stela
- Museum number
- 1805,0703.258
- Description
-
Marble grave stele of Exakestes, son of Androboulos, and his wife Metreis; they are shown in a pedimental arch, upon which are carved two wreaths inscribed "the People".
- Production date
- 150BC-100BC
- Dimensions
-
Height: 74.93 centimetres
-
Width: 41.91 centimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- Cook 2011, nr. 285:
‘A sepulchral marble bearing a bas relief and a Greek inscription. It is in the pyramidal form generally used for funeral monuments in Greece from whence it was brought to England by the late Doctor Antony Askew’ (TY 14/1/126).
The extract from the inscription that is quoted in the Wigan accounts is enough to identify Smith 704 (1805,0703.258) as the stele bought at the Lyde Browne sale. Its identity with the ‘Greek sepulchral monument’ in Combe’s Supplementary List (TY 18/4, staircase 7) is not absolutely certain but seems very likely. The possibility seems to have occurred to FitzGerald, since in the slip catalogue on which his 1848 inventory is based there appears the comment ‘VI.91?’, which refers to the entry on this stele in the 1808 edition of the Synopsis.
The form of the stele suggests Smyrna as a source (Smith; E. Pfuhl and H. Möbius, Die ostgriechische Grabreliefs, 2 vols. (Mainz am Rhein, 1977-1979)) and a date of about 150-100 BC (E. Pfuhl and H. Möbius, Die ostgriechische Grabreliefs, 2 vols. (Mainz am Rhein, 1977-1979)).
Formerly in the Meade collection. The comment in TY 14/1/126, that it was brought to England by Dr Antony Askew, may be an error, perhaps from confusion with the stele of Xanthippos (159).
Bought at the Lyde Browne sale for £5 (Wigan Accounts).
Townley settled his account for two objects on 3 June: ‘Paid at the sale of Lyde Browne for front of a sarcophagus with genii £6.6s. and for a Greek sepulchral stone (Ο · ΔΗΜΟΣ) £5’ (Wigan Accounts).
Date:
Hellenistic, 150-100 BC (E. Pfuhl and H. Möbius, Die ostgriechische Grabreliefs, 2 vols. (Mainz am Rhein, 1977-1979)).
Drawings:
* Townley drawing 2010,5006.287. There is also a sketch with a copy of the inscription in TY 14/1/124.
Bibliography:
- Synopsis of the Contents of the British Museum (1808), VI.91;
- A. H. Smith, A Catalogue of Sculpture in the Department of Greek and Roman Antiquities, British Museum, Vol. I (London 1892), 331, no. 704;
- E. Pfuhl, ‘Das Beiwerk auf den ostgriechischen Grabreliefs’, JdI 20 (1905), 56, no. 36, fig. 12;
- E. Pfuhl and H. Möbius, Die ostgriechische Grabreliefs, 2 vols. (Mainz am Rhein, 1977-1979), I, 227, no. 872, pl. 129 (bibl.).
- Location
- On display (G22/wall)
- Acquisition date
- 1805
- Department
- Greek and Roman
- Registration number
- 1805,0703.258
