Both Christian women and men were commemorated and idealized as persons of status, authority, learnedness, and religious devotion. When the deceased’s funerary portrait was depicted with a scroll or capsa in close proximity to biblical scenes, it also signaled learnedness about the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures (Figure 1).
Over a three-year period, I analyzed 2,119 images and descriptors of 3rd to early 5th-century sarcophagi and fragments, comprising all publicly available images of Christian sarcophagi. An in-depth analysis of selected iconographical motifs found that many early Christian women were commemorated as persons of status, influence, and authority within their communities.
One highly significant finding is that there are three times as many solo funerary portraits of Christian women compared to Christian men. The likelihood is less than 1 in 1000 that this finding is due to chance.
Source: Vatican News
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