POMPEII, ITALY—The Guardian reports that authorities from the Pompeii Archaeological Park discovered two near life-size funerary statues of a man and woman that were part of a tomb in Pompeii’s Porta Sarno necropolis. Experts believe that the female sculpture, which dates to the late Roman Republican period, may depict an important local woman who may have been a priestess of Ceres, the Roman goddess of agriculture, fertility, and motherly love. The figure is shown holding laurel leaves that were used to purify religious spaces by dispersing incense from aromatic herbs. She also wears a lunula, a crescent moon–shaped pendant hanging from her necklace. Although similar tomb sculptures found in the Roman world often represent a married couple, the researchers are not wholly convinced that is the case in this instance. “Sometimes you get two men, or sometimes they come in threes,” said Gabriel Zuchtriegel, the director of Pompeii Archaeological Park. “This could be her husband, but it could also be her son. There was no inscription, so we don’t know.” Read the original scholarly article about this research in E-Journal Scavi di Pompei. To read about an ornate tomb recently excavated in Pompeii, go to "A War Hero's Grave," one of ARCHAEOLOGY's Top 10 Discoveries of 2024.
