Simpelveld sarcophagus
The Simpelveld sarcophagus is a particularly richly furnished ash box from the 2nd / 3rd centuries. Century. It is the only known special case of a Roman sarcophagus that is decorated on the inside.
The sarcophagus was discovered in 1930 during construction work near a Roman villa rustica near Simpelveld south of Heerlen ( Netherlands ). After the responsible archaeologist Jan Hendrik Holwerda became aware of the find, he recognized the uniqueness of the object and asked the Rembrandt Association for financial support for the purchase. Shortly afterwards he acquired the sarcophagus for the Rijksmuseum van Oudheden in Leiden (inventory number I 1930 / 12.1).
The special thing about the sarcophagus is that the inside is decorated with a detailed high relief . It shows a room furnished with furniture and everyday objects in which the dead woman rests on a bench. The inventory of the room includes a wicker chair, a cloakroom, a clothes chest, a table with claw feet, shelves with rectangular bottles and pots, and washing utensils. At the foot of the bank, a horreum (magazine, granary) is reproduced, which puts the deceased in an agricultural context. The Roman idea of the grave as the house of the dead finds its artistic climax in the relief inventory .
The stone coffin was not used to hold the body of the deceased. The woman was cremated according to the Roman rite of that time and her ashes were deposited in it. Accordingly, the Simpelveld sarcophagus is not a sarcophagus, but a so-called ash box. Due to its unusual size for an ash box, however, it found its way into the relevant literature as the “Simpelveld sarcophagus”.
Other grave goods found in the ash box were a silver hand mirror, a balsamarium , a black- coated jug and jewelry from a woman.
literature
- Tilmann Bechert : Roman Germania between the Rhine and Maas. Hirmer, Munich 1982, ISBN 3-7774-3440-X , p. 247.
- Tilmann Bechert: Germania Inferior. A province on the northern border of the Roman Empire. Zabern, Mainz 2007, ISBN 978-3-8053-2400-7 , pp. 88f.
- Marjan C. Galestin: The Simpelveld sarcophagus. A unique monument in a provincial Roman context. In: The Maastricht files of the 5th International Colloquium on Provincial Roman Art within the CSIR. Typology, iconography and social background of the provincial grave monuments and ways of iconographic influence - Maastricht May 29 to June 1, 1997. Goossens, Maastricht 2001, pp. 63–76.
- Guntram Koch , Hellmut Sichtermann : Roman sarcophagi. Beck, Munich 1982, p. 65 and p. 301.
- Charles-Marie Ternes : The Romans on the Rhine and Moselle. History and culture. Stuttgart 1975, ISBN 3-15-010254-5 , pp. 135ff.
- Joost Vermeulen: Een 'kist met inhoud'. Het Rijksmuseum van Oudheden en de Vereniging Rembrandt. Vereniging Rembrandt. National Fund Kunstbehoud, Amsterdam 1993.
- Frank Zinn: Thoughts on the Simpelveld sarcophagus. In: Oudheidkundige Mededelingen. 77, 1997, pp. 135-158.