Fragment of Roman bas-relief from Baška Voda

Abstract

The topic of this paper is fragment of Roman bas-relief found in 1996 in Baška Voda, at the site Gradina. After the examination of the fragment in question, the author has concluded that it belonged to a type of typical Roman funeral monument - stele with portraits. The fragment shows traces of two working phases. Remnants of the deceased's portrait and a small portion of the upper border of tilulus are all what is left from the original monument that once portrayed the deceased from the waist upwards. In the second working phase, a tabula ansata was inserted in the lower half of the portrait niche. According to the results of modem iconological research of Roman sepulchral stelae, the author has concluded that the original monument belonged either to the type of architectonically partitioned stelae with a portrait niche, free gable and titulus, or to the type of moulded gable stelae with a pseudogable, niche and titulus. In addition, the author reconstructs reasons and course of reworking the original monument, opting for the opinion that the later inscription most probably entirely substituted the older one, that is, that the stele changed its owners.
In the second part of this paper, the author discusses some incorrect elements appearing in the previous reading of the inscription and analyses its contents. A Ilia Messia dedicated this new inscription, carved on the reworked monument, to her husband Vetius /unianus. According to the analysis of stylistic characteristics and height of the original figure (from the waist upwards), and connecting it with probable structure and outer form of the stele, the author dates the production of the original monument at the end of the 1st century or at the first half of the 2nd century. Name patterns of both deceased and commemorator at the later inscription (duo nomina), appearance of tabula ansata and typical late Roman lettering of some letters date the rework of the monument in the period of the early Dominate, that is, at the end of the 3rd century or at the beginning of the 4th century.