cinerary chest;
forgery
- Museum number
- 1756,0101.262
- Description
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Rectangular marble sepulchral chest, decorated on the short ends with rectangular tablets, a cymbal, a key and other objects in relief. One side is decorated with the upper bodies of a man and woman draped in a lunette with floral ornaments in the spandrels. A Latin funerary inscription within an incised frame decorates the other side. The lid is in the form of double volutes.
- Production date
- 17thc-18thc
- Dimensions
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Height: 22.50 centimetres
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Width: 28.75 centimetres
- $Inscriptions
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- Curator's comments
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Sir Hans Sloane’s ‘Miscellanea’ catalogue is a bound volume in Central Archives containing seven separate catalogues: ‘Miscellanies’, ‘Antiquities’, ‘Seals’, ‘Pictures’, ‘Mathematical Instruments’, ‘Agate Handles’ and ‘Agate Cups, Bottles, Spoons’. Each contains numbered entries that list and describe objects collected by Sloane between the 1680s and 1750s. Each catalogue begins with object number one.
Text from Sloane Miscellanea catalogue: Miscellanea Antiquities 262 "262. Urna effosa juxta Mohum oppidum Minorcæ. of red earth & thin. Ib. No. 17."
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Bibl.:
CIL VI 3190*
Montfaucon, B. de (1772) L' antiquité expliquée et représentée en figures / Antiquitas explenatiore et schematibus illustrata, vol. 5, pl.XLIII, p.74
Castan, A. (1877) ‘Vesontio Colonie Romaine,’ Revue Archéologique, 33, (Janvier à Juin), pp. 373-380
Deutsches Archäologisches Institut, Antike Denkmäler, 324
Inscriptiones Latinae Selectae, 2203
Corpus der griechischen und lateinischen Beneficiarier-Inschriften des römischen Reiches, 943
The inscription is recorded in the “Forgeries” section of CIL VI, in a subsection of “Boissardian Inscriptions”. Castan, in his article published in 1877, states that the inscription is now lost but has been seen in Rome, and he uses a drawing done by Jean-Jacques Boissard (1528-1602) in his Romanae vrbis topographiae & antiquitatum, V, pl. 59. Castan consults another epigrapher, M. Henzen, on the authenticity of the inscription: “L'inscription n'est connue que par le livre de Boissard, et se trouve dans ses manuscrits parisiens à la page 669. Elle n'appartient pas cependant aux inscriptions fausses contenues dans cette partie des manuscrits, et elle n'offre aucun motif de soupçon. W Henzen.” Castan provides his own reading and interpretation of the inscription in his article, and argues that AVTV must be a mis-reading of AVGV (p. 376).
However, AVTV is clearly visible on the stone so it is either a stonecutter’s error or in fact the intended abbreviation.
Based on a comparison of the lettering with other known forgeries, this inscription is almost certainly a 17th-18th century production.
- Location
- On display (G1/wp132/sh7)
- Acquisition date
- 1753
- Department
- Greek and Roman
- Registration number
- 1756,0101.262
- Additional IDs
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Miscellaneous number: SLAntiq.262
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Sloane Miscellanea Catalogue number: 262 (Antiquities)