A terracotta sarcophagus bearing a aid of a Silenus masks has been found on the historical website of Attouda in western Turkey. It’s the first time one of many cylindrical terracotta sarcophagi typical of Roman Anatolia has been discovered with a Silenus-like determine on the lid. The findings have been revealed within the journal CEDRUS.
Silenus was the older satyr who was instructor to the god of wine Dionysus and was stated to be the wisest and drunkest of the god’s companions. He’s generally depicted on Roman funerary artwork as a part of Dionysian processions, representing the thriller cult’s beliefs of everlasting renewal and life after dying. Silenus’ exaggerated options (huge eyes, mouth and nostril) additionally forged him in a protecting position at time. Archaeologists imagine the silene masks on the sarcophagus served an apotropaic perform, a symbolic protector of the useless.
Attouda, in the present day throughout the village of Hisar in Denizli Province, was a frontier settlement constructed of a hill bounded by steep cliffs on three sides. That made it simply defensible, an essential high quality for a city straddling the areas of Caria, Phrygia, and Lydia. Archaeological proof point out it was based within the Seventh-Sixth century B.C. and has been repeatedly occupied ever since.
Within the Roman Imperial interval, cylindrical terracotta sarcophagi manufactured from native crimson clay had been one in every of a wide range of burial varieties used within the settlement and in different historical cities in Anatolia and the Lykos Valley. The sarcophagi are believed to have been manufactured in native or regional workshops, as their weight, fragility and unwieldiness would have made them troublesome to move over lengthy distances.
The sarcophagus was present in six fragments in a 2023 floor survey at Musalla, simply south of the traditional metropolis within the Attouda necropolis. The cylindrical terracotta sarcophagus had been broken by later agricultural exercise, breaking into six items that had been then moved to the sting of the farmed land. The recovered items had been moved to the Denizli Museum for conservation and examine.
When intact, the sarcophagus was about 55-60 cm (ca. 22 inches) in diameter with a curved lid roughly 33-30.5 cm (ca. 13 inches) broad. Within the heart of the lid was a small human face with a bald, bulbous head, giant eyes, broad, flat nostril, thick, deeply incised lips that flip up on the corners right into a smile and a brief beard. These grotesque options are discovered on Silenus masks from the first century present in Attouda and different regional necropoli. An intact one from the Tralleis necropolis had three suspension holes for cords suggesting it was hung inside a tomb for apotropaic functions. A big fragment of a really related head was present in a tomb at Attouda, demonstrating that Silenus figures had been a part of the town’s funerary traditions.
Additionally notable on this lid is a Greek letter Beta carved into the clay subsequent to the masks aid. It’s seven cm excessive, so longer than the silene face itself. Letters have been discovered on different terracotta burial containers from the realm. Archaeologists hypothesize that they had been maker’s marks of the workshops or artisans who created the sarcophagus.
The relationship is a problem as a result of the sarcophagus was not present in its authentic context, however stylistic comparisons counsel it was made within the 1st or 2nd century A.D.
For the reason that findspot lies throughout the Attouda necropolis, and a head fragment belonging to a Silenus figurine had beforehand been recovered from one other tomb, using Silenus iconography can’t be considered coincidental. Relatively, this proof means that protecting figures related to the Dionysian cult had been intentionally integrated into the funerary structure and burial ornament custom of Attouda. The presence of the Dionysian cult, as documented by the town’s coinage and inscriptions, additional helps this interpretation. Accordingly, the sarcophagus lid adorned with a Silenus-head aid must be regarded not merely as an remoted ornamental component, however as tangible proof reflecting the connection between Dionysian beliefs and funerary rituals throughout the Attouda necropolis.
