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Ram's head fragment, overview. (©Archaeological Exploration of Sardis/President and Fellows of Harvard College)
Ram’s Head Fragment
- Date
- Hadrianic?, Roman
- Sardis or Museum Inv. No.
- S60.032
- Material
- Marble, Stone
- Object Type
- Sculpture, Sarcophagus
- Sculpture Type
- Sarcophagus
- Site
- Sardis
- Sector
- AC
- Trench
- AcN
- Findspot
- AcN, not in excavation.
- Description
A ram’s head projects from the corner, but is worked only on the front side. The side of the sarcophagus is flat. The head has a lock of hair on the forehead, a long ear, and tightly curving horn, of the garland was bound by a ribbon, but the beginning of the fruit can just be seen before the break.
Claw chisel marks are visible on the flat background surface and on the top; the flat chisel was used for a border (0.01 W.) around the ram and garland area. There is no evidence of drilling. The inner wall of the sarcophagus is rough picked. The simple classicizing style and the evidence of technique suggest a date in the Hadrianic period.
- Condition
Pinkish white marble, small grains.
The fragment is broken at the bottom and r. side. A portion of the l. side of sarcophagus remains. A raised ledge is preserved at top over which the cover would have fit.
- Dimensions
- H. 0.175; W. 0.030, of wall 0.102, of raised ledge 0.042, of ram (with horn) 0.115.
- Comments
- See Also
- Bibliography
- For other rams’ heads at corners, see Ward-Perkins, Sarcophagi, 98-101, at Bryn Mawr and Beirut. On Asiatic garland sarcophagi, see Lehmann-Hartleben-Olsen, Dionysiac Sarcophagi Baltimore, 67-70 and Toynbee, Hadrianic School, 202ff.
- Author
- NHR