The Gravestone Speaks: Iconography in Tombstones from Tomis

This exhibit presents three gravestones from ancient Tomis, modern Constanța, in Romania. They date from the late 2nd to the early 3rd century AD and their interest lies in the information they offer about the burial practices in a coastal city next to the Black Sea during the Later Roman Empire. More specifically they tell little stories about the peoples both living and dead that inhabited this region in early Late Antiquity. The messages conveyed conjugate words and images to communicate not only assumptions and ideologies related to the afterlife but more importantly perhaps views about the life in the present world.

Credits

AXA