Crepereia Tryphaena

Crepereia Tryphaena was a young Roman woman, presumably about 20 years old, whose sarcophagus was found during the excavation works started in 1889 for the foundations of the Palace of Justice and for the construction of the Umberto I bridge over the Tiber in Rome. Among the items found in her sarcophagus were pieces of a funeral outfit, including a sculpted doll.

Discovery

During the excavation, several archaeological finds came to light, including a group of five sarcophagi buried between the middle of the 2nd and the 3rd centuries AD; of these, two still sealed were named after members from the same family: Crepereia Tryphaena and Crepereius Euhodus. The two sarcophagi had been buried at the bottom of a well later filled with earth, and they were placed side by side and decorated only on two sides, as if they had been tombe bisome or double burial.

The funeral equipment, present only in the Tryphaena sarcophagus, included many gold ornaments; moreover, placed next to her skeleton there was an ivory doll, of fine workmanship and with hinged limbs. To the Romans who on the morning of 12 January 1889 learned about this exceptional discovery near the Umberto I bridge, she resembled a river divinity. When the sarcophagus, which was still sealed, was opened, the young woman, submerged in the water coming from the nearby Tiber river, appeared as a nymph. Archaeologist Rodolfo Lanciani, Pascoli composed a poem in Latin which he presented on the occasion of the wedding of the daughter of the honourable Benzoni, at that time minister of public education and his friend and protegee in Rome:

Tryphaena's doll The doll, 23 cm tall, is not a common toy but rather a "prestigious" object, The technical skill of the craftsman who created it also stands out in the body with movable joints; legs and arms are connected to the trunk with small pins. Near the doll were discovered the remains of an ivory casket also originally believed to be wood. Remounted over a perspex structure, it belonged to the doll's kit. On one of its thumbs, the doll had a key ring inserted of the type used by the Romans for jewelry boxes.

Origin of the family Tryphaena has been identified as a girl who lived in the mid-2nd century AD. The terminus post quem for the burial can be obtained through the doll's hairstyle, coiffed according to a composite Roman fashion hairstyle with elements of the times of empress Faustina Major (r. 138–40) (complex joining on the nape of small braids gathering on the top of the head)