7 Arhiepiscopiei Street, Ovidiu Square, Constanța
The Painted Tomb of Tomis is a monument of inestimable historical and artistic value, unique both in Dobrudja and in the entire country. Its mural paintings represent a rare example of funerary art from the Roman era, with themes and symbols that reflect the beliefs and culture of late antiquity.
Its discovery took place on February 25, 1988, during construction works on the high cliff of the city of Constanța, near the Mircea cel Bătrân High School, when archaeologists from the Museum of History and Archaeology in Constanța discovered a family tomb with a dromos-type access corridor. Although the rectangular plan of the tomb is relatively common for the period, its interior would reveal one of the most spectacular discoveries ever made in Constanța, with its remarkably well-preserved painting.
On the walls of the tomb, painted in the a secco technique, several complex scenes were depicted, depicting various anthropomorphic, zoomorphic and phytomorphic motifs, as follows: on the south side, above the entrance to the tomb, a scene is illustrated consisting of four doves drinking water from a cup, represented in a realistic manner, surrounded by plant motifs.
Following the continuity of the scenes, on the western wall there are four partridges painted, two drinking from a cup and the other two pecking around it, and in their continuation a rabbit eating grapes from an overturned basket is represented.
On the northern wall, well framed under the monumental arch, is the main scene depicting a funeral banquet. Around the round table are seven male characters, five of whom are depicted in a seated position, and the other two, probably two servants, are depicted standing, to the left and right of the diners. The two servants wear typical Roman period clothing and hold silver vessels in their hands, which probably had a ritual character. The background of the iconographic frame is depicted by stylized Mediterranean-style trees, as well as other elements of plant decoration, which suggests that the ceremony took place outdoors.
Another suggestive image is depicted on the eastern side of the monument, where two peacocks are represented in profile, positioned one in front of the other, pecking from a basket of fruit.
In the background, Mediterranean trees can be seen, the entire vault being covered, moreover, by vines and other plant motifs.
Inside the tomb, four wooden coffins were discovered in which the remains of four deceased were stored, buried in a Christian manner (east-west), with their hands at their sides. In addition to them, fragments of other deceased were also discovered, deposited in the first phase of use of the tomb, a sign that the tomb was used for a longer period of time. Truly remarkable was the discovery of a small amphora, in which the remains of a child were deposited, the practice of burying children in amphorae being quite common at the time.
The funerary inventory found in the crypt is relatively poor, being represented by the personal objects of a deceased woman: faceted beads that were part of a necklace, two bracelets made of twisted bronze wire, as well as a fusiform glass vessel with a bulb in the middle, of the unguentarium type. A special piece is represented by a silver philacterium, a small object used as an amulet and which offered protection to the wearer.
Both the painting, the archaeological context and the funerary inventory, frame the period of use of the monument in the second half of the 4th century AD and until the beginning of the 5th century AD, therefore at the border between the twilight of paganism and the dawn of the new monotheistic religion, with connotations specific to each world.
Through its special symbolism, but also through the mural painting technique, the tomb appears to us as a remarkable image of the artistic and spiritual refinement to which the Romanesque population of
Scythia Minor, the Hypogeum Painted Tomb representing one of the most important monuments of ancient Dobruja.
