The Stagni Painted Tomb: Cultural Interchange and Gender Differentiation in Roman Alexandria

Abstract

This article interprets the architectural and pictorial program of the Stagni Tomb—excavated in Alexandria in 1989—as indicative of both cultural interchange and gender-specific decoration in Roman-period Alexandrian funerary art. It suggests that the tomb's fusion of classical and Egyptian subjects and style—which are combined in a manner original to the Stagni Tomb—demonstrates the exchange of cultural material between the two major ethnic groups in ancient Alexandria and that the inventive subject matter of the Stagni Tomb indicates that the tomb was intended for a woman. The article concludes that the elements of the Stagni Tomb combine to form a multicultural program granting preservation for the body of the deceased and immortality for her soul.