An Etruscan Cippus in the Ashmolean Museum

In 1933 the Moyses Hall Museum at Bury St. Edmunds was reorganised to deal with local history. Its Committee decided to dispose of much material from abroad, and the cippus here discussed was purchased by the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. There is no record of its previous history. I. Description of the Cippus The cippus (Museum number 1933,1946) consists of the upper half of a rectangular limestone block with relief carving upon each of its four sides. The top surface, upon which are the marks of a large flat chisel (about 2·0 cm. wide), is between 28·5 and 29·0 cm. square. The block widens slightly below, and its present lower edge measures from 30·5 to 31·0 cm. in width; its height is about 25·0 cm. At a distance varying from 6·2 to 6·4 cm. from the top of the block is the lower edge of a flat moulding 3·0 to 3·5 cm. wide, projecting about 0·5 cm. Above this is a narrower, shallower moulding, whose width is less than 1·0 cm. The block is hollowed out from beneath to 16·5 cm. from the present lower edge. The walls vary from 3·0 to 5·0 cm. in thickness, and, whereas the inner vertical surfaces are smooth, the inner horizontal surface has the rough marks of a punch. The preservation of the lower half of the block is inferior to that of the upper, and at each corner, just above the lower edge of the cipppus, there is the slanting cut of a saw for a few centimetres into the stone

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