Appia altar reunited with its cover

An ancient funerary altar discovered in Rome’s Appia Antica archaeological park has been reunited with its cover 1,800 years after they were unceremoniously separated. Archaeologists discovered the cover just eight inches in front of where the altar had been found two years earlier. The lid was upside-down but otherwise in excellent condition.

The altar was discovered in July 2023 at a site on the first mile of the Appian Way near the tomb of Geta. This is the area where the life-sized Hercules statue was found during construction in January of that year. The site was abandoned in the 4th century, probably because a rise in the level of the water table rendered it impassable. The waterlogged soil and the benign neglect of millennia have preserved the archaeological materials.

An inscription on the front of the altar named its owner as Caius Ofilius Ianuarius. The Ofilii gens has been documented since the Republican era, and was likely of Samnite or Oscan origin. Members of the family are recorded as having fought in the Samnite wars of the 1st century B.C. and having practiced law in Rome. The cognomen Ianuarius refers to the god Janus and the first month of the year. It was typically adopted as by freedmen or their sons. His funerary monument on the Appia was in a very prestigious location, however, so he was likely someone achieved a certain status, despite his humble origins.

The altar has a niche inside that contained a cinerary urn and perhaps some jewelry or other valuables the deceased was wearing when he was cremated or when the ashes were placed in the urn. Archaeologists believe the cover was removed in antiquity by looters looking for valuables to steal inside the funerary monument. The lid was dumped on the ground, but it didn’t break. Both parts of the altar managed to survive practically unscathed.

The altar’s fine condition required no conservation, so it was cleaned and put on display at the museum of Santa Maria Nova less than two months after its discovery. The cover had an even shorter wait. Archaeologists just dusted it off and moved it right to the museum where it was put back on top of the altar.

Here’s a happy pair of videos capturing the moment the cover was discovered and the moment it was placed back on top of the altar. 

* This article was originally published here