Published Lydian Marble Memorial Stele for the Blacksmith Kosmos

Culture: Greek/Lydia

Period: 30th August 200 A.D.

Material: Marble

Dimensions: 61.4 cm high

Price: 8 000 Euro

Ref: 2675

Provenance: German collection of the lawyer Ernst-Ulrich Walter (1919-2013), acquired between 1963 and 1986. Exhibited until 2013 in "Schatzhaus in der Lausitz. Museum für Morgenlandfahrer" in Göda, Saxony, Germany.

Condition: Unrestored and except for ancient wear, especially in the upper left corner acroterion, very beautifully preserved.

Description: A marble stele with a pediment and corner acroteria from the Lydian city of Setae dating to the Roman period, on which a wife honors her husband. In the side spandrels of the tympanum are two heart-shaped, pointed leaves. Between them is an omphalos bowl (offering bowl). Palmettes decorate the corner acroteria. The stele’s base tapers slightly towards the top and bears a carefully executed, seven-line Greek inscription. The translation reads: “In the year 285, on the 27th of the month of Gorpiaios, during a waning moon. Rhodine, with her children and her brother Aristion, honoured the blacksmith Kosmos, her husband. Their life together was impeccable. In remembrance.” The year 285 corresponds to 200/201 A.D. according to the Sullan era, and the date, according to the calendar from Asia, to 30 August 200 A.D. in the modern calendar. The stele is published in: Georg Petzl “Neue Inschriften aus Lydien (III)”, in: Epigraphica Anatolica 30, Bonn 1998, p. 29, plate 1, fig. 17. On a metal base.