Janus Pannonius Múzeum Évkönyve 32 (1987) (Pécs, 1988)
Régészet - Fülep Ferenc: A pécsi későrómai-ókeresztény mauzóleum feltárásáról
A PÉCSI KÉSÖRÓMAI-ÓKERESZTÉNY MAUZÓLEUM 43 (Fig. 4). The next decoration to the E is a plant with succulent leaves painted in a narrow field (Fig. 4). The initials of Christ are discernible above the archended niche in the E wall (see above). Flexuous festoons with hanging red bands are painted on the right and left of the initials. Leaves, palm-leaves and flowers decorate the space to the left and below the niche. Painted in the centre left of the niche is a man in loose white dress sitting on a throne. The E part of the S wall (wall l) has no original paint. Further W on this wall, near buttress "Y", a red bordered crust marble panel was found, with a claretcoloured disk in the centre. Buttress "Y", and also buttres "X" on the opposite wall, are decorated with marbled paint. The head of a pasturing animal, presumably a harnessed donkey, is discernible above buttress "Y". The ceiling of the vault also showed traces of frescoes. In the E half of the vault the plinths and fragments of three sarcophagi were unearthed. The lower half of a large-size white Noricum marble sarcophagus was discovered at the S wall. Its sidewalls had been knocked down, and fragments have also come to light in the middle of the vault 32-33 . Two niches with putti in them were found on either side of the W end of the sarcophagus (Fig. 7). On the E endof the sarcophagus only the N figure had been carved out. This figure resembles those on the S end. The figure in the S niche was left unfinished. The sarcophagus has a tripartite face. The plain central field was presumably meant to include the usual inscription, but it has never been completed. Accordingly, the sarcophagus was still unfinished when it came into use as a burial site (Fig. 8). It represented the type which had masks decorating the corners of the cover stone (Figs. 9-10). The other two sarcophagi, of which only the plinths have come to light, were made of limestone and sandstone. The bones from the sarcophagus were found scattered among the debris. So far 14 skeletons could be set apart. 34 The floor of the vault and the area of the sarcophagus have yielded altogether 17 coins 35 ! The earliest one dates from the period after 350, while the youngest ones could be assigned to the years between 367-375, i. e. to the reign of Emperors Valens and Gratianus. The closest parallel of this building in Central Europe is known to have been discovered in Salona, Dalmatia. The term, „mausoleum" was first applied to this type of building by E. Dyggve 36 . In terms of architecture, the mausoleum in the Hispánián town of La Alberca is also closely related to the mausoleum in Pécs. The latter building is presumed to have been erected in honour of an outstanding personality, who was buried in a white marble sercophagus. We are of the opinion that first the white marble sarcophagus was lowered to its present site. Supporting this assumption were the stepped hollows discovered during the construction of the protective structure at the site (Fig. 10). Having slid the sarcophagus down to its present site on these steps, the builders erected vault "A" sometime in the 350s (the dating was based on the examination of the cover stone of the marble sarcophagus in Pécs). Also supporting this dating are the coins of the Constantine dynasty unearthed at the site. The paintings in room A may presumably be assigned to the same period. Sarcophagus No 2 opposite the marble sarcophagus got to its place in the next period. Room В can be assigned to the third period, when room A had already become too small for the purpose. The walls were extended towards the W - the line of extensionsis clearly discernible. Room С was accessible by a stair from the SW corner of the upper chapel. The construction of the upper structure followed that of the single-aisle chapel or of vault A, or rather it was built in the 2nd period, when rooms В and С in the vault had already been completed. By all accounts, the upper structure must have been built after the completion of the burial vault 38-44 . The excavation of the E part of the mausoleum coincided with the reconstruction works at the site. The examination of the E face of the building revealed that the floor in the apse had repeatedly been renewed. The substructure of the altar is presumed to have lain somewhere under the triumphal arch which rested on buttresses E/3 and D/2, but we found no traces of it. The position of the subsellium could not be reconstructed on the strength of the recovered fragments 45 . The closest Pannonian parallels of the frescoes are to be found in painted burial vault No 1. in Pécs 46 . The origins of these frescoes can of course be traced to the catacomb paintings in the city of Rome. Deserving special attention at our site is the painting of the man in white dress sitting on a throne. The palm-leaves surrounding him lead us to believe that he was a martyr who received the deceased upon entering the Garden of Eden. Not improbably the figure can be identified with Christ, who met the deceased in the Paradise. In the Roman catacombs, the painted figure of Christ first appeared in the 2nd century, and there are other representations dated to the 3rd-4th centuries 47-53 . The frescoes in the sepulchral vault in Sopianae can presumably be ascribed to itinerant Italian painters who worked by pattern-books 54-58 . Judging by the mausoleum in Salona, the building may have had the exterior of a tall, narrow, buttressed structure 59 . In the 5th-6th centuries the town managed to subsist under the alternating rule of the Huns, the Germans and the Avars 60 . Similarly to the other sepulchral vaults in Pécs, the mausoleum also served as shelter for the population 61 . The excavations in the mausoleum have brought to light the "corpus delicti", i. e. a hatchet by which the people broke into fragments the obstructive white marble sarcophagus. Mention must be made here of the two holes made into the two opposite longitudinal walls. These holes, ob-
