestone is evident where it has been scratched.

Function:
A memorial tablet.

Manufacture:
Initial shaping of the limestone tablet could have been done using a saw because of the softness of the limestone; otherwise a point or punch and hammer was used. This was followed by working with chisels and smoothing with rasps. The letters were then incised using a chisel and hammer.

Bibliography:
Bodel, J. (ed.), Epigraphic Evidence: Ancient history from inscriptions, London and New York, Routledge, 2001.

Cook, B. F., Greek Inscriptions, London, British Museum Publications, 1987.

Keppie, L., Understanding Roman Inscriptions, Baltimore, The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1991, especially 119-124.

Wilson, R. J. A., Sicily under the Roman Empire: The archaeology of a Roman province, 36 BC-AD 535, Warminster, England, Aris and Phillips, 1990, especially 128-142 ("Funerary Monuments"), 301-312 ("Judaism and Christianity"), 313-329 ("Romanization").

Comparanda:
Writing and Lettering in Antiquity, XIX, Charles Ede catalogue, September 2001, No. 30.