This marble container was used to hold the
bones and ashes of a deceased person in ancient
Rome. Called "cineraria," the urns were usually
placed in underground chambers with niches in
the walls for the individual urns. These
chambers might belong to an extended family or
to a burial society, which charged people a fee to
bury them and maintain their burial. This
cinerary urn is unfinished on the back
suggesting that it was placed in a niche.
Roman cinerary urns like this one were mass-
produced and personalized with an inscription.
The inscription on this urn reads:
DIS MANIBVS CLAVDIAE
TRYPHANAE VIX ANNIS
XXXXV M ANTIONIVS PRISCVS
CONIVGI BENE MERENTI FECIT
It can be translated as:
“To the departed spirit of Claudia Tryphana, who
lived forty-five years, Marcus Antonius the Elder
made this for his well deserved wife.”
Unfortunately, there is no relation between this
Marcus Antonius and the legendary lover of
Cleopatra. However, this inscription gives us an
indication of Roman funerary practices. In fact,
an inscription on a modern tombstone might be
almost identical save for the invocation of the
spirits of the dead. Overall, the similarity in
funerary customs reveals how little humanity has
progressed in relation to our comprehension of
death and the great beyond.
Artistically, this cinerary urn as well invokes the
rites of the funeral. The garland of flowers and
fruits that drapes from the rams’ horns is
probably meant to represent the similar garlands
that were part of the funerary procession. Two
birds stand atop the garland, underneath the
inscription panel, and pick at the fruit. Perhaps
these birds are a symbol of rebirth as they feed
off the symbolic memorial of death. Overall, this
urn is not so much a receptacle for the bodily
remains of the deceased as it is a memorial to a
life, commissioned by her loving husband.
- (PF.5840b)
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