Inv. Scu 25

The fragment, coinciding with the upper part of a bell-shaped capital carved with vegetal decoration, consists of three upper rows of Egyptian palmette leaves with long longitudinal ribbing.

Papyrus-leafed capitals, often combined with lotus blossoms, were very common in Ptolemaic Egypt (e.g. Temple of Edfu); they unequivocally recall the exotic nature of Egypt with its primordial wetlands where creation had its origins.

The capital is a Roman imitation of an Egyptian capital and has been dated to the Domitianic period.

The fragment was found in 1858 in Via di Sant’Ignazio (now Via del Beato Angelico), beneath the house of Pietro Tranquilli, near the apse of Santa Maria Sopra Minerva (area of the Iseum in the Campus Martius).