Tauroctony relief of Alba Iulia

TNMM 346 ↔ CIMRM 1938

Relief in limestone (H. 1.02 Br. 0.78 D. 0.08) found at Mures Port. At first in Museum at Alba Julia, now at Arad, Museum.

The upper part of the relief is nearly completely lost. The bust of Sol (l); the raven; the upper part of Mithras; the head of the bull and its forelegs; the r. torchbearer; the lower part of Luna; no inscription.

The present relief of Mithras Tauroctonos was a well known artifact, cited numerous times in the abundant literature on the Mithraic material of the Roman province of Dacia. First time described by Marteen Vermaseren in his monumental corpus (CIMRM 1938), his work was cited continuously without the picture of the artifact, known later as a “disappeared” object. Based on some recently found literary and photographic sources, the authors identified and rediscovered the relief in the deposit of the Museum of Arad. Due to the new data and the iconographic features, the relief can be analyzed in details and interpreted in its own archaeological and iconographic contexts, serving new details for the rich Mithraic material and religious life of Apulum.