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Life-sized relief of man and priestess found at monumental tomb
A life-sized funerary relief of a man and a woman has been unearthed from the remains of a monumental tomb at the Porta Sarno necropolis in Pompeii. The reliefs were carved on separate ashlars and then joined so perfectly the right foot of the man touches the left foot of the woman so it looks like they were carved from the same stone. The carving is so detailed that it includes jewelry and accessories that identify the woman as a priestess of Ceres. The drape of the man’s toga marks him as a Roman citizen. There is no inscription recording their names or relationship to each other.
The funerary area was first discovered in 1998 during construction of the Circumvesuviana narrow-gauge railway line which runs along the eastern walls of Pompeii near the Porta Sarno gate. In use from the Samnite period until it was abandoned in the 1st century A.D. years before the cataclysmic eruption of Vesuvius in 79 A.D., it is one of the oldest necropolises in Pompeii. The archaeological survey at that time recorded more than 50 cremation burials marked by volcanic stone stelae and an arched funerary monument tentatively dated to the Late Republican period.
The site was not fully explored in 1998, and archaeologists returned in July of 2024 as part of the Investigating the Archaeology of Death in Pompeii Research Project. The goal was to thoroughly map, excavate and analyze the funerary area, exploring its ancient usage and why it was abandoned. The team started with a boundary wall first encountered in 1999, because the presence of a wall suggested it might be enclosing a family funerary monument. After removing the layers of pumice and ash, archaeologists found what they were hoping for: a funerary structure with cremation niches and a wall with a high relief of the pair carved in volcanic tuff stone. Underneath the relief of the woman was a cinerary niche, and another niche was found under the relief of the man. Bone fragments were found at the base of the reliefs. They were bright white, evidence they were exposed to heat of over 650C, and osteological examination indicated the fragments belonged to a woman of mature age.
Half of the structure collapsed in the earthquakes that preceded the eruption of Vesuvius, but it was originally about 13 feet long and five feet high, although only two feet of it above ground. It was made of opus incertum (irregular stones mixed with concrete) coated with painted plaster. There were four niches that held cinerary remains, two on the side and the two central ones under the reliefs. The reliefs were topped by a pediment decorated with wood inlay and carved scrolls and chrysanthemum flowers. Pieces of charred wood survive, as do splashes of bright red paint.
Both the male and the female are beautifully carved, with fine detail work on the realistic clothing, their hands and faces and on their accessories. Their accessories — rings, bracelets, earrings, necklace, his calcei patricii shoes — marks them as wealthy people of high social status. She wears a lunula, a crescent moon amulet, that was a symbol of the fertility of the earth and the cult of Ceres. She holds springs of laurel in front of her body, used by priestesses to purify spaces by burning them during religious rituals.
Priestesses of Ceres were important figures, receiving funds from the public coffers and selected only from the most prominent families. Epigraphic evidence on funerary and monumental inscriptions name seven priestesses of Ceres in Pompeii. Sculptures of them, however, rarely display the identifiable iconography of their role. Most of them are vague, generalized depictions, which makes the relief all the more exceptional.
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