Displaying the deceased

Here we look into the eyes of the boy for whom this tombstone was erected. He was no older than fifteen years when he passed away. Before we go to the commemorative inscription below, let us first take some time to look at the way he is depicted. The relief occupies more or less half of the stone. In an old catalogue, museum director Leemans gives the following description: "Tombstone with pointed top. The very roughly manufactured image of a young man stands in a sort of niche. He holds a roll in his left hand at chest height, his right hand a little lower before his body. He is dressed in a wide robe with long sleeves, covered by a cloak like the image on n.1. Above the niche is a crescent." "Grafsteen van boven spits bijgehouwen. In eene soort van nis staat het zeer ruw bewerkte beeld van eenen jongeling, die in de linkerhand ééne rol op de hoogte van de borst, de regterhand een weinig lager vóór het lichaam houdt; gekleed in eenen ruimen rok met lange mouwen, daarover eenen mantel als het beeld op n.1. Boven de nis eene halve maan." C. Leemans Beredeneerde beschrijving der Asiatische en Amerikaansche monumenten van het Museum van Oudheden te Leyden, 1842, p.77.

It is not really clear what kind of roll he is holding in his hand. Is it a scroll? Should this show his ability to read and write to the onlookers of the tombstone? With "n.1" Leemans means another tombstone from Roman Africa in the museum collection (fig. 1). The depicted woman wears a similar cloak as the boy on our tombstone. The online catalogue of the museum states that this tombstone depicts a man, but it must be a woman, as the inscription makes clear. See also Janssen, 1842, p.169 n.3.

Leemans does not say anything about the most upper and most lower part of the figure. The boy has clearly marked braids. This is similar to the hairstyle of the woman on the tombstone from Béja (fig. 1). At the bottom of the image, we see that his feet are damaged. This probably indicates they were originally protruding and broke off in the course of time.

The pointed top is common practice in Punic tombstones (see fig. 2 and fig. 3). Punic is a derivative from 'Phoenician'; Carthage was founded by Phoenician colonists. Above the boy's head we can discern a crescent and a circle, possibly representing the moon and sun. It reminds of the so-called "sign of Tanit", which can be found on many tombstones from Carthage and its surrounding areas.This symbol has many variants, but is usually composed of a triangle (representing a body), topped with a circle (the head) and a straight or hooked line (the arms) (fig. 2). Often, there is a crescent above the head (fig. 3). The sign is associated with the Punic goddess Tanit, together with Ba'al Hammon the most important deity of Carthage. See Bruno d'Andrea in The Encyclopedia of Ancient History, 2017, s.v. Tanit, "sign of".

It is not clear what message the symbol on our tombstone conveys: does it honor the goddess Tanit? Is the symbol used because this deity was associated with the death of children? Is it perhaps an evocation of the gods of the sun and moon? We do not know.

Let us now take a closer look at the inscription below.