391-410

Two roman imperial “palmette” funerary stelai

• Βλαχογιάννη, Έλενα

The two funerary “palmette” stelai (nos. 17,16) published here are from ancient Tanagra. They are housed in the recently-renovated Museum of Schematari in the village of this name.Stele no. 17 is of a gray Boeotian “marble”. It is surmounted by a wide palmette crowning element with relief decoration (a nine-petaled palmette at the center, and three-petaled half-palmettes at the corners). On the front of the body of the stele there is a carved petal-shaped niche, supported on its sides by pilasters with capitals (a part of the left side is preserved). Within the niche is a relief depiction of a frontal female head, broken off at the base of the neck. On the basis of stylistic criteria, the scene in the niche may be dated to the late Tra- janic-early Hadrianic period. The similar finishing of stele and crowing element argues in favour of their having been done at the same time. However, a series of individual features (part of the stem on the left side (facin g the monument) of the crowning element, saddle-shaped cross-section of the crowning element, the stele’s construction material) raise the serious possibility that this stele is the product of a reworked earlier Hellenistic palmette stele from which traces of its existing decoration have been completely erased, and the present result is an original work of the Roman Imperial age.Stele no. 16 is of a white, probably Pentelic marble, and it too has a palmette crowning element. On its main body inside the vaulted niche, whose apse is supported on either side by pillars with capitals, a scene with three frontal figures (their faces deliberately cut off) has been carved. The stele is the product of a reworked earlier palmette funerary stele of the Hellenistic age, from whose crowning element only a part of the palmette remained. The niche was created during the Roman Imperial age; the three relief figures were carved inside it, as were the inscriptions on the pediment of its crowning e lement, the vaulted epistyle of its niche, and its plinth. There is a discussion of problems concerning: a) the sex of the two adult figures in the scene; b) the inscriptions, which do not correspond to the figures they accompany; c) the profession of the right- hand figure in light of the attribute he holds, and d) the stele’s date.

• History and Archaeology
• Arts

• Αρχαιολογία
• Ανασκαφές (Αρχαιολογία)
• Archaeology and art
• Art, Ancient

Για την παραχώρηση της άδειας μελέτης και δημοσίευσης των δύο επιτύμβιων στηλών του Μουσείου Σχηματαρίου θερμές ευχαριστίες οφείλω στον προϊστάμενο της Θ' Εφορείας Προϊστορικών και Κλασικών Αρχαιοτήτων, Β. Αραβαντινό, και ιδιαίτερα στην καθηγήτρια Κλασικής Αρχαιολογίας του Πανεπιστημίου Tor Vergata της Ρώμης, Μ. Bonanno-Aravantinos. Επίσης, ευχαριστώ τις φίλες αρχαιολόγους, Α.-Β. Καραπαναγιώτου (ΛΘ' Εφορεία Προϊστορικών και Κλασικών Αρχαιοτήτων) και Β. Μαχαίρα (Ακαδημία Αθηνών) για τις χρήσιμες παρατηρήσεις τους σε επί μέρους προβλήματα της μελ της. Ο καθαρισμός των στηλών από ιζήματα και επικαθήσεις οφείλεται στη συντηρήτρια Γ. Ψαρρού. Οι φωτογραφίες της όψης των δύο στηλών, με τους αριθμούς όπως συνηθιζόταν στον προπερασμένο αιώνα, είναι του Γ. Πατρικιάνου. Οι λήψεις των πίσω όψεων και των κροτάφων είναι της αρχαιολόγου Κ. Χαμηλάκη, την οποία ευχαριστώ., Περιέχει εικόνες, συντομογραφίες και βιβλιογραφία, Το άρθρο περιέχεται στο τεύχος: Μέρος Α'-Μελέτες