Decorations from an elaborate pagan coffin and burial goods
Pottery and pigment
Gift of the Boxenbaum-Neta Fund, Jerusalem
Accession number:
84.58.256-427
Archaeology/Hellenistic, Roman & Byzantine Periods
These brightly painted terracotta attachments in the shape of rosettes, acanthus leaves, bull’s heads, and masks are all that remain of what was once an elaborate wooden coffin. Such motifs were widespread throughout the Hellenistic world, as were the inscriptions, figurative images, and symbols that decorated the burial cave in which the attachments were found. The finds suggest that the cave belonged to a family of immigrants, who preserved the burial traditions of their homeland for generations.