Archaeology Lecture with Sarah Madole Lewis

Sarah Madole Lewis (BMCC/CUNY) will speak on ""The Cloisters Sarcophagus in its Eastern Mediterranean Context". Refreshments will be available.

Lecture abstract:

A priceless relic of the past sits in the cloisters at Bryn Mawr College, where it witnesses annual rites and celebrations, although not the ones its original owner intended. Inscribed in Latin and decorated with a type of garland design motif common to the eastern Roman Empire, the sarcophagus has drawn the attention of many, but few understand its context within the funerary landscape of the eastern Mediterranean. One of a pair of marble coffins said to have been discovered in Beirut, Lebanon, the two objects supposedly took hundreds of men to transport to the harbor from what is today the tony neighborhood of Ashrafieh. I consider the inscription, design motif, and presumed find spot, in conjunction with the overarching regional data, which allows us to contextualize the Bryn Mawr sarcophagus in its historical context in the Roman Empire and specifically, in the eastern Mediterranean in the first half of the third century CE.