Wardian Tombs
About
Two rock-cut tombs anchored Alexandria's western necropolis, cut into the limestone ridge above the harbor around 300 BCE at the dawn of Ptolemaic rule. One chamber kept its early Hellenistic plan while the other was remodeled for burials under Roman administration, a rare side-by-side record of three centuries of changing funerary fashion.
What happened here
Roman burial is a family matter conducted in public. The dead are carried out of town, cremated or laid in the ground, and mourned with formal noise; the funeral of anyone important is a procession with masks of the ancestors carried by hired men. The tomb that follows is designed to be read by strangers on the road: name, age, offices, sometimes a trade shown in relief, often a line addressed directly to the passer-by. Ordinary people appear here as they nowhere else — a baker with his ovens carved on the front, a freedman naming the woman he could finally marry, a child's age given in days. Anniversaries bring the family back with food and wine.
Sources
Nearby
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