Neufund aus Istanbul/Byzantion

Eine hellenistische Grabstele einer Priesterin der Artemis von Sardis

Abstract

An ancient relief stele of very high quality was found in 2008 during construction work for the new Istanbul underground railway that will considerably facilitate passenger transit between the European and Asian sides of the megacity by means of a tunnel under the Bosporus. The stele is oblong and an impressive 1.68 m high. Surprisingly no people are depicted; instead the pictorial field shows only objects piled on top of each other – in particular a stool upon which a pillow lies, and on top of that a container and another vessel. This contribution proposes an interpretation as the grave stele of a priestess and mystēs of the Artemis of Sardis, and a dating to the 2^nd half of the 2^nd century B.C.