The History Blog

A terracotta sarcophagus bearing a relief of a Silenus mask has been discovered at the ancient site of Attouda in western Turkey. It is the first time one of the cylindrical terracotta sarcophagi typical of Roman Anatolia has been found with a Silenus-like figure on the lid. The findings have been published in the journal CEDRUS.

Silenus was the older satyr who was teacher to the god of wine Dionysus and was said to be the wisest and drunkest of the god’s companions. He is commonly depicted on Roman funerary art as part of Dionysian processions, representing the mystery cult’s beliefs of eternal renewal and life after death. Silenus’ exaggerated features (big eyes, mouth and nose) also cast him in a protective role at time. Archaeologists believe the silene mask on the sarcophagus served an apotropaic function, a symbolic protector of the dead.

Attouda, today within the village of Hisar in Denizli Province, was a frontier settlement built of a hill bounded by steep cliffs on three sides. That made it easily defensible, an important quality for a town straddling the regions of Caria, Phrygia, and Lydia. Archaeological evidence indicate it was founded in the 7th-6th century B.C. and has been continuously occupied ever since.

In the Roman Imperial period, cylindrical terracotta sarcophagi made of local red clay were one of a variety of burial types used in the settlement and in other ancient cities in Anatolia and the Lykos Valley. The sarcophagi are believed to have been manufactured in local or regional workshops, as their weight, fragility and unwieldiness would have made them difficult to transport over long distances.

The sarcophagus was found in six fragments in a 2023 ground survey at Musalla, just south of the ancient city in the Attouda necropolis. The cylindrical terracotta sarcophagus had been damaged by later agricultural activity, breaking into six pieces that were then moved to the edge of the farmed land. The recovered pieces were moved to the Denizli Museum for conservation and study.

When intact, the sarcophagus was about 55-60 cm (ca. 22 inches) in diameter with a curved lid approximately 33-30.5 cm (ca. 13 inches) wide. In the center of the lid was a small human face with a bald, bulbous head, large eyes, broad, flat nose, thick, deeply incised lips that turn up at the corners into a smile and a short beard. These grotesque features are found on Silenus masks from the 1st century found in Attouda and other regional necropoli. An intact one from the Tralleis necropolis had three suspension holes for cords suggesting it was hung inside a tomb for apotropaic purposes. A large fragment of a very similar head was found in a tomb at Attouda, demonstrating that Silenus figures were part of the city’s funerary traditions.

Also notable on this lid is a Greek letter Beta carved into the clay next to the mask relief. It is seven cm high, so longer than the silene face itself. Letters have been found on other terracotta burial containers from the area. Archaeologists hypothesize that they were maker’s marks of the workshops or artisans who created the sarcophagus.

The dating is a challenge because the sarcophagus was not found in its original context, but stylistic comparisons suggest it was made in the 1st or 2nd century A.D.

Since the findspot lies within the Attouda necropolis, and a head fragment belonging to a Silenus figurine had previously been recovered from another tomb, the use of Silenus iconography cannot be regarded as coincidental. Rather, this evidence suggests that protective figures associated with the Dionysian cult were deliberately incorporated into the funerary architecture and burial decoration tradition of Attouda. The presence of the Dionysian cult, as documented by the city’s coinage and inscriptions, further supports this interpretation. Accordingly, the sarcophagus lid decorated with a Silenus-head relief should be regarded not merely as an isolated decorative element, but as tangible evidence reflecting the relationship between Dionysian beliefs and funerary rituals within the Attouda necropolis.

The remains of a settlement with a domestic space carved out of built into the bedrock has been discovered near the Meria marina in Cap Corse, Corsica. The settlement dates to the 4th century A.D., and is likely connected to a mooring structure from the same period found below the settlement last year.

The structure was unearthed in a preventative excavation prior to planned construction of a house on the prime location less than 100 meters (328 feet) from the shore of the beautiful blue Bay of Meria on the Tyrrhenian Sea. The peninsula is archaeologically significant, so an excavation before construction was required by law.

The masonry building has two parts and is built into the bedrock. The exposed schist rock was carved deliberately to accommodate the foundations of the new building. The builders then used the removed schist to make said foundations, carefully cutting it into square blocks. The blocks were then laid in an alternating stretcher (lengthwise blocks) and header (perpendicular blocks) pattern within the masonry wall.

The solid bedrock was integrated into the building too, as the interior facing of the masonry walls, extending past the edges of the blocks. Large monoliths of schist were used to partition the rooms, kept in place with stone wedges and wooden posts.

Several refuse pits located in the corners of the building’s various rooms contained mostly ceramic fragments related to cooking practices, glassware, iron tools, and even a grinding stone (catillus) . All these elements point to the domestic sphere and support the functional interpretation of this building as a dwelling. Finally, several postholes with stone supports are scattered throughout the building and could be the negatives for wooden supports for a tiled roof, as suggested by the presence of numerous tegulae ( roof tiles) in the abandonment layers.

Ceramic fragments from Late Antiquity found at the dwelling and from last year’s excavation of the ancient pier are rare on the Corsican archaeological record. They are imports from the Mediterranean trade networks that otherwise seemed to miss the island, so the evidence suggests that Meria had a unique position as a commercial outpost from the Roman period to the early Middle Ages. Copious metal, glass and lithic materials attest to a comparatively high level of artisanal production accessible for personal use. An earlier discovery of a white marble altar table support with an inscription dedicated to the emperor Claudius also supports the hypothesis that Meria had a larger settlement with regular interactions with the wider Roman world in Mediterranean.

A new multidisciplinary study of a rare surviving life-sized Etruscan bronze statue has found that the black patina was intentionally created in antiquity, not the result of natural aging or a later coating. Very little is known about Etruscan art foundry methods, so this discovery advances our understanding of how ancient large bronze statues were produced.

Discovered in 1567, the hollow-cast bronze statue is now in Florence’s National Museum of Archaeology. It is known as the Arringatore (Orator) or the portrait of Aule Metli, an Etruscan senator of the Roman Republic in the late 2nd or early 1st century. He is depicted wearing a toga, calcei senatorii shoes and his right arm raised in an oratory gesture. An Etruscan language inscription on the toga names Aule Metli as the donor of this votive sculpture.

Researchers analyzed the metal composition, stratified mineral and organic material, microfragments and the manufacturing processes of the sculpture. They utilized X-ray diffraction and polarized light microscopy to examine the samples and investigate how the bronze was cast and assembled.

Tests identified a dark copper oxide called tenorite lying above a red layer of another copper oxide, cuprite. The structure appeared across several preserved areas, not merely a single stain.

The arrangement points to heating. Copper alloys typically form the reddish layer first, while the darker mineral develops under more strongly oxidizing conditions. The authors described it as “a blackish intentional patina” and said the paired layers were unlikely to form through burial alone. […]

The study also brings new details to the figure’s construction. X-ray images indicate the bronze was assembled from eight separately cast sections. Most of its hollow walls were only a few millimeters thick, evidence of considerable skill in making such a large figure.

The study has been published in the journal Heritage and can be read here in its entirety.

A pair of polyhedral gold earrings and a 3rd century Roman coin have been discovered in a child’s grave in Stara Zagora, central Bulgaria.

The child’s grave is oriented with the head pointing west and the feet east. The pair of gold earrings and one coin were the only grave goods. The coin in an Antoninian of Emperor Aurelian, minted in Serdica in 274-275 A.D. The grave dates to this time.

The child’s identity and circumstances of death remain unknown. The presence of gold jewelry suggests that valuable personal possessions accompanied the burial, although it is not enough to establish the family’s social standing.

The coin raises another interesting possibility. The coin may also have held a meaning beyond its monetary value. In ancient Greek and Roman funerary traditions, coins were sometimes placed with the deceased as payment to Charon, the mythical ferryman who carried souls to the underworld. Although its purpose in this particular burial remains unknown, the coin may reflect beliefs surrounding death and the journey into the afterlife.

Evidence of human settlements in the Stara Zagora area go back 8,000 years, but the first town was founded by Philip II of Macedon in the 5th-4th century B.C. The necropolis where the child’s grave was found was in use from the late 2nd through the 5th centuries. It contains 135 burials of several different types of graves: burial pits with cremated remains, covered with tegulae (roof tiles), covered with bricks, covered with stone slabs, uncovered and more. Most of them are inhumation burials.