Carthaginian Tombstone for Maximilla Bassi (Illustration)

Illustration

by Osama Shukir Muhammed Amin
published on 16 June 2016

This finely carved limestone monument was set up in a memory for a woman called Maximilla Bassi. The Latin inscription says "Maximilla Bassi, Pious daughter, lived nineteen years. Here she is placed". After the Roman annexation of Carthage in 146 BCE, it became more fashionable to use Latin for inscriptions, although Phoenician remained the everyday language used. The shallow niche is carved with an image of a female figure wearing a pleated tunic and mantle, presumably Maximilla. She also wears pendent earrings and a necklace. From Carthage, modern-day Tunisia. Punic, 2nd to 3rd century CE. (The British Museum, London)

About the Author

Associate Professor of Neurology and lover of the Cradle of Civilization, Mesopotamia. I'm very interested in Mesopotamian history and always try to take photos of archaeological sites and artifacts in museums, both in Iraq and around the world.

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Uploaded by Osama Shukir Muhammed Amin, published on 16 June 2016 under the following license: Creative Commons: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike. This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon this content non-commercially, as long as they credit the author and license their new creations under the identical terms. Please note that content linked from this page may have different licensing terms.

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