Inscription fragment from Temple of Zeus
This was one of the earliest archaeological objects donated to the museum in the 1860s or 1870s and was described as being from ‘the Temple of Zeus (Jupiter), Athens’. The inscription on the fragment is in Latin which dates it to the Roman period, and it is only a portion of a larger inscription. The letters ‘EMORI’ mean ‘die’ and it was probably part of a funeral inscription on a tombstone. We do not know how the donor came to own this item but it is likely he bought it as a souvenir whilst travelling in Greece. Although it seems to have a strong provenance this is actually rather uncertain as unsuspecting tourists were sold items with false histories.
Object Summary
- Accession Loan No.
- A486
- Category
- Antiquities
- Collection Class
- Foreign archaeology
- Collection Area Region
- Southern Europe
- Collector Excavator
- Ridgway, Dr
- Material
- stonemarble
- Common Name
- inscription fragment from Temple of Zeus
- Simple Name
- architectural fragment
- Period Classification
- Roman Republican - 509-31 BC; Roman Imperial - 31 BC-476 AD
