Funerary Monuments Research Articles

Polychromy in Ancient Greek Sculpture: New Scientific Research on an Attic Funerary Stele at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

Polychromy in Ancient Greek Sculpture was the subject of the exhibition Chroma: Ancient Greek Sculpture in Color, held at The Metropolitan Museum of Art (The Met), New York, in 2022–2023. On this occasion, a multidisciplinary project involving The Met’s Departments of Greek and Roman Art, Objects Conservation, Imaging, Scientific Research, and colleagues from the Liebieghaus Polychromy Research Project in Frankfurt, Germany, was carried out to study an Attic funerary monument. The color decoration of the sphinx was reconstructed by combining non-invasive and minimally invasive techniques that provided information about surviving and lost pigments, original design, and painting technique. Results of multiband imaging, digital microscopy, and X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy guided the removal of minute samples from selected areas for examination by Raman spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy, coupled with energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, to shed light on the pigments and paint stratigraphy. The color palette included two varieties of blue, Egyptian blue and azurite, a carbon-based black pigment, two reds, cinnabar and red ocher, and yellow ocher, all painted directly over the marble without a preparation layer. The scientific findings informed the physical reconstruction of the sphinx made by archaeologists from the Liebieghaus Polychromy Research Project, featured in the exhibition.

Analysis of Pigments from Decorated Antler or Bone Artifacts from the Early Iron Age Princely Burial Mounds in Jalžabet (NW Croatia)

During the Early Iron Age in Europe (EIA), the phenomenon of the Hallstatt culture enveloped a large portion of the European continent. Between the Atlantic Ocean and the River Danube, cultural groups can be roughly divided into two major regions: the Western and the Eastern Hallstatt circle. EIA finds made from organic material decorated with pigments are usually well-preserved only in specific conditions. A good example is the coloured textile found in the salt mines of the eponymous site Hallstatt (AT). Other examples are Scythian finds north and east of the Black Sea, far outside the Hallstatt culture area. This paper presents the results of the analysis of decorated artifacts made from bone or antlers from Jalžabet (NW Croatia). The artifacts were found in two princely burial mounds with incinerated remains: burial mound 1 (Gomila) and burial mound 2. The funerary monuments belong to the Eastern Hallstatt culture and date back to the middle of the 6th century BC, i.e., the end of the Ha D1 period. A group of scientists from Croatia and abroad performed several series of analyses on the selected bone or antler artifacts. The motifs on the artifacts were made by incisions and were filled with black pigment, and there are faint traces of red pigment on the surface. With the help of colourant analysis performed in Brussels and Zagreb (SEM-EDX, MRS, FT-IR), zooarchaeological taxonomic identification, and archaeological determination of a selected group of findings from Jalžabet, we have tried to answer several major questions. The most important question being: are the traces of pigments on artefacts deliberate decoration? If so, can we determine the composition of the paint? What kind of raw materials were used for the production of the artifacts? These questions are important because these kinds of EIA finds are rare and even more rarely analysed. New data would considerably expand our knowledge about the funeral rites of the most prominent members of the Hallstatt nobility in the Drava River valley and Central Europe. Taxonomically, the raw material from which the finds were made was identified to be antlers, probably from red deer (Cervus elaphus). Using methods for colourant analysis, we have successfully proven deliberate application of black paint based on carbon black as a pigment, probably in combination with terpenoid resin. Until now, this composition was only known from much later, Roman-period finds. Also, it was confirmed that the black paint on the artifacts from both burial mounds in Jalžabet is of the same composition. The red pigment on the finds has been identified as hematite. It is highly probable that the red surfaces were deliberate, painted decoration. The probability of extracting the raw material needed for the production of the red paint in the Jalžabet micro-region was also established and requires further research (bog iron ore). The archaeological analysis of the finds supports the idea of the use of various types of decorated plates as inlays, probably on furniture or other luxury everyday items. Smaller finds could have been used as utilitarian objects, parts of attire, and jewellery.

Kinship practices in Early Iron Age South-east Europe: genetic and isotopic analysis of burials from the Dolge njive barrow cemetery, Dolenjska, Slovenia

The burial of multiple individuals within a single funerary monument invites speculation about the relationships between the deceased: were they chosen on the basis of status, gender or relatedness, for example? Here, the authors present the results of aDNA and isotope analyses conducted on seven individuals from an Early Iron Age barrow at Dolge njive, south-eastern Slovenia. All seven individuals are close biological relatives. While the group composition suggests strict adherence to neither patrilineal nor matrilineal structures, the funerary tradition appears highly gendered, and family links through both the male and female lines seem important in structuring of the community. The results have implications for understanding of kinship and funerary practices in late prehistoric Europe.

The geological and historical milieu of an ornamental cephalopod limestone (‘orthoceratite limestone’, Ordovician, Sweden) used in the Clerk Mausoleum (1684), St Mungo's Kirkyard, Penicuik, Scotland

A slab of cephalopod limestone bears a dedicatory Latin inscription on the mausoleum built around 1684 by Sir John Clerk of Penicuik (1649–1722) for his wife Elizabeth Henderson (1658–83) at St Mungo's Church, Penicuik, near Edinburgh, Scotland. The stone is identified on sedimentological and palaeontological evidence and historical context as Ordovician ‘orthoceratite limestone’ from Sweden, probably the island of Öland, rather than Carboniferous cephalopod limestone from the much nearer Closeburn area of Dumfriesshire. ‘Orthoceratite limestone’ was little used in Great Britain, and mainly as paving, so its use in a funerary monument is unusual. It is, however, paralleled by contemporary examples at Winchester Cathedral. The Penicuik slab was probably imported either directly from Sweden, or through Rotterdam or another Netherlands entrepôt. It is the only surviving historical example of this stone known in Edinburgh and the Lothians, probably because of changing fashions, building demolition and renewal of worn paving. The inscription shows errors of composition, carving and installation, ascribed to inexperience or haste. The employment of ‘orthoceratite limestone’ is interpreted as seeking to emulate Roman use of marbles and similar ornamental stones. It contributes to the Penicuik mausoleum's significance as a pioneering example of classical or Antique architecture.

Archaeoastronomy and Conflict: On the Orientation of Prehistoric Funerary Monuments in Western Sahara

A variety of Prehistoric dry-stone monuments are ubiquitous in Western Sahara, a region delimited by the boundaries of the former Spanish colony. With either burial or ritual functions, these monuments are spread throughout the Sahara Desert creating sacred landscapes and housing the memory of millennia of occupation. Previous research has explored the role of the sky in various aspects of the life of early inhabitants, such as their religious beliefs or funerary practices. These have been identified by the patterns of location and orientation of these constructions and their relation to particular astronomical events. This work presents a statistical analysis of the orientation of more than 200 prehistoric dry-stone monuments in Western Sahara occupied by Morocco, currently the biggest sample ever studied in this area and the first unique sample obtained in situ. The results show that the orientations follow similar trends observed in other areas of North Africa and the Mediterranean and that they fit with the visibility of particular celestial objects. This provides new insights into the ideas about space, time, and death and the cultural changes and mobility of those peoples and contributes to the preservation of a highly threatened heritage that is immersed in a vast land currently under dispute.

Inscribed funerary monuments of Legio VII and the emergence of military communities in 1st century AD Dalmatia

The Imperial Roman military consisted of a vast collection of armies and overlapping sub-communities, causing it to be a multi-layered entity. Scholars have explored its social dynamics since the 1980s, with epigraphic material – particularly of a funerary nature – providing valuable insight. The provinces of southeastern Europe, such as Dalmatia, are home to a great deal of well-catalogued archaeological and epigraphical material which could contribute to these studies, however, they are often left unconsidered in scholarship from outside the region. This paper conducts an epigraphical and archaeological analysis of the Romano-Dalmatian inscribed funerary monuments of the Seventh Legion (Legio VII Claudia pia fidelis) to study the construction of identity and community. It is demonstrated that Legio VII was home to a complex network of servicemen intersected by various social, familial, legal, and military roles, relations, and symbols, which was rejuvenated and negotiated through the textual, sculptural, and spatial dimensions of funerary monuments. Moreover, these very funerary monuments were a significant part of this network, acting as media of identity and community (re)construction and (re)negotiation. Not only does this shed light on the social dynamics of Roman military communities, but it also reinforces the image which has emerged in recent scholarship of funerary monuments as socially constructive media. Finally, this paper demonstrates the value of theoretically engaged analyses of material from, and scholarship concerning, Romano-Dalmatia.

‘I Gave Grain to All of Dendera in its Entirety’: mentions of large-scale food donations in the VIth Upper Egyptian nome in the First Intermediate Period

The paper scrutinizes written sources on large-scale food donations in the Denderite nome during the First Intermediate Period, paying special attention to their contexts – the official statuses of the owners of these inscriptions, the peculiarities of their monuments, etc. Such data cast a new light on incentives for boasting about lavish food donations in Denderite autobiographies. While the owners of the inscriptions in question have relatively humble official positions, their funerary monuments appear to be very expensive by the Dendera cemetery standards of the time. The author argues that these Denderites emphasized their generous food donations primarily to justify their moral entitlement to their monuments, which would otherwise have appeared far too sumptuous for the persons not belonging to the administrative elite.

A combined approach to the reconstruction of the “sacred landscape” of duklja and raska in the times of stefan nemanja based on historical geography, art and church history

This article strives for a combined approach consisting of historical geography and art and church history in the research of Duklja and Raska in the times of Stefan Nemanja. The article?s first part addresses the circumstances of the birth of Stefan Nemanja and the question of Nemanja?s two baptisms. Moreover, data on the churches and monasteries, their patrocinia and the stecci (funeral monuments) in the area of research has been gathered and then analysed with digital tools to offer a map-based reconstruction of the ?Sacred Landscape?.

Revisiting Edessa’s Funerary Portrait Habit

This paper re-examines the inscribed funerary monuments of Edessa and its surrounding area, both sculptures and mosaics, and offers a systematic approach to their typology, chronology, and iconography. This study of the eleven sculptures and twenty-seven mosaics highlights changes, especially in the depiction of the banqueting motif and the shift from the usual single-figure representations in sculptural format to the multifigural ones in mosaics, in addition to the best-documented change, from tombs where the figural commemoration was carved on the rock-cut walls to the depiction on mosaics. The comparison with the funerary monuments of neighbouring regions, especially Palmyra, to which the ones from Edessa have often been compared, shows that the Edessene artists and patrons were aware of iconographic and funerary trends, but chose to highlight their own local identity and practices in their own monuments, especially in the mosaics.

INTERREGIONAL RELATIONS BETWEEN SOUTH ASIA AND EASTERN EUROPE ON THE MATERIALS OF SHELL PRODUCTS (XXX CENTURY BC - VII CENTURY AD)

Since the beginning of the III millennium BC, the population of the Hindustan peninsula has used the shells of Turbinella pyrum and Cypraea moneta mollusks for the production of various categories of inventory. From about the same time and up to the beginning of the XX century, these shells and objects made of them were delivered to other Asian regions. Since the VIII century BC, shells of Cypraea moneta began to arrive on the territory of Eastern Europe through the Caucasus, and Turbinella pyrum began to arrive from the turn of the era. The largest number of the latter were found in the funerary monuments of the Praudmurtian Mazunin culture of the III-V centuries AD in the Kama region (Tarasovsky, Izhevsk, Nyrgyndinsky I and other burial grounds). However, in the IV-V centuries, the arrival of Turbinella pyrum shells on the territory of Eastern Europe ceased.

Tomb of Tahir Khan Nahar in Sitpur: An Analysis of its Architectural Features and Decorative Elements

The true spirit of people is reflected in the folklore, custom, tradition, art and craft of the region. Punjab (Pakistan) has impressive folk art, diversity of cultural heritage, stunning historic architecture and variety of arts and crafts. It is regarded to be a glimpse into Pakistani culture. The historic tomb of Tahir Khan Nahar is situated in Sitpur, tehsil Alipur built in circa 1520 AD. 
 The tomb of Tahir Khan Nahar is the earliest known pre-Mughal funerary monument created in imitation of the celebrated monument Rukn-i-Alam though having its own personality to be regarded as the first ever attempt to create a local variation of the style, especially for the sake of the design and color of faience and faience-mosaic revetment. This paper examined the architectural design and surface ornamentation, which is lavishly embellished with glazed tile work and other details. This paper further analyses the design elements in detail with reference to tomb architecture in Pakistan.
 The paper is divided into three parts. First part discussed the historical context of the saint. The second part placed the tomb in its architectural elements and discussed style of its construction. Third part examined the surface decoration of the tomb. The architectural features in relation with the other monuments of the region have been discussed in last part. The paper finally concludes with importance of this historic tomb and impact of cultural influences on tomb architecture.

Becoming Roman? Two-Sided Stelae in Lucus Augusti and its Hinterland

In this article we analyze the two-sided stelae of Lucus Augusti and its hinterland, unique pieces throughout the Roman Empire, with the aim of compiling the information we have about them and analyzing them from the perspective of postcolonial romanization theories. To this end, Bourdieuʼs theory of habitus is fundamentally used, understanding habitus as a generator of principles of social behavior. The use of the toga in the representations of these stelae and their link with Roman citizenship are key to understanding who commissioned these funerary monuments, as well as the correct interpretation of the themes on the reverse provide us with new data. The analysis of the granite blocks allows us to know that they were not large stelae or with an epigraphic text that is now lost, but that it was a conscious choice which they did not have text rather images on both sides. The two-sided stelae are the reflection of a local custom, that is, part of a new hybrid culture: the provincial Galician-Roman culture.
 *This article was supported by a PhD fellowship from the Spanish Ministry of Universities called “Ayudas para la Formación de Profesorado Universitario” (FPU19/00148). This research was conducted within the framework of the R+D+i project “Nuevas bases documentales para el estudio histórico de la Hispania romana de época republicana: ciudadanía romana y latinidad (90 a.C. – 45 a.C.)” (PID2019-105940GB-I00) (4 years).

Roman inscriptions and sculptural fragments from Moldovenești and Bădeni

The paper publishes a series of fragmentary Roman monuments embedded into the walls of churches in Moldovenești and Bădeni (Cluj County). A part of them, epigraphic pieces belong to fragmentary funerary monuments and bring new information on onomastic and prosopography. Other fragments of funerary monuments only preserve the figurative and decorative sculptural decoration. Only two monuments are votive: a relief with the figure of Silvanus and an uninscribed altar. To have a complete picture of the recycling habit of the Roman monuments during the Middle Ages, some decorated architectural fragments are also presented. All these monuments come from the ancient city of Potaissa (currently Turda, Cluj County).

Epigram in Memory of the Athenians Fallen in the Battle of Potidaea

The stele belongs to a funerary monument placed on the Demosion Sema, the road outside the city of Athens that linked the Dipylon to the Academia. The inscription is made of epigrams and was part of a funerary monument erected in honour of soldiers fallen in the battle of Potidaea. Discovered in 1810 in the Kerameikos area, the stele is important to better understand the memory of the war dead, the structure of funerary monuments, and the perception of honour given to soldiers who sacrificed their lives for their country.

An archaeological evaluation of the Olmec “royal tombs” at La Venta, Mexico

AbstractAt La Venta, Mexico, the Middle Formative Olmec regional center, the existence of individual leaders is interpreted from the evidence of monumental stone portraiture and several tombs believed to house the bodies of a sequence of kings late in La Venta's history. The status of these latter features as graves, however, has been debated since soon after they were excavated in the 1940s, especially because they generally lacked osteological material. What remained was arrangements of costume items as if adorning a body, usually associated with a stone container. Most archaeologists have advanced the reasonable explanation that bones and teeth would not have survived in tropical environments and accepted both the tomb attribution and their function as individual funerary monuments. A detailed review of available information from the La Venta excavations reveals these assumptions are not warranted. Field data indicate the absence of expected taphonomic evidence of bodily decay. Analysis of the stratigraphy of Mound A-2, aided, by computer-enhanced imaging of field drawings, demonstrates its tomb-like features were erected in a single, short construction phase, not over a span of decades as individual kings died. These conclusions call for alternative explanations of these “surrogate burials,” absent bodies materially evoked by ritual officiants.

Who Was Buried at the Petit-Chasseur Site? The Contribution of Archaeometric Analyses of Final Neolithic and Bell Beaker Domestic Pottery to the Understanding of the Megalith-Erecting Society of the Upper Rhône Valley (Switzerland, 3300–2200 BC)

Abstract The Petit-Chasseur megalithic necropolis is a key archaeological context for analyzing the social and ideological changes at the end of the Neolithic in the Alpine region of Central Europe. The link between the funerary monuments and settlement sites was established by means of ceramic archaeometric analysis. Domestic pottery from settlement sites were thoroughly characterized using multiple spectroscopic and microscopic techniques. Twelve ceramic fabrics were identified along with three types of clay substrate: illitic, muscovitic, and kaolinitic. Reconstructed paste preparation recipes largely involved the tempering of the raw clays with crushed rocks or coarse sediments. Types of raw material were not picked up randomly but were selected or avoided due to their particular compositional properties and attest to the exploitation of glacial, gravitational, eolian, and fluvial deposits. Compositional correspondence between ceramic grave goods and domestic pottery allowed identification of a link between the megalithic tombs and settlement sites, thus providing new data contributing to the investigation of the social dimension of monumental burials. Ceramic grave goods were revealed to be intertwined with the social instability affecting the 3rd millennium BC communities of the Upper Rhône Valley.

Bell Beaker Burial Customs in North-western France

Ever since large amounts of Bell Beaker complex pottery were first discovered within megalithic graves in north-western France, the Bell Beaker has been tightly tied to the ‘megalithic phenomenon’. However, the fact of construction of these various kinds of megalithic monument during the Middle to Late Neolithic pre-dates the users of Bell Beakers. While this is a case of the re-use of older funerary monuments, it is assumed that Bell Beaker funerary practices witness a shift from Neolithic collective burial to individual inhumation. For a long time finds from the megalithic graves have constituted our main source of information on the Bell Beaker complex in north-western France. However, these ‘artificial caves’ have biased our understanding of the Bell Beaker complex and, in particular, of its funerary practices. The re-assessment of old finds and recent large-scale excavations have brought to light a large number of new sites, revealing a greater diversity in Bell Beaker funerary practices in the region than had been perceived previously. In the first part, we set the broader picture, stating what we know or can say about funerary practices during the Recent and Late Neolithic (3350–2550 bc), before the beginning of the Bell Beaker phenomenon. We then discuss the different Bell Beaker burial practices (2550–1950 bc), their chronological and regional variabilities, and, above all, the research biases that might have affected their understanding.

Tubo-Sogdian Relations along the Silk Road: On an Enigmatic Gold Plaque from Dulan (Qinghai, China)

In 2018, some tombs that belonged to early Tibetan-related elites at the site of Dulan (Qinghai, China) were disturbed by looters’ activity. One of the gold objects confiscated by local police officers displays a curious composite creature that could be called a winged ichthyocentaurus or triton. This creature includes the torso of a dressed man with a beribboned crown holding a rhyton-like horn and a coiled fish tail. This article discusses the possible function and meaning of this type of composite creatures that appear also on some artifacts from Central Asian archaeological sites and Sino-Sogdian funerary monuments. The iconography of the hybrid creatures seems to be rooted in Greek art. Sogdians possibly transmitted it to the Tibetan Plateau along the so-called Silk Road in the 7th-8th cc. The horn held by the creature is reminiscent of one attribute of the ancient Chinese wind god “Feng Bo” (风伯, “Master of the Wind”) that has been depicted in the funerary milieu since the Han period (202 B.C.-220 A.D.) because of its association with immortality. This object could allow us to identify the iconography of the Sogdian wind deity Weshparkar (Avestan Vayu) who sometimes had a “wind blowing horn” like in the Dulan gold plaque. The study of this specific detail could help to shed light on the multicultural background of early Tibetan societies that definitely had contacts with Central Asia and China along the Silk Road trading network.

Ars longa vita brevis

Abstract It is therefore nothing short of frustrating that the passing on 4 October 1669 of Rembrandt van Rijn, long considered the greatest among seventeenth-century Dutch painters, has left scarcely any traces. In her essay Stephanie Dickey reconstructs the circumstances of the artist’s death. Her piece amounts to a cultural history of death and burial in Protestant Amsterdam. Rembrandt was buried like any other citizen. No elaborate funeral ceremony took place; no eulogies were composed; no funeral monument was erected. He ended up in a rented grave with two other men. The now lost stone slab probably only included his name. The exact location in the Westerkerk went unrecorded. As Dickey almost ruefully concludes, ‘(…) Rembrandt’s modest burial suited his standing as one established artist among many in the busy city’.

Les monuments funéraires en trou de serrure de l’Edjereh et de l’Amadror (Ahaggar, Algérie)

In this work, we will try to illuminate that in the Ahaggar region (Algeria) funerary monuments are very abundant with a various architecture. A series of archaeological field explorations has made it possible to gather the necessary observations and measurements. The most spectacular architecture is the so-called “keyhole architecture”, also identified as “corridor and enclosure”, which has been recognised in the central Ahaggar, with the exception of the Téfedest area, which has not yet produced any examples. The here is to present some keyhole monuments recognised during our various missions in the Edjereh and Amadror regions, some of which have been the subject of archaeological excavations in the past.