Unpublished funerary stele from El-Ashmunein archaeological magazine (inv. no. 678)‎

الملخص EN

This paper examins an unpublished stele of a woman from El-Ashmunein Archaeological Magazine (Inv.

No.

678).

It is carved in limestone of roughly rectangular shape with an arched top, 73 cm high and 30 cm wide.

The thickness of the limestone slab is 11–11.5 cm.

The stele depicts a standing female figure in frontal pose, dressed in a Greek style tunic with a round high-cut neckline, and a himation enveloping the figure in the arm-sling variant.

The aim of this paper is to propose a date and place of production for this object, depending on the analytical study and the parallel examplesThe funerary relief in question must have belonged to a woman of importance and high social standing in Roman Egypt as suggested by her robes.

The parallel examples discussed in this study assume that our stele belongs among the funerary reliefs from Oxyrhynchos and can be dated to the end of the second to the early third century AD