Page 171 - A Walk to Caesarea / Joseph Patrich

A Walk to Caesarea: A Historical-Archaeological Perspective 157

The minute statuary is of various materials, such as bronze, lead, a
clay, ivory, and bone. Among the bronze statuettes is a head of b
the goddess Athena and the head of a lad ringed with curls whose
identity is uncertain, a bust of one of the Dioscuri with a star over his
head and another one of the god Serapis. Isis, the consort of Serapis,
is represented by a lead statuette, standing with their son Horus-
Harpocrates, who resides next to her.

Most of the reliefs are fragments of sarcophagi made of marble,
originating in Asia Minor or Attica. One of them depicts the battle of
the Greeks against the Amazons, like the example of the sarcophagus
exhibited in the Rockefeller Museum, which was described above
(Fig. 48a, p. 43). A fragment of it displays a vanquished Amazon and
next to her another Amazon. Another fragment apparently shows an
Amazon on horseback (Fig. 177a–b). Two other fragments present
warriors wearing helmets and a rider. Isotopic probes of the marble
showed that both pieces come from the same sarcophagus. Additional
fragments display unfinished garlands; fragments of two gabled lids
decorated with tiles or a fish-scale pattern. Many burial inscriptions
in all of the languages mentioned above are on display. Of note is a
complete funerary stele depicting a naked youth holding a palm branch
and standing near a large prize vase inside an aedicule with a pediment
(Fig. 87 above, p. 89). Seemingly, this is the tombstone of a victorious
athlete who died at a young age. Two reliefs of which only the lower
part has been preserved, present a libation scene at an altar positioned
between two figures – a priest wearing a long garment and an assistant
in short clothing (Fig. 178). They originate from the theater.

Fig. 178 Fig. 177a–b
Two fragments from a wall of a sarcophagus
upon which a battle scene is carved.

Two scenes of libation on an altar set between two figures – a priest wearing a long garment and an assistant in a short clothing, marble