Funerary Stela of C. Julius Valerius
Description
Object Label: This funerary stela, the oldest in this exhibition by several centuries, shows a boy who died when he was three. His father, a Roman soldier, was stationed near Alexandria. His Egyptian mother is not mentioned. The child’s costume and pose are Roman, but his long sidelock of hair is traditionally Egyptian, as are the jackal god Anubis and the falcon god Horus above his head. The griffin in the lower right corner represents the classical goddess Nemesis, who controlled life and death. Caption: Funerary Stela of C. Julius Valerius, 3rd century C.E.. Limestone, pigment, 14 3/16 x 10 1/16 x 2 3/16 in. (36 x 25.5 x 5.5 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Evangeline Wilbour Blashfield, Theodora Wilbour, and Victor Wilbour honoring the wishes of their mother, Charlotte Beebe Wilbour, as a memorial to their father, Charles Edwin Wilbour, 16.105. (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 relief depicting a figure with animals, accompanied by an inscription.
The artifact is a limestone relief featuring a central human figure flanked by two animals, possibly dogs or jackals. The figure stands within an architectural frame, suggesting a scene of significance, possibly religious or funerary in nature. Below, a carved inscription is clearly visible, rendered in a classical script style. The details and style suggest a blend of Egyptian and Roman influences.
Cross-references (2)
- BKM-Accession 16.105 tier-2
- BKM-Object 9362 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.