A team of archaeologists involved in ongoing excavations at the legendary doomed Roman city of Pompeii has discovered a striking funerary relief featuring statues of a man and a woman built to nearly life-size scale. Given their style of dress and overall presentation, it is obvious that these individuals were not gods but actual human beings belonging to the Roman Empire’s aristocratic class.
The exquisitely carved statues were found in the Porta Sarno necropolis, during digs linked to a research project called Investigating the Archaeology of Death in Pompeii. This initiative was the brainchild of archaeologists and other researchers from the University of Valencia, who have been working in close collaboration with the Pompeii Archaeological Park.
The project’s archaeological work is being carried out under the supervision of Professor Llorenç Alapont, who has expressed his delight with the new discovery. The presence of this prominent funerary relief reveals important new details about funerary practices in first century Pompeii, and in the Roman empire in general, and highlights the importance of social status in the city that was buried by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD.
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Porta Sarno Statues Reveal Details of Religious Life in Pompeii
The Porta Sarno necropolis was first discovered in 1998, and the latest round of excavations began in July 2024. It was in 1998 that archaeologists unearthed evidence of more than 50 cremation burials at the site, which were identified by the presences of stelae and monumental funerary structures, including a large funerary arch.
The Porto Sarno necropolis in Pompeii. (Archaeo Travelers/Archaeological Park of Pompeii).
During the most recent excavations, the archaeological team from the University of Valencia discovered a monumental tomb that featured a large wall with several niches. At the top of the wall, the relief of the man and a woman was installed, and it is believed they would have been a couple of high status who were well-known in the community.
“The two life-size figures are sculpted separately on two different tuff ashlars. However, the two reliefs are perfectly united, appearing to be a single sculpture,” Llorenç Alapont and his colleagues wrote in an article about their discoveries published by the E-Journal of the Excavations of Pompeii. “Both the bodies and heads of the well-to-do young married couple are shown frontally in high relief, proudly wanting to emphasize their status through the language of imagery.”
Great care was taken to make the relief statues appear as realistic and lifelike as possible. Displaying an attention to detail that the archaeologists consider “remarkable,” the sculptor paid great attention to the hands, fingers and nails, to the design of various pieces of jewelry that adorned the bodies, and even to the folds of the clothing.
One of the most intriguing aspects of the discovery is the symbolism encoded into the woman’s statue female figure. These details indicate she may have been a priestess representing the goddess Ceres, indicating her active participation in the city’s religious life.
In one of her hands she is seen holding an aspergillum of laurel leaves, which preserves elements of green paint. The asperigillum is a laurel or olive branch used by priests and priestesses to purify and bless spaces, by dispersing the smoke of incense or other aromatic herbs burned during religious ceremonies. Showing and holding this ceremonial instrument indicates that the woman was a priestess, which at that time was the highest social ranking to which a woman could aspire.
Close-up of the woman’s statue, showing her holding laurel leaves and wearing a necklace with a moon-shaped amulet. (Alapont, et.al/E-Journal of the Excavations of Pompeii).
In addition to the laurel leaves, she was also wearing an necklace that featured a lunula, a crescent moon amulet that was worn by many Roman woman to help ward off evil spirits. Notably, this symbolism was also linked to fertility, of people and of the earth, and its presence suggests an association between the woman and Ceres. She was the Roman fertility goddess and was closely connected to the cycles of the moon, as its different phases corresponded with the growth and harvest of crops.
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“It is clear that there were priestesses of Ceres in Pompeii, but this statue provides new evidence of the importance of the cult in the city,” the researchers noted. “In addition, the cult of Ceres has been linked to the popular classes. The ostentation of the female relief may suggest that the status of priestess was still reserved for women belonging to a relatively high social standing.”
The artistic quality of the relief and its stylistic features place it chronologically in the late Republican period, a key moment in Roman history when local elites reinforced their identity through imposing funerary monuments.
“These sculptures belong to a large class of funerary reliefs made between the first century BC and the first century AD,” the archaeological team explained. “Nevertheless, these types of sculptures are very rare in southern Italy. It is even more unusual to find reliefs of priestesses holding their religious objects.”
Map showing the Porta Sarno necropolis and burial areas on the outskirts of Pompeii. (Alapont, et.al/E-Journal of the Excavations of Pompeii).
Pompeii On Display, 2,000 Years After its Untimely Demise
The high-relief figures have been transferred to the Palaestra Grande, within the archaeological site, where they will be restored and conserved. The sculptures will be on prominent display during the upcoming exhibition Being a Woman in Ancient Pompeii, which is scheduled to open on April 16, 2025.
Archaeologists, architects, restorers, and anthropologists have all been involved with the ongoing excavation and research project at the Porta Sarno necropolis. Pompeii as a whole represents an extraordinarily well-preserved urban tomb, as its stunning and rapid burial under volcanic debris left its structures and inhabitants frozen in time, revealing secrets of its existence that would have remained otherwise unknown.
Top image: Funerary monument featuring two life-sized statues found at Porta Sarno necropolis, Pompeii.
Source: Alapont, et.al/E-Journal of the Excavations of Pompeii.
By Nathan Falde
