cippo

A limestone funerary cippus, composed of a cylindrical base supporting a rectangular stele. On its front face, a carved epigraphic panel of 24 by 12 centimetres bears a Hebrew inscription; a further Latin inscription runs across the top. The short sides and reverse are decorated with relief carvings of two shofarot and a menorah. The object belongs to the Byzantine period, an era in which Jewish communities across Italy maintained distinct funerary traditions, often blending local Roman and Byzantine stoneworking practices with specifically Jewish iconography. The menorah, a seven-branched lampstand, and the shofar, a ram’s horn, are among the most durable symbols of Jewish identity and ritual life. This cippus is a modest but telling artefact of a community that marked its dead with these ancestral signs, in a landscape increasingly dominated by Christian monuments. It speaks of continuity, adaptation, and quiet persistence.

Description via source. Coordinates and heritage data from the Atika atlas.