Ein neues Fragment eines Reliefsarkophages aus Quinta de Marim (Olhão, Distrikt Faro, Portugal). Bemerkungen zur Sarkophagbestattung in der Lusitania

Abstract

A fragment of the lid of a marble sarcophagus was discovered during an excavation in the vicinity of two Roman mausoleums on the grounds of a villa at Quinta de Marim (Algarve). Two legs are preserved on the fragment which probably once belonged to an Eros or Putto in a grape harvest scene. Such scenes are commonly found on sarcophagi of the late second to early fourth centuries A.D. belonging to women and children and serve as symbols of a felicitas temporum, i. e. the hope for a rich and luxurious afterlife. Erotes und Putti are also associated with deceased children. Sarcophagi with relief decoration are found only sporadically in the province Lusitania, probably because sarcophagus burials are rare in the early Roman Empire, the most important phase in the Romanization of Hispania. When sarcophagi with relief decoration became fashionable in Rome during the second century, contacts between Lusitania and North Africa were already stronger than those with Italy. For the same reason the cupa, which
probably derives from a North African tradition, is much more common in the western provinces than the sarcophagus with relief decoration.