Funerary Stela with Male Figure
Description
Object Label: In this stela, an oddly proportioned naked male figure stands within a columned structure, reaching up to touch an ornamented laurel wreath on his head. In his other hand, he holds a laurel sprig. A Greek inscription along the roof line reads “Olympios, twenty-eight years of age.” This name and the laurel leaves suggest that the owner was a pagan. But the ankh-cross above the capital on the right suggests that this stela may later have been reused for a Christian burial. Caption: Coptic. Funerary Stela with Male Figure, ca. 500–600 C.E. or later. Limestone, pigment, 14 3/4 x 11 7/16 x 4 1/4 in. (37.4 x 29 x 10.8 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 40.301. (Photo: Brooklyn Museum)
AI image analysis GPT-4o-2024-08-06
Machine-generated from the object's image on May 2026. Not curatorial; treat deities, names, and signs below as the model's best reading, not authority.
A carved figure of a standing nude male in a niche with inscriptions around the border.
The artifact depicts a sculpted nude male figure standing in a niche with detailed carvings along the border. The figure holds a staff and is crowned with a laurel wreath, evoking classical iconography. The surrounding inscriptions are in Greek, suggesting Hellenistic or Roman influence. The use of limestone and the sculptural style suggest late period craftsmanship, likely from the Ptolemaic or Roman period.
Cross-references (2)
- BKM-Accession 40.301 tier-2
- BKM-Object 50220 tier-2
About this record's data
- From the source institution — accession, description, dimensions, and dating are as catalogued by Brooklyn Museum — Egyptian, Classical, Ancient Near Eastern Art.
- AI-inferred — the image-analysis panel (deities, names, signs) is machine-generated and may be wrong.
- Approximate location — most map points are plotted at the site centroid, not the exact findspot.
- Inferred links — cross-references marked with a match method other than explicit-source-field were matched by us, not stated by the source.