Portraits of the dead: A Roman family funerary stele from the Middle Strymon Valley

This article presents a marble funerary stele depicting a family group that was discovered during rescue excavations conducted in 2025 in the Roman and Late Antique necropolis near the village of Struma (Sandanski Municipality, Southwestern Bulgaria). The monument was found reused as a covering slab in a child’s grave dated to the late 3rd – early 4th c. AD. The relief represents the busts of a married couple with a girl positioned below them. Despite the poor state of preservation, the iconography and stylistic features of the figures allow for a more precise assessment of the monument’s date and regional context. The hairstyles of the depicted figures, particularly the melon coiffure of the girl, suggest a date within the Middle Antonine period (c. AD 160–180). Close parallels can be identified in the funerary sculpture of the Middle Strymon Valley, especially at Heraclea Sintica and Laskarevo. The monument provides important new evidence for Roman funerary relief sculpture in the Middle Strymon Valley.