Ash Chest

Rectangular ash chest of Pholoe, decorated only at the front. The sides only have a portion of the front corner heads roughly blocked. The back of it is roughly worked with a claw chisel. The interior is also roughly worked and has the shape of a bucket. There are no clamp holes on the top edge for holding the lid. The inscription is on a panel with no frame:
D.M. PHOLOE.VERNAE
BENE MERENTI
RASINIA.GLYPTE.F
VIXIT.ANN.XVI.D.VII
To the shades, Rasinia Glypte had this made for Pholoe, a slave born in the household, well deserving. She lived 16 years and 7 days.
The front of the ash chest also has a raised panel with male, clean shaven and horned heads at the upper corners. From their horns a garland, possibly made of leaves, hangs down in the arc below the inscription panel. The bottom corners have birds with their bodies facing outwards and their heads turning towards the garland. Some plain groove patterns are at the area between the garland the inscription. At the top and bottom of the front and extending on the side above the corner heads, there are fascia mouldings but not in the usual heads of the Jupiter Ammon but of a type rarely found on ash chests: instead of ram's horns they are the horns of bulls and have been identified by Sinn as the head of Acheloos, the river deity who took the form of a man -headed bull and who is common in Greek and Etruscan rather than Roman art. The overall The decoration is broad and there is very little attention to detail, almost left in an unfinished state. The cuffs of the garlands have horizontal grooves and the leaves are also cut by grooves into the garland's surface. The birds are schematic and rather lumpy. The inscription may have been unframed because it was left unfinished. Pholoe died young and probably unxpectantly and as she was a slave her ash chest was not elaborate. The crack at the front of the chest indicates that it was originally a reject and only put to use later on. The inscription may therefore be a modern addition.