A craftsman's grave

From: Athens, Greece
Date: around 420 BC

This gravestone marked the burial place of a shoemaker called Xanthippos. If you look closely, you can just see his name carved above his head. The two small girls standing on either side of him may have been his daughters. The taller one on the left is lifting her hands up, probably to pray. The younger daughter is holding a bird.

Xanthippos is holding an object shaped like a foot called a last, used in making shoes, to show that he was a cobbler. It was common in ancient Greece to show a person’s profession on their tombstone.