Archaeologia Adriatica, Vol. 2 No. 2, 2008.
Original scientific paper
The Funerary Monument of a Slave Family from Donji Čehi near Zagreb
Branka Migotti
; Odsjek za arheologiju HAZU
Abstract
The article discusses the funerary stele of the Valens family, slaves of Caesernius Avitus, found by chance in 1989 in the village of Donji Čehi in the southern suburbs of Zagreb, in the area of Roman Andautonia in the far southwestern part of the province of Upper Pannonia. It stood above an (unknown) grave within a tumulus cemetery, which most probably belonged to a Roman village (vicus) in the general area north of the Emona – Siscia road. This monument has been written about before, but always on the level of the basic facts. Hence it has remained an insufficiently exploited source for knowledge of slavery as a social phenomenon and the slave-based economy in the region of Noricum and Pannonia. Given that the funerary monuments of slaves, and particularly family tombstones,
are not frequent in the western provinces, the stele discussed here is important as an archaeological source offering multiple possibilities: the inscription, the iconography, and the circumstantial data about the context of the find. As the monument was described in previous publications and dated to the mid 2nd century, in this contribution the emphasis was placed in the prosopography and social position of their owner, which can be interpreted from the clothing and the attributes of the depicted figures, as well as from the epitaph.
Keywords
Pannonia; Noricum; slaves; Caesernii; stelae; tumuli; Donji Čehi
Hrčak ID:
37122
URI
Publication date:
23.5.2009.
Visits: 3.747 *