Noé en Mérida (Augusta Emérita)

Abstract

For a long time, a relief, preserved in the Museo Nacional de Arte Romano in Mérida (Badajoz, Spain) has been considered to be a representation of the oriental god Mithras Saxigenus and, therefore, as another witness of the oriental cults in the ancient capital of Lusitânia. Although some authors interpreted it differently, as a funeral banquet with a portrait of the dead person, nobody has yet proposed the Christian interpretation presented here: the image of Noah emerging from the Ark, shown on the front of a sarcophagus lid, and the representation of a celestial banquet celebrating the salvation of the dead. The piece is dated to the last quarter of the 3rd century AD and thus is the first archaeological evidence of Christianity in the colonia Augusta Emerita