Budapest Régiségei 34. (2001)

STUDIEN = TANULMÁNYOK - Szirmai Krisztina: A new tombstone from Aquincum : a new data to the late Roman gravestones in Aquincum 241-244

KRISZTINA SZIRMAI A NEW TOMBSTONE FROM AQUINCUM A NEW DATA TO THE LATE ROMAN GRAVESTONES IN AQUINCUM A new tombstone will be presented here from the lapidarium of the Aquincum Museum.

1 The gravestone was found in a secondary position in the area of the late Roman fort located - south of Árpád bridge.

2 The upper part of the tombstone is only preserved, but its inscription has broken off. Its height is 74,5 cm, breadth: 86 cm, width: 24 cm. The gravestone is made of limestone. At the top of the tombstone the two corner ornaments (acroteria) are there. The tympanon has been framed several times. The interior of the tympanon was carefully carved into acanthus leaves and a six petal rosette ornament. The busts of a married couple and their two children located between the two Corinthian columns, in a niche. On the gravestone on each of the figures the oval, but stiff face form appears. On the left, the wifes hair - on the top of the head - is carved into two parts. The hair do is divided into two parts, while two thick vertical braids covering her ears on the two sides of her face. The hair of the little girl almost takes the form a wig - like semisphere. Her hair is angularly cut in the centre above the forehead. There are round earrings composed of several parts in both ears of the little girls. The hair of the father is also wig like ending in a wavy line on the forehead. The hair of the little boy has a semispherical wig shape too. The eyes of the entire family are large, stiff and protruded. The beard and moustache on the fathers face has also been carved. Their noses and broad and the nostrils wide. The lips are thin. The necks of the figures are long and thick. The wife partly holds her tunica and partly points to her children with her index finger. Disc fibulae were marked on the paenula of father and his son.

3 The father holds a scroll

4 in one of his hand, while the son has a bird in his hand (Fig. 1-2). The special common features of this newly discovered Aquincum tombstone differ from the average late Roman gravestones. 1. Inv.Nr. 81.8.4. 2. SZIRMAI-FACSÁDY RégFüz Ser. 1. 31. sz. 1978. 39-40. 3. FACSÁDY 1997. 103-106. 4. HAINZMANN 1989. 120-146.; WALDE 1997. 243-246. 5. BARKÓCZI 1982. 18-49.; BARKÓCZI 1982-1983. 123-151.; BARKÓCZI 1983. 57-66.; BARKÓCZI 1984. 170-194.; BARKÓCZI 1995. 3-22. 6. BARKÓCZI 1973. 67-112. These are the folio wings: 1. The tympanon is ornamented with acanthus leaves and a rosette. Corinthian columns were carved in the field where the busts are. 2. The carving is flat and stiff, especially those of the faces and the heads. 3. The hair do is together with thick vertical braids. 4. The eyes are stiff and protruded, while the noses are wide and broad. 5. There are disc fibulae and round earrings composed of several parts. In the past decades the periodisation of provincial stone carving has been gradually reevaluated and modified as a result of complex researches of Pannónia. This has been shown recently by the summary on stone plastic works published by László Barkóczi.

5 From our point the important study of his works in his summary of the stone monuments from the end of the AD 3rd century and beginning of the AD 4* century.

6 The special carving of the late Romain hair do of the wife on this new Aquincum tombstone is very much like the hairstyle of the empress' Helena. We have to mentioned more portrait from the time of Helena from Museo Capitolino (Rom) and from Ny Carlsberg Glyptothek (Copenhagen) {Fig. 3-4)? The imitations of the representations of the empress' Helena appear in the gravestones of the provinces - at the end of the AD 3

rd century and beginning of the AD 4

th century.

8 The importance of the recently shown late Roman gravestone from Aquincum is the followings: with all its previously mentioned characteristics, this new late Roman tombstone fragment demonstrates also the presence of a group from the Constantine period.

9 On the basis of Helena hair do this new gravestone is one of the latest from Constantine period - in Aquincum.

10 7. RUPRECHTSBERGER 1980. 128-140.; HEINTZE 1961. 17. 8. See, as above and Antièki portrét u Jugoslaviji (ed. J. Jevtoviae). Novi-Sad, 1987. 226-229. 9. See Facsády's article about late Roman gravestones in Aquincum - in this same volume yet. 10. See a fragment of tombstone from Aquincum in National Museum. Inv. Nr. 60.1858.11. Unpublished. Photos: Fig. 1., 3., 4.: Péter Komjáthy; and Fig. 2.: Ilona Molnár. NOTES 241