One Last Terracotta Coffin in Barcelona

Figure 1 - Roman Period Terracotta coffin

     Terracotta coffins continued to be used in Egypt for the burials of persons of humble origins until the end of Pharaonic culture. This one is from the 3rd or 4th century A. D. and is unusual in so many ways, particularly in that the head of the deceased has been modeled in terra-cotta on top of the coffin.

Figure 2 - Face of the Coffin

     As we saw in the previous post to this blog, terra-cotta coffins were sometimes brightly painted, as is this one. The modeled female head is shown with its hair tied up into a knot on the top of the deceased's head. Around her neck is what looks like a representation of a floral collar of some sort. The purple decorations might be bunches of grapes (but I am not sure of that).

     In figure 2 we get a close up view of the deceased's face. She is shown as having bright red cheeks, red lips and long eyelashes. Her nose is poorly modeled and the whole effect is to make the coffin look odd, rather than to make it look nicer.


 All photos copyright (c) 2014 by John Freed