This relief portrays a man, the deceased, reclining on a couch at a banquet. His wife sits on cushions beside him.
The epitaph inscribed on a cartouche between the two figures reads: ”Image of Maliku, son of Hagegu, son of Maliku, priest of the temple precinct, alas! and Hadira, his wife.”
Banqueting in a reclining position was originally a Greco-Roman practice. It was an essential component of funerary iconography in Palmyra. Family tombs had a main room dominated by the monumental sarcophagus of the founder, topped by high reliefs showing the head of the clan surrounded by his relatives and servants, reclining on a kline, and cup in hand.
Nature: Low relief in limestone
Dimensions: H.: 44 cm; L.: 57 cm; D.: 21 cm
Origin: Palmyra
Date: 1st half of the 3rd century CE
Writing: Inscription in the Palmyrene alphabet
Language: Palmyrene, dialect derived from Aramaic
Inventory number: AO 2000
Learn more: Relief of Maliku