Religious obligations permeated all levels of Roman society, and offerings and dedications continued to be performed for a family member after death.
This marble funerary tablet inscribed in Latin was dedicated by a woman named Ampliata, who erected it on the death of her ‘well deserving sister’ Tutillia Supera, who lived for thirty-five years, nine months and seventeen days. The ‘DM’ on the tablet is an abbreviation of Dis Manibus, which means ‘to the spirits of the departed’. It alerts those who have gone before that another spirit is on the way and is commended to their care.
As many in the ancient world were illiterate, the Roman tombstones were inscribed with simple and formulaic texts. Families bought plots of land along the roads leading to cities where they placed the tomb inscriptions, or they left the remains of their deceased members in catacombs or in a necropolis.
