Grave Stele of Archestrate
According to an inscription on the cornice, which is missing from this cast, the dead woman’s name was Archestrate and was from Sounion. She is shown seated in an unusual slightly diagonal position. Holes in her earlobes show that the relief was decorated with metal jewellry; some traces of colour survive on the original too.
Another woman stands to the right, who has her hand raised to her cheek in a gesture of mourning. She also has an unusual hairstyle. In the background to the left a servant girl has been squeezed in, carved in shallow relief in contrast to the deeply-cut other two figures.
Not to be confused with another stele of the same name in Athens
Leiden, Rijksmuseum van Oudheden 1821:RO1A1
Purchased in 1884 from the casting establishment of Berlin Museum
Walston: Catalogue of Casts in the Museum of Classical Archaeology (1889), 61, no.274
Clairmont: Classical Attic Tombstones (1993), vol. III, 413
Yes, but not on cast
Found in 1819 in Aixone, half way between Athens and Sounion