LOT 0676

Large Late Roman Sigma-Shaped Marble Offering Table Top

EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN, 4TH-6TH CENTURY A.D.

35 3/4 in. (84.5 kg including backplate, 91 cm wide).

Semi-circular with raised and slightly everted edge, the top with a recessed area with a funnel-shaped outlet; for votive offerings within a church; restored. [No Reserve]

Acquired in the late 1960s or early 1970s.
Ex David Read collection.

Accompanied by an academic report by Dr Raffaele D’Amato.
This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by search certificate number no.12080-214035.

See Peirano, D., ‘Iasos and Iasian Marble between the Late Antiques and Early Byzantine eras’ in Matetić Poljak, D. and Marasović, K., Asmosia XI, Interdisciplinary Studies on Ancient Stone, Proceedings of the XI Asmosia Conference, Split, 2015, Split, 2018, pp. 123-130, figs. 1-4, for related examples; Rautman, M., Last Suppers at Sardis, Journal of Roman Archaeology, vol.34/2, 2021, pp.667-694, for examples related to domestic dining contexts; a decorated example with elaborated decoration along the edge, is in the Metropolitan Museum (sigma-shaped table with relief border depicting the Birth of Aphrodite and a Marine Thiasos, accession no. L.2020.6a–ii), but this latter was probably for domestic use; another similar specimen for liturgical use can be seen in the same museum under accession number 47.100.50.

Marble tables such as the present example are called in archaeological terms sigma tables, in consideration of their resemblance to the Greek letter sigma. Sigma-shaped tables appeared in the banquet halls at the end of the 4th century and within Christian buildings from the following century. Most of the undecorated slabs were used as liturgical table tops for feasts to honour the deceased. This commemorative practice was known throughout the late Roman world in west and east, where it continued in the daily life of the citizens of the Eastern Roman Empire. In ecclesiastical settings, circular and sigma-shaped tables were used to collect offerings or for celebrating the agape, more generally as secondary furniture, while the rectangular form was preferred for use as an altar.