The marble pediment (inv. no. P 89) is a typical case of monument reuse that narrates two “moments” from the city’s history (late 2nd century AD / Second use in 1667).
It comes from the Jewish cemetery of Thessaloniki, where the ancient city’s eastern cemetery once lay.
On the front side, a relief scene with a pair of Ichthyocentaurs raising a round shield between them. The holes around the rim of the shield indicate that it had probably been covered with metal. Ichthyocentaurs were daemonic mythical beings with the upper body of a human, the forelegs of a horse, and a sea creature’s tail. Sea demons are a fairly frequent motif in funerary monuments of the Roman period and symbolically accompanied the deceased on his journey without return to the other world.
The pediment would have been the crowning element of a small funerary monument (naiskos) housing statues or busts. It would undoubtedly be an impressive and prominent structure in the city cemetery during the last years of the 2nd century AD.
In 1667 the monument was reused in the Jewish cemetery as the funerary plaque of Sarah, wife of Rabbi Jacob, son of Isaac Elijah. Sarah died on the 11th day of the month Tammuz 5427 (July 5, 1667 in the gregorian calendar).
The inscription is engraved in an arched frame of successive semicircles, a characteristic iconographic theme of Hebrew tombstones from the 17th century onwards. The decorative element is probably influenced by the mihrab (prayer niche of a mosque) motif common in the art of embroidered liturgical and household textiles. Tulips, stylised flowers and cypresses frame the composition, also themes beloved in the weaving art of the period. The foliage of the cypresses is decorated with geometric patterns.
This month exhibit participates in the museum’s new temporary exhibition For a flame that burns on. Antiquities and Memory, Thessaloniki - Macedonia [1821-2021].
Transcription and translation of the Hebrew inscription: Nicholas de Lange, Professor Emeritus, University of Cambridge
For the Hebrew monument: Anastasia Loudarou, Archaeologist, The Jewish Museum of Greece
