A ROMAN MARBLE CINERARY URN AND LID, 1ST CENTURY A.D. | A Roman Marble Cinerary Urn and Lid

carved in front with two confronted birds perched atop both ends of a heavy filleted garland of leaves and fruit and flanking a framed rectangular panel engraved with a single line of inscription reading Memno, two birds with folded wings in the lunette, each side carved with a calyx of acanthus spreading into four symmetrical scrolls each centering a rosette, the gabled lid with voluted ends, leaf-shaped tiles, and pediment carved in shallow relief with two birds flanking a plant.

reputedly Burrell Collection, Ockenden House, Cuckfield, Sussex, acquired during the early 1700s, thence by descent
Fearon Collection, Ockenden House, Cuckfield, Sussex, acquired during the mid-1800s when Mr J. Fearon took occupation of the house, thence by descent (Bonhams, London, April 3rd, 2014, no. 70, illus.)

Roger S. O. Tomlin, "Roman Britain in 2013. III. Inscriptions," Britannia, vol. 45, 2014, p. 456
Antonella Ferraro, in Lucio Benedetti, Giorgio Crimi, and Antonella Ferraro, "Antichità vere e false in internet: cinerari iscritti da siti web di casa d'aste e gallerie d'arte," Sylloge Epigraphica Barcinonensis, vol. 15, 2017, no. 15, pp. 98-99, fig. 15

According to the Bonhams catalogue, "The urn was purportedly found on 05 April 1703 at Highbridge Hill in Cuckfield, Sussex, surrounded by Samian ware pottery, which is noted in Timothy Burrell's journal, see Sussex Archaeological Collections, vol. 3, p. 174." This notion has been disputed since then by Roger Tomlin, who argues that the present urn is characteristic of cinerary urns produced in Rome and collected by Englishmen on their Grand Tour, not of Romano-British ash containers, which were of a different material, style, and workmanship. Antonella Ferraro (op. cit., p. 99) notes that "the name engraved on the tablet consists simply of a Greek cognomen, of mythological origin and not widely used. The presence of a single onomastic element, moreover in the nominative, to refer to the deceased, as well as its off-center position on the tablet, suggests that the text was engraved in modern times, probably in order to increase its value at the time of the sale to the English collector."

The Bonhams catalogue notes that "This urn was found and maintained with cremated remains inside. These remains are due to be excavated, thoroughly recorded and deposited with Barbican House Museum of Sussex Archaeology in Lewes (part of the Sussex Archaeological Society)."