Sarcophagus with a cobbler and a spinner

From Ostia (1877?).
Date: early second century AD. W. 1.85, h. 0.50, d. 0.58.

According to a Greek inscription in the centre, the sarcophagus was ordered by Lucius Atilius Artemas and Claudia Apphias for their friend Titus Flavius Trophimas, from Ephesus. To the left a shoemaker is working on a shoe. Next to him is a cupboard with two pairs of shoe-lasts on top. A man to the right is spinning, pulling threads of wool or flax from a bundle, and with a spindle in his right hand. To the right of the inscription the same men are seen again, now playing a double flute and a tambourine. Between them a long flute lies on a table.

Same image, large.

Inv. nr. 184. Paribeni 1920, 276. IG XIV, 929, cf. 930. Zimmer 1982, cat. nr. 47. Amedick 1991, cat. nr. 173. Arachne 17572. Photo: Sarah Bond.