Archaeology — Roman; 200-300
Sculpture, tombstone
Tombstone for a ten-year-old girl called Marciana. The tombstone has a carving of girl's bust above an inscription. 'D M' on border of stone and inscription: [..]EMORIAE | [..] TVITATI | [..] MARCIANAE | [..]IT ANN X | [..] AVREL | [..]EC C | [..] | [..]RTI | [..]VS F C. 'To the spirits of the departed (and to) the everlasting memory of ... Marciana who lived 10 years ... months and ... days, Aurelius ... decurion of the colonia[...], had this set up'.
Aurelius was probably Marciana’s father as she was so young and he knew exactly how old she was. Her name is likely to be Aurelia Marciana, after him. The portrait of a girl at the top of the tombstone was meant to represent her.
The phrase ‘everlasting memory’ is found on Roman inscriptions from southern Germany so Marciana and her father were probably not British. As a decurion (member of a town council), Aurelius is likely to have been a wealthy businessman.
Fragments of the tombstone were found between 1980 and 1981 during excavations of the Roman city wall. It had been broken and reused as building material in a late Roman tower.
- Category:
- Archaeology
- Object ID:
- XWL79[233]<67>
- Object name:
- sculpture, tombstone
- Artist/Maker:
- —
- Related people:
- Related events:
- Related places:
- Production date:
- Roman; 200-300
- Material:
stone, limestone
- Measurements/duration:
- H 1075 mm, W 745 mm, D 200 mm, WT 117.8 kg (overall)
- Part of:
- —
- On display:
- —
- Record quality:
- 100%
- Part of this object:
- —
- Owner Status & Credit:
Archaeological archive
- Copyright holder:
digital image © London Museum
- Image credit:
- —
- Creative commons usage:
- —
- License this image:
To license this image for commercial use, please contact the London Museum Picture Library.