The Sepulchral Symbolism and Workshop Comparison of the Raptus of the Sabines Sarcophagus and the Metilia Acte Sarcophagus

Summary

International Journal of Archaeology

Fred A. White, The Sepulchral Symbolism and Workshop Comparison of the Raptus of the Sabines Sarcophagus and the Metilia Acte Sarcophagus, International Journal of Archaeology. Vol. 3, No. 1, 2015, pp. 1-7. doi: 10.11648/j.ija.20150301.11

The sarcophagus illustrating the story of the Sabine Women is believed to have been obtained in Rome between 1900 and 1904 by Alfred Emerson, Professor and Chair of Classical Archaeology at Cornell University and the Curator of Antiquities at the Art Institute of Chicago. Professor Emerson was an experienced field archaeologist having excavated sites in Greece and North Africa. He was educated at the University of Munich and Princeton University, and was a Fellow at Johns Hopkins University. The Metilia Acte sarcophagus illustrating the story of Alcestis, at the Vatican in the Museo Chiaramonti, was discovered in Ostia in 1826. Metilia Acte was the priestess of the Magna Deum Mater cult that worshipped the goddess Cybele. The Alcestis themed sarcophagus also held Metilia Acte’s husband Caius Junius Euhodus, the magister of the fabri tignarii carpenter guild. The Sabine sarcophagus dates to the second century AD and the Alcestis sarcophagus dates by the inscription to between the years 160-170 AD. The quality of both the reliefs accurately represents the Roman artistic style of the second century. The Sabine story is the Raptus of the Sabine Women while the Alcestis story is according to Euripides' drama, Alkestis.

A marble provenance investigation using three different techniques: electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopy, stable isotope analysis and maximum grain size measurements confirmed the Sabine sarcophagus was quarried from the ancient Luna site and archaeometry studies of the sculptures and funerary monuments recovered from the Ostia archaeological site demonstrate they are also from the second century AD Luna quarry, except a few examples of sculptures imported from the Greek sites of Parian and Thasian.

Both of the highly decorative bas-reliefs illustrating the mythology of the Sabines and Alcestis are made of the same ancient marble and appear to have been worked in primary blank form by the same template or workshop. The final relief forms illustrated on both sarcophagi appear to be from the same workshop, work collective or style school and represent a culmination of the expression for sepulchral symbolism. In-depth style comparison enables attribution – to be closely narrowed between the reigns of Antoninus Pius and through to Marcus Aurelius.

Keywords

Temporal Coverage

Calendar Date: 100 to 200

Spatial Coverage