Nuevo fragmento de sarcófago paleocristiano procedente de Begastri (Cehegín, Murcia)

Abstract

The excavation season carried out between April and June 2009 in the Puerta Oriental, on the Late Roman and Visigothic city wall of Begastri (Cabezo Roenas, Cehegín, Murcia, provincia Carthaginiensis) has resulted in the identification of a collapse level, from which a number of marble fragments corresponding to one or more Early Christian sarcophagi have been recovered. These fragments were reused as construction material in this defensive feature. One of them shows the image of a nude male figure, covering his genitalia with a crude fig leaf, and a tree around which a serpent curls. They are part of a scene featuring Adam and Eve, inspired by the Old Testament. Fragments from a funerary monument, decorated with a scene from the New Testament – probably the resurrection of Lazarus – were also recovered.

The current paper focuses on the analysis of the composition of the preserved scenes and their position either on the side, but more likely on the front of the sarcophagus, which based on iconographic, technical and stylistic characteristics must be attributed to a Roman workshop from the time of Constantine (ca. 315–330 AD). This chronological horizon agrees with the likely dates of other sarcophagus fragments from Begastri.