4527 - Tunisia, El Djem, a limestone stele, 2nd–3rd century CE. The stele has a long, rectangular shape, ending at the top in a triangular pediment. The stele features four distinct relief scenes.

Tunisia, El Djem, a limestone stele, 2nd–3rd century CE. The stele has a long, rectangular shape, ending at the top in a triangular pediment. The stele features four distinct relief scenes. The central scene depicts a man standing face-on on the ground. His broad, flat face is framed by curls, and he is dressed in a toga and cloak, decorated with engraved zigzag patterns, which he holds in his right hand. His left hand is extended and holds an object, which is partially broken off and thus unidentifiable. He wears bracelets and a necklace, including a lunula identified by the Rijksmuseum van Oudheden (Rijksmuseum van Oudheden 1975, object 91). This crescent moon pendant (lunula) was used as an amulet for protection against the evil eye (Museo de Ecología Humana, “Amulets in Rome”). On both sides of the figure’s head are two engraved dolphins wrapped around a scepter. The relief scene is divided by the “floor” of the scene above, decorated with a wave/zigzag motif and small perforations. The panel above depicts the story of Dionysus’s birth from Zeus’s thigh. On the far right, the scene shows Dionysus emerging from Zeus’s thigh, with Hera standing behind him. On the left side, Hermes stands ready to cover him with a panther skin and deliver him to the nymph Nysa, who raised him in the mountains (Vatican Museums, “Relief Depicting the Scene of Dionysus’ Birth”). In the upper part of the stele, the pediment is separated from the scene below by a braided band. Within the pediment, a woman draped in a cloak reclines against an acanthus leaf, supporting herself on her left arm. In the Greek and Roman world, the acanthus plant was associated with concepts such as life, immortality, the crescent moon, and the appreciation of the arts (Yılmaz, Akkemik, and Karagöz 2013). Above her floats a bearded half-figure, dressed in a cloak. The lower scene depicts a standing bovine, but it is eroded or damaged. Roman funerary monuments should not be understood solely as grave markers, but also as material carriers of memoria. The monument served as a means of ensuring the deceased’s continued presence among the living (Schörner 2007). h. 104, w. 32, and d. 11.5 cm. Provenance: Collection Zaadhof Sr., The Hague, Netherlands, and J. Zaadhof, The Hague, Netherlands, by descent. Published and exhibited: Rijksmuseum van Oudheden. Classical Art from Private Collections: Dutch Collections 1575–1975. Exhibition catalog no. 10. Leiden: Rijksmuseum van Oudheden, 1975, cat. no. 91, without image. Exhibited in 1975 at the Rijksmuseum voor Oudheden, Leiden, the Netherlands. [1]