A Roman Chamber-Tomb at Sardis Author(s): Theodore Leslie Shear Source: American Journal of Archaeology, Vol. 31, No. 1 (Jan.

- Mar., 1927), pp. 19-25 Published by: Archaeological Institute of America Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/497612 Accessed: 19/11/2010 06:35
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Zrt~aeological 3Jntitute of nntrica

A ROMAN CHAMBER-TOMB AT SARDIS*

PLATES III-VI DURINGthe excavations at Sardis made in the spring of 1922 a trial trench, dug in a hillock lying north of a small ravine that is northeast of the temple of Artemis, led to the discovery of a vaulted chambertomb of the Roman period which, because of its excellent state of preservation, furnishes a good illustration of this type of tomb. A brief account of this discovery is contained in my preliminary report of the results of the excavations at Sardis in 1922, published in this JOURNAL, XXVI, 1922, pp. 405-407. The aim of the present article is to present a full description of this monument, accompanied

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ENTRANCE

TO AREA ABOVE

CHAMBER-TOMB

by reproductions of the mural paintings made from water-colors by Mrs. Shear. On the south side of the hillock, 1.35 m. below the surface of the ground, a marble block appeared that was set like a threshold between rubble walls. Beyond the threshold to the north was an area paved with cement of an average thickness of 0.47 m. A view from the south showing the threshold and the walls in the excavation of the hillock is given in Figure 1. At the east end of the cemented area two marble blocks covered an orifice in the ground, 0.92 m. wide, which proved to be the entrance to the tomb. The plan, which is reproduced in Figure 2, was drawn to scale by Richard Stillwell after measurements taken at Sardis by Lansing Holden and Gordon
* [The author has kindly provided the plates of this article.-Editor.]

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McCormick. On the left of the plan are shown in section the bank of earth, the cemented area, with the marble cover-slab on its left, and the tomb itself below. The plan of the floor of the tomb, which is cut in hard-pan and measures 2.68 by 2.43 m., is given in the lower right corner of the figure. At the west end the wall is 2 m. high, at the east 2.11. The ceiling is vaulted with a slight irregularity in the curve at the east end, as is shown by the sectional drawing in the upper right corner of the plan. In order to facilitate entrance at this end three corbel steps made of single blocks of stone of irregu-

ROMAN TOMB AT SARDIS

SECTION LOOKING EAST

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FIGURE 2.

PLAN AND SECTIONS OF TOMB

lar shape are set in the wall. The walls are constructed of thin bricks laid in mortar with an outer facing of thick plaster, the surface of which is entirely covered with painted decorations. The chamber, when opened, was found to be about half full of earth which had stained the lower part of the walls, but apart from this discoloration and from some small breaks in the plaster the paintings are extremely well preserved. Each of the walls has a narrow red border along the edges, in addition to which on the end walls a strip of green is painted within the red. The decorations consist chiefly of flowers and garlands scattered over the surfaces, intermingled with which are birds and baskets of fruit. At one end, also, vines are represented with large

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PLATE IV.

ROMANTOMBAT SARDIS.

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SHEAR:

A ROMAN CHAMBER-TOMB

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21

pendent bunches of grapes. The colors are red and green on a cream-colored background, with a sparing use of blue for the grapes and for the "eyes" in the tail of a peacock. On the east wall in which the steps for descent are built, Plate III, the decoration consists solely of scattered garlands and flowers. Only one kind of flower is used here and on the other walls. It has small red buds on long stems and clearly is intended to represent the red poppy that grows freely in the fields of Greece and of Asia Minor. The red, worm-like objects that have been called garlands, seven of which are painted on this wall, are long, narrow, curved bags which have an opening at the top but are closed at the bottom. They are tied with green ribbons both at the top and at the bottom and have bands of red painted closely together along the full length of the sides. These occur on all the walls except the west. E. H. Minns, when discussing in Scythians and Greeksa tomb at Kerch in the Crimea (p. 316), describes similar decorations there as "garlands of a kind or rather bags stuffed with flowers worn as garlands." It is probable that these objects are survivals in use and appearance of the taenia which was employed by the Greeks in connection with burial ritual from very early times, and which appears commonly in the scenes painted on the Athenian white lekythoi.1 Fillets of similar shape also decorate an athlete on an amphora in Boston.2 These fillets are rolled in such a way as to give a baggy appearance at the ends which are often fastened by knots made with the frayed threads of the material.' A band of this sort, painted red, appears as a decoration on the wall of a house in Delos,4 and large taeniae are outlined in red on an altar in the same city.5 Sometimes the type which occurs on the Sardis tomb is used as a bag, for on several of the wall-paintings flowers or leaves are represented as extending from the ends. This is well illustrated on the ceiling of a tomb in Kerch that is reproduced in color by Rostovtzeff in his great work on painting in South Russia.6 In all cases the ribbons at the ends of the fillets serve to bind the fillets and are not intended as means of fastening them to the walls. On the south wall, Plate IV, in addition to the scattered flowers and fillets there are two baskets of fruit and two birds. The baskets, which are made of wicker-work, contain red globular objects and have red ribbons hanging over the sides. As red pomegranates occur on the tomb-paintings in the Crimea in as1 See 2

3Wolters, Jb. Arch. I., XXIV, 1909, p. 59, pl. 5, discusses the shape of a rolled fillet that appears on a grave stele from Athens. p. 76, fig. 24. 6Ibid., pp. 19-20, figs. 5 and 6, pl. 1. 6
4

Riezler, Weissgrundige Attische Lekythen, text p. 15, pls. 37, 53, etc. Beazley, Attic red-figured vases in American Museums, p. 42, fig. 24.

M. Bulard, Peintures murales et mosaiques de Delos, in Mon. Piot, XIV, 1908, 1.

Antichnaia dekorativnaia zhivopis na lugie Rossu, pl. LXXXI,

22

AMERICAN JOURNAL OF ARCHAEOLOGY

sociation with similar symbols,' this red fruit probably represents pomegranates. At the base of the wall near the east end a large peacock is painted facing towards the east. The body of the bird is green; the bill, legs and wing are red. The red wing is edged by a narrow border of dark blue, the tail is brown with touches of yellow, and the "eyes" in the tail are deep blue with yellow and white outer bands. The painting is reasonably well done land an attempt at realism is evident in the representation of the bird, in spite of the injury which the colors may have suffered. The artist surely was familiar with the appearance of the living peacock. Above the large peacock on the wall, and a little to the left, is painted a smaller bird of similar appearance, but without the crest and the long train. This bird may have been intended to represent the peahen as seen from a distance. The west wall of the tomb, Plate V, is decorated with vines, from which hang large bunches of grapes. The grapes are painted' red and blue, and by the juxtaposition of these colors a purple tone is secured. On the vines two birds are perched, of which the upper is very crudely drawn, while the lower has been injured, like much of this wall, by the earth and moisture. Poppies are scattered over the field, but the red fillets are omitted. The decorative elements of the north side, Plate VI, are similar to those on the south, and the arrangement is only slightly different. The baskets of fruit and the birds are again near the east end. These were the most difficult elements of composition for the artist, who presumably painted them near the entrance because the only light in the tomb entered through the small orifice at that end. It is noticeable that at the rear or west end, where there is the least light, the painting is poorest. Although the peacock on this wall is standing with his body towards the west he has turned his head so as to look back to the east. All the decorations on the walls are symbolical in character and appear frequently in sepulchral art.2 The fillet is a survival from its use on the early Greek grave stelae; the poppy is the flower of death which is sleep; the vine and the grape symbolize Dionysos, the god of immortality and resurrection; the peacock is the bird of immortality, and the wicker baskets hold pomegranates, the fruit of Demeter and Persephone. The symbol of the kalathos with its pomegranates is discussed by G. W. Elderkin, in Kantharos, pp. 26 ff., who suggests that the basket of pomegranates was a sepulchral symbol as early as the Minoan age. Elderkin mentions several examples of the use of this symbol, and others are readily accessible. 1Ibid., pl. LVII. 2
is presented by V. Macchioro, Il simbolismonelle figurazioni sepolcrali romane in Memoriedella r. accad.di arch.,lett. e bellearti di Napoli, 12, 1911, pp. 9-143.
A study of Roman sepulchral symbolism with a generous citation of sources

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SHEAR: A ROMAN CHAMBER-TOMB AT SARDIS

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Another tomb at Sardis, discovered in 1913 and published in Sardis, Vol. I, The Excavations, pp. 139, 174, 181-183, pls. IV and V, has a similar basket filled with fruit as part of the painted decoration on its east end. The symbolical use of the basket has been traced back to very early times in a recent study by R. P. Dougherty,1 and is discussed in connection with its appearance on the chalice from Antioch by B. W. Bacon 2 and by W. R. Newbold.3 The stylistic study of the paintings in this tomb may properly begin by a comparison of them with the paintings in the tomb found at Sardis in 1913, which has just been mentioned. The main difference of design is the absence in the new tomb of the paneling on the lower part of the walls. There are also noticeable variations in the other decorations. On the west end of our tomb birds and grapevines appear instead of the Christian monogram that is such a conspicuous decorative element on the other tomb. In that tomb, too, only one fillet is used, while it is, perhaps, the most prominent decoration on the new paintings. But the chief difference is in the style of the execution of the work. Our paintings show a freedom of hand and a freshness of touch that are absent from the other works. The peacocks are more accurately drawn and are much more life-like, the poppies are more naturalistic and are more artistically scattered on the walls, the grapes on the west end are painted from nature. Morey dates the tomb found in 1913 in the fourth century A.D. chiefly because of the Constantinian monogram on its west wall. From the internal evidence of style the new tomb belongs to a much earlier period. For a further study of the style of our paintings reference must be made to the publication by Rostovtzeff, already cited, of paintings in the tombs of South Russia. Numbers LXXVI to LXXXI in his volume of plates reproduce paintings in a tomb discovered by V. V. Stasov at Kerch in 1872 and dated in the first to the second century A.D.,4which show much similarity to the paintings in our tomb at Sardis. On the Russian walls are the peacock, red flowers and the conventionalized fillets. The appearance of the ceiling, pl. LXXXI, 1, with its birds, fillets and freely scattered flowers, strongly resembles the walls at Sardis. In another tomb at Kerch, opened in 1895, that seems to date from the end of the first century A.D.,5 we have the familiar motives of birds, fillets, pomegranates
Annual of the AmericanSchoolsof OrientalResearch,V, 1923-1924, pp. 23 ff. Ibid., p. 12. 8A.J.A., XXIX, 1925, pp. 366 ff.
1

4 Illustrated by the same author in Iranians and Greeks in South Russia, pl. XXIX, and discussed in an article in J.H.S., XXXIX, 1919, pp. 144 ff., pls. VIII and IX. Compare, also, Minns, op. cit., pp. 315 f. 5 Rostovtzeff, op. cit., pls. LVI-LIX; Minns, op. cit., p. 310.

24

AMERICAN JOURNAL OF ARCHAEOLOGY*

and vines with clusters of grapes. Similarly peacocks, grapes, pomegranates, fillets, flowers, etc., appear on other tombs of about the same period.' They are also used as minor elements of decoration in the magnificent paintings on the walls of the tomb in the Viale Manzoni in Rome," which is dated in the second or the early years of the third century A.D.' Our paintings thus seem to be contemporaneous with similar work in the Crimea from the first and second centuries A.D., and their presence at Sardis furnishes some evidence in support of the suggestion by Minns, op. cit., p. 307, that "the origin of this style may have been in one of the magnificent cities of Asia Minor." All the earth in the tomb was carefully sifted through a sieve, but

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ROMAN LAMPS FOUND IN TOMB

only a few objects of minor importance were found. Apart from some pieces of Lydian pottery, which must have been accidentally washed into the chamber, and many sherds of Roman ware, there were only some bones of birds and rodents, fragments of Roman lamps and the complete lamps that are shown in Figure 3. Most
1 Rostovtzeff, op. cit., pls. LII-LV; Minns, op. cit., p. 314, fig. 224. 2 G. Bendinelli in Mon. Ant., XXVIII, 1922, col. 289-520. 3 Ibid., col. 508-510. The same motives persist in the fourth century, for example, in the mosaics of Santa Costanza in Rome, published by J. Wilpert, Die rbimischen Mosaiken u. Malereien, I, pp. 272 ff.; III, pls. 6 and 7. A good illustration of the appearance of peacocks, fillets and scattered flowers on a wall-painting of the fourth century in the Roman catacombs is given by Wilpert in Le pitture delle catacombe romane, plates II, pl. 91, 1.

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ROMAN TOMB AT SARDIS.

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SHEAR: A ROMAN CHAMBER-TOMB AT SARDIS

25

of these are of a cheap common type that cannot be closely limited in period, but several can be assigned to an approximate date. Our numbers 2 and 7 are characterized by the triangular projection above the handle made roughly in the shape of a leaf. In the Catalogue of Greek and Roman Lamps in the British Museum lamps with this kind of decoration are dated in the first century A.D. (No. 816; p. 123, fig. 148. P1. XXVI, 808, and XXVII, 805). Our number 6 is a lamp of red clay with a solid, triple-grooved handle, from which the bands of the grooves extend underneath and spread out as volutes. Within a moulded rim with a channel to the nozzle is a central filling-hole at the centre of a moulded rosette. Around the rim a decoration of vines is moulded in relief, and underneath the body the print of a foot is stamped within a moulded ring. The nearest analogies to this lamp in the Catalogue are Nos. 768, 769, and 770, which are also dated in the first century A.D. (p. 116, figs. 141 and 142; pl. XXVI,, 770). But our number 11, the bowl of which is decorated with a peacock standing on the capital of a column, belongs in shape and decoration to the group classified in the Catalogue as "late or quasi-Christian" (No. 1331, p. 199). Abundant evidence is available at Sardis to prove that tombs were frequently re-used at many different periods, and this undoubtedly occurred in the case of the present chamber. But the frescoed walls are an integral part of the structure and certainly date from the time of its first use, which would be indicated by the earliest lamps found in it. The evidence of the lamps thus supports the conclusion deduced from the style of the paintings that the frescoes should be dated not later than the second century A.D.
THEODORE LESLIE SHEAR
PRINCETON UNIVERSITY