MARBLE ASH CHEST OF CORNELIA THALIA, ROME Alison E. Cooley AEC/ASHL AN2007.63.xml Oxford Ashmolean Museum AN2007.63 AshLI 164

A white marble ash chest, intact, with lid (0.28 0.40 0.26). The lid takes the form of a roof with miniature tiles on top, with double palmettes acting as acroteria to the sides, and a triangular pediment with three rosettes. On its right side on the top is a hole for making offerings to the dead. There is a centrally placed tabula ansata on the front of the chest, with rosettes. More palmettes appear within the handles of the tablet. There is deep drilling on the rosettes and palmettes on the front. The sides are plain.

Inscribed within a centrally placed tabula ansata on the front of the chest (inscribed area: 0.177 0.088). Interpunct in line 1 only.

 0.02 (line 1), with tall I, 0.022; 0.018 (line 2); 0.015 (line 3). AD 50-100 (from style and dis manibus formula, which became common at Rome only from the mid-first century AD). Parallels can be found for roof tiles on ash chests from the Augustan/ early imperial period (Sinn 1987: taf. 8, no. 17; taf. 26, no.92), whilst a Flavian ash chest has similar rosettes in the pediment (Sinn 1987: taf. 45, no. 243). The closest parallel overall appears to be CIL VI 3582/ Sinn 1987: taf. 53 no. 303, AD 50-100, which also has ansate handles with palmettes, rosettes at the four corners of the inscribed panel, and fairly restrained décor overall. The ash chest was acquired by Charles Wilshere from Luigi Depoletti, a dealer at Rome (Vermeule and von Bothmer 1959: p.342).Charles Wilshere (1814-1906) was a lawyer and member of the landed gentry, succeeding to his family estate at The Frythe, Welwyn (Hertfordshire) in 1867. As a supporter of the Oxford movement and Anglican layman, he had particular interest in ecclesiastical history, which he pursued during several trips to Rome between roughly 1860 and 1890, purchasing antiquities relevant to Judaism and early Christianity (Kraabel 1979: p.42). In addition to purchasing antiquities for his own collection, he presented others to the Vatican. This inscription was bequeathed to Pusey House, a noted centre for theological study in Oxford, in 1906, along with the rest of the Wilshere collection. It was subsequently loaned to and then purchased by the Ashmolean Museum. On the Wilshere collection, see Photograph Photograph Photograph Photograph
diis manibus Corneliae Thaliae

To the departed spirits of Cornelia Thalia.

The form of this ash chest, alluding to architecture in miniature, is a feature shared with Etruscan ash chests, and reflects the perception that the ash urn becomes the final resting-place, or physical home, of the deceased’s ashes after cremation.

CIL VI.3 no.16462 [Nadejda Helbig] (1886); Vermeule and von Bothmer (1959) p.342; Pusey House Oxford, no.7; Ashmolean Museum Department of Antiquities MS. Accession Register 2007.63

Online: EDCS-12001357 [accessed 30/06/15]

Sinn F. 1987 Stadtrömische Marmorurnen Mainz am Rhein Philipp von Zabern Vermeule C. von Bothmer D. 1959 Notes on a new edition of Michaelis: Ancient Marbles in Great Britain, Part three: 2 American Journal of Archaeology 63.4 329-48 Webster T.B.L. 1929 The Wilshere Collection at Pusey House in Oxford JRS 19 150-54