Ceiling Tile with Female Face
Clay with Layer of Painted Plaster, H. 37.7 cm, W. 51.1 cm, D. 10.2 cm
From the Synagogue, Dura-Europos, ca. 245 CE
Yale University Art Gallery, Yale-French Excavations at Dura-Europos: 1933.267
Photography © 2011 Yale University Art Gallery
This tile comes from the decorated ceiling of the synagogue’s assembly room. The figure’s mass of reddish hair is decorated with leaves and flowers, and she may generally represent the vegetative powers of nature. The ceiling contained cosmic imagery of fertility and abundance that would have been universally understood through direct use of Classical iconography; the motifs also include land and sea animals, fantastic beasts, zodiacal symbols, and fruits and flowers.