A Freedman’s Tomb from Parion: Reading a Stele as a Visual Code of Social Mobility in Hellenistic and Roman Anatolia
Keleş Vedat, Tuğrul Sadık
A figured funerary stele from the South Necropolis of Parion, dated to the Late Hellenistic period, was re-employed in the Roman Imperial era as a medium of social affiliation and representation. The ‘demos’ inscription and civic symbols highlight notions of civic honour, while the domestic scene emphasizes family hierarchy and virtue. Stylistic and technical analysis indicates links with Smyrna, Kyzikos, and Pergamon workshops, as well as a template-based production system. The erasure of the original inscription and its replacement with Latin reflects the stele’s role in constructing new social identities.
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