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Archaeologists Uncover Two Nearly Life-Size Statues Carved Into the Wall of a Tomb in Ancient…

Ancient statues in Pompeii

The figures adorn the wall of a tomb found in a necropolis near one of Pompeii’s city gates.

Two nearly life-size statues have been discovered inside a cemetery in Pompeii, the ancient Roman city destroyed by Mount Vesuvius’ eruption in 79 C.E. Experts think the figures are a funerary relief depicting a couple once buried at the site.

The statues adorn the wall of a tomb found in a necropolis near Porta Sarno, one of Pompeii’s city gates, according to a statement from Pompeii Archaeological Park. The cemetery is filled with cremation burials. Carved into the tomb’s wall are several niches that once held funerary urns, as well as a carved relief depicting a woman and man standing side by side.

As researchers write in the park’s digital magazine, the sculptures were likely carved during Rome’s Late Republican period (between the second and first century B.C.E.). Tombs of this kind are rare in southern Italy.

The researchers theorize that the funerary sculptures represent a married couple, though they say they can’t be certain. “This could be her husband, but it could also be her son,” Gabriel Zuchtriegel, director of the archaeological park, tells the Guardian’s Angela Giuffrida. “There was no inscription, so we don’t know.”

couple

The man and woman may represent a married couple, but researchers say they can't be sure. Pompeii Archaeological Park

The male figure wears a simple toga, while the woman wears a large cloak over a tunic and many accessories. Her carved jewelry includes amphora-shaped earrings, a wedding ring, bracelets and a necklace with a lunula pendant (a crescent moon). As the researchers write, Roman girls wore lunula amulets until marriage to protect themselves from evil.

In her right hand, the female figure holds laurel leaves, which Roman priestesses and priests once used to purify spaces. In her left hand, she holds a cylindrical container that may represent a scroll.

“She really looks like a very important woman in the local elite,” Zuchtriegel tells the Guardian. “There is also this idea that she could have been a priestess of Ceres, holding these plants and what appears to be a papyrus roll.”

Ceres is the Roman goddess of agriculture, fertility and motherhood. In Roman religion, she was symbolically connected to the moon, as its phases were thought to correspond with harvests, which could explain the female statue’s lunula pendant, per the journal.

laurel

The female figure holds laurel leaves, which Roman priestesses and priests used to purify spaces. Pompeii Archaeological Park

“Since women in Roman society were commonly relegated to the domestic sphere and to the tasks of the Roman matron, being a priestess was the highest social rank to which a woman could aspire,” write the researchers.

As leaders of religious cults, priestesses “would have overseen rituals in temples and taken part in processions dedicated to Ceres,” Sophie Hay, a British archaeologist working at Pompeii, tells the Telegraph’s Nick Squires. “She was the goddess of agriculture and cereals but she was also associated with fertility and new life. She was widely revered.”

The funerary reliefs’ age and quality alone make them rare finds. However, the fact that the female figure may represent a priestess holding religious objects makes the discovery exceptional, as the researchers write. The statue also offers valuable insight into the religious practices of Pompeii’s ancient residents, providing new evidence that Ceres “has a clear place in the officially sanctioned religion in Pompeii, with a dedicated priestess.”

Later this month, the funerary reliefs will be displayed in an exhibition at the archaeological park called “Being a Woman in Ancient Pompeii.” Visitors will be able to observe as experts clean and conserve the sculpted figures.