Heliodromus inscription of Cerveteri

TNMM 512

[This monument] comes from Ceri, a hamlet of the municipality of Cerveteri, whose name can be clearly read on the first preserved line; it was catalogued by Gasperini in 2006 at the Panunzi house and is still located in the porch of the garden. It is a monolithic block of compact yellowish-coloured fossiliferous sandstone (92 x 58 x 59 cm), mutilated in the upper part and lacking the crowning: it is composed, from bottom to top, of a 19.5 cm high plinth with an almost square base (58 x 59 cm), a high groove (10.2 cm) and a central dado (40 x 39 cm), severely damaged in the front part and broken, horizontally, into two halves that join at the back. The lower part presents a niche in the central dado (29 x 22.5 cm, 21 cm deep), which recalls a whole series of similar cavities excavated in Mithraic altars and interpreted in the scientific bibliography as niches, intended to contain lamps, sometimes covered by perforated slabs that let the light filter through, allowing the light to shine through backlighting of the monuments themselves.