Description: White marble sarcophagus, with lid, with garlands surrounding the busts of a woman (left) and a man: w: 1.99 × h: 0.64 - 1.025 (with lid) × d: 0.72

Text: Inscribed on the central tabella (w: 0.44 × h: 0.48), line 1, on the upper moulding, lines 2 ff. in the tabella impinging on all its mouldings. The lower moulding of the sarcophagus has been damaged, and may once have carried the concluding phrases of the funerary formulae which are missing here.

Letters: Reasonably well designed and aligned, in the second-to-fourth-century style; line 1, 0.015-0.02; lines 2 ff., ave. 0.02. Unconventional spelling in lines 9, 10, 11, 12; slanting line before the figure in line 14.

Date: Probably first half of the third century . (lettering, nomenclature, spelling)

Findspot: Aphrodisias: In Necropolis, North-east chamber tomb, with 13.111 (=410), 13.109 (=412), 13.110 (=414), 13.101 (=415).

Original location: Necropolis, North-east: chamber tomb

Last recorded location: Museum

English translation

Translation source: Reynolds, 2007

The sarcophagus is the property of Aurelia Zotike also called daughter of Zotikos son of Pankrates who was also called Demetrios, in which she shall be buried herself and Aurelius Zotikos her father; but no-one else shall have the right to bury anyone in it or to remove anyone since (if he does) he will pay the goddess Aphrodite 5000 denarii, of which one third is to belong to the prosecutor.

Commentary

It is virtually certain that one line has dropped out between lines 2 and 3, so that Zotike's second name and the beginning of her father's gentile name have been omitted. In line 12 letters 4-7 probably show a misunderstanding or mistranscription of the phrase ἐπεὶ ἐσται ἀσεβὴς καὶ ἐπάρατος καὶ τυμβωρύχος καὶ ἀποτείσει.The father looks likely to have been the first Roman citizen in the family, no doubt obtaining citizenship in 212. The names suggest a comparatively modest social status. Nothing is said of anything but the sarcophagus, but the funerary fine is a little above average.

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