Tombstone Information

Objects generally have a number of “facts” associated with them, often called biographical information, or tombstone data. This information is provided by the museum that holds these objects or by the scholarly works that publish them. This type of information generally includes information on who, what, when, and where. You can see how all this information plays out in academic writing on our example page. Specific to artifacts from the ancient world, tombstone information can include:

Type

What is the classification of the artifact you are using? This can be as simple as a statue, a vessel, an inscription, etc. But sometimes there is more information available and relevant. Instead of simply “statue,” for example, the book or museum may provide the sub-category (known as the typology) of a sculpture, such as kore, portraiture, etc. In other words, a specific genre of sculpture. The same thing goes for vessels, where the specific shape of the vessel is usually provided (e.g., kylix, type A amphora, etc.)

Material

What is the object made from? Just like the classification of an artifact, material categories also have sub-categories that add details and are more specific (e.g., marble → Parian marble; terracotta → Attic clay)

Date 

Dates for ancient artifacts are usually given in ranges, especially if an absolute date (numbered date) is provided (e.g., 500-480 BCE). However, certain objects may be easier to date (for a variety of reasons) and have a single date given (e.g., 12 CE). Dates can also be given in cultural ranges or time periods (e.g., Julio-Claudian, Republican period, the 7th century, etc.)

Style

Style describes an adherence to certain forms and features, or inclusion within an artistic trend (e.g, Daedalic, Severe style, Archaizing, etc.). Artistic trends and identifiable features characterize material production from a certain period of time, and can also be grouped into internal or specific time ranges (e.g., high Classical, Augustan, etc.). Certain geographic regions can have their own stylistic schools as well (e.g., Boeotian school). If you are using objects in your writing, secondary literature will tell you what stylistic features your object demonstrates. You should only do this type of attribution yourself if you have training in art historical and/ or seriation methods.

Provenance

Provenance is where an object was found. This information is unfortunately missing or incomplete for many ancient artifacts due to looting, early art market activity, and/ or private collecting history. Beyond initial provenance (find spot), an object may also have a collection history, which is also called provenance. For some objects, this history may also be missing or incomplete, as detailed records were not always kept in early collection history.

Museum and inventory number

This tells you where the object is currently housed, and how the museum catalogs their collection. This is helpful for the reader (and for you, later in your research!) to know so that they can re-locate the object on their own.

Artist

Do we know who made the object? Ancient art can be attributed to one person (e.g. Pheidias), to a single hand that is recognizable but for which we don’t know their actual name (e.g. the Amasis Painter, an arbitrary name assigned by modern scholars), or to groups of craftsmen (e.g. the workshop of Alcamenes). Sometimes we have no indication of artist!