Tomb Garden of Anonymous 1

Thu, 01 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Dates

probably first century CE

Excavation Dates

unspecified

Garden Description

A highly fragmentary inscription found in the south part of the Cayster River valley records the dedication of a piece of landed property apparently attached to a heroon. The tomb is not explicitly mentioned with the property in the surviving text (καθιέρωσεν δὲ κὲ κτῆμα τὸ προσὸν τῶ ἡρώω) but is implied in the reference elsewhere in the inscription to a banquet served at the monument (ὥστε αὐτοῖς εὐωχίαν εἶναι καὶ παννυχ[ί]δα ἐπὶ τοῦ μνημείου). The combination of the two suggests the standard configuration of a tomb with productive property attached — whether a field or a garden is impossible to say — to provide revenue for commemorative funerary celebrations at the grave.

Bibliography

Keil, J., and A. von Premerstein. 1914. Bericht über eine dritte Reise in Lydien. Denkschriften der Kaiserlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften in Wien 57.1. Vienna, no. 112. (worldcat); (Archive.org)
Kubińska, J. 1968. Les monuments funéraires dans les inscriptions grecques de l'Asie Mineure. Warsaw, pp. 145. (worldcat)

Keywords

Tomb Garden of Anonymous 2

Thu, 01 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Dates

unspecified

Excavation Dates

1901

Garden Description

A broken inscription found near Thyaira in 1901 records the second part of a funerary dedication in which the dedicant prescribes who can be buried in his monument and forbids anyone "to sell this tomb or the garden (περιβόλιον) in front of it with the crematory in it (οὐκ ἐξέσται δὲ οὐδενὶ πωλῆσαι τοῦτο τὸ ἡρῷον οὐδὲ τὸ πρὸ αὐτοῦ περιβόλιον ἐν ᾧ ἐστιν ἡ καῦστρα). The prohibition against alienation suggests that peribolion here, like periboloi at Attaleia and Hypaipa in Lydia and often elsewhere, refers metonymically to a garden enclosed within the wall rather than simply to the wall itself. The crematory (καῦστρα)—a feature seldom mentioned in funerary inscriptions in Asia Minor—suggests a Roman style tomb garden, with ustrina and tomb monument enclosed within the same perimeter wall, as often around Rome and on the Bay of Naples.

Bibliography

Frontrier, REA 4, 1902:263, no. 12. (Persée)
Cagnat R. et al. 1906-1927. Inscriptiones Graecae ad res Romanas pertinentes. Paris. (worldcat)
Kubińska, J. 1968. Les monuments funéraires dans les inscriptions grecques de l’Asie Mineure. Warsaw, pp. 66, 144. (worldcat)

Keywords

Places

Thyaira (Pleiades:599981)

Cayster River Valley on Gardens of the Roman Empire

Tomb Garden of Anonymous 1

Dates

Excavation Dates

Garden Description

Bibliography

Keywords

Tomb Garden of Anonymous 2

Dates

Excavation Dates

Garden Description

Bibliography

Keywords

Places