A DAUGHTER’S ASH CHEST, ROME? Alison E. Cooley AEC/ASHL ANChandler.3.68.xml Oxford Ashmolean Museum ANChandler.3.68 AshLI 67

An ornate ash chest of white marble, with lid (0.305 0.30 0.17). The separate lid consists of a triangular pediment, within which is carved a central wreath with ribbons; there are palmette decorations at the top corners on both right and left. There is a conical indentation 4 cm. in diameter on top of the lid. The inscription within its frame sits in the middle of the ash chest, at the top just below the lid. On either side of the inscription is a bearded male, with ram’s horns, whose profile goes onto the side of the chest. From these figures is suspended a garlanded swag that hangs down beneath the inscribed frame. Two birds within it peck at the fruits. At the lower corners of the chest are two eagles with outstretched wings, which also go onto the side of the chest. The rear of the chest is curving rather than the more usual rectilinear profile. The sides of the chest continue the decorative reliefs from the front, with their rear sections smoothly finished.

The inscription is inscribed within a decorated moulded frame (inscribed area: 0.082 0.14). There are triangular interpuncts. Remains of guiding lines are still visible.

 0.014 (lines 1-2); 0.013 (lines 3-4) It probably originated from Rome. possibly second or third century (from DM formula and onomastics) (Solin 2003: vol. 2, p.1155). The ash chest belongs to the Arundel Collection, given to the University of Oxford by Henry Howard, Earl of Arundel, in 1667 (Prideaux 1676). It probably originated from Rome. The Arundel marbles were first displayed in the ‘Garden of Antiquities’ outside the new Sheldonian Theatre from 1668/9 (Sturdy and Moorcraft 1999), and were subsequently transferred indoors in 1715 to ‘The Marble School’, an upper gallery in the Bodleian Quadrangle. In 1749, they were transferred downstairs to the ground floor in the former School of Moral Philosophy, and at some point then ended up in the basement of the (Old) Ashmolean Museum on Broad Street (now the Museum of the History of Science) (Munby 2013). The Ashmolean Museum in its current location was built behind the University Galleries, was opened in 1894, and finally the University Galleries and Ashmolean were amalgamated by statute in 1908. The ash chest is currently in a storeroom. Photograph: front face Photograph: lid Photograph: front and side
dis manibus Caecilia Ampelis Caeci liae Trepteni fi liae pientissimae

To the spirits of the dead. Caecilia Ampelis set this up to her most devoted daughter Caecilia Treptenis.

TREPTINI (Prideaux, Maittaire) Line division (Maittaire p.561): AMPELIS CAE/ CILIAE TREP/ TINI FILIAE PIENTISSIMAE F

The social status of this mother-daughter pair is uncertain.

Prideaux (1676) p.90, no.17; Maittaire (1732) p.34, no.49; Chandler (1763) p.136, no.68; CIL VI.2 no.13797 [Hübner] (1882)

Online: EDCS-15500225 [accessed 12/08/15]

ChandlerR. 1763 Marmora Oxoniensia Oxford Clarendon Press Maittaire M. 1732, 2nd edn. Marmorum, Arundellianorum, Seldenianorum, Aliorumque Academiae Oxoniensi Donatorum London William Bowyer Munby J. 2013 A rare collection: Oxford museums past and present Excalibur: Essays on Antiquity and the History of Collecting in Honour of Arthur MacGregor H. Wiegel and M. Vickers Oxford BAR Int. ser. 2512 75-85 Prideaux H. 1676 Marmora Oxoniensia ex Arundellianis, Seldenianis aliisque conflata Oxford Solin H. 2003 Die griechischen Personennamen in Rom. Ein Namenbuch (2nd edn) 3 vols Berlin De Gruyter Sturdy D. and N. Moorcraft 1999 Christopher Wren and Oxford’s garden of antiquities Minvera 10.1 25-28