From Blanche Brown Ptolemaic paintings and mosaics (1957)
The inscription reads : Bitos, son of Lostoielcos a
Galatian
On a sunken panel a soldier is painted standing ''at ease''. He
wears a large mantle, which is fastened on his right shoulder and hangs
straight down, so that it covers his entire body and extends to the bottom of
his calves. In his right hand he holds a spear at a slightly oblique angle and
in his left, a tall oval shield which goes from his feet to his chin.
The background is pink. The man's flesh is red-brown and so is his
hair. His long chlamys is blue. Very little of the shield's surface is left ;
what fragmentary color clings is brown. The spear is brown. Small brown shadows
fall to the left from each foot. The gray lines of the preliminary dawing are
visible
The painting in the sunken panel represents a man who is
apparently trying to bridle an unruly horse. The horse stands on its hind legs,
with its forelegs off the ground and its head raised. The a belted tunic and a
conical hat (pilos), but there is no sign of the ''stick or sword'' which has
been described in previous publications as being held in his belt. A boy in a
tunic stands by at the right.
The background is pink. The horse is bright red with brown in the tail and the shadowed areas. Its bridle is rendered in darker red with: one area of yellow. The flesh of the man and boy is orange shaded with red, and their lips are picked out with red. Their chitons are yellow-white. The color which remains of the man's hair is red; his pilos is brown. The boy's hair is violet-black.
The painting in the sunken panel represents a man with a black
mustache who reaches toward a kantharos held by a boy at the left. The boy
holds also a lance, the point of which is visible in the upper corner, and a
large oval shield resting on the foot and leaning against his chest. The man
wears a mantle fastened on his right shoulder and hanging straight down so that
it covers his body. The boy wears a tunic.
The background is gray. The bov's skin is several shades darker
than the man's, and it is shaded in dark brown on the arm holding the
kantharos, the right side of his right leg, and all of the left foot behind the
shield. The man's eyes and mustache are black. His hair is no longer visible.
His chlamys is bright blue. The boy's body is almost entirely covered by the
shield which is green- blue around the edge with bright red crescents at the
top and bottom and a large yellow area in the middle on which are traces of
black. Merriam suggested that the black may have represented a Gorgoneion,but,
at least now, it is impossible to make anything out. The spearhead is brown.
The kantharos is black.
The painting in the sunken panel represents a man shaking hands
with one of two little girls in long robes who stand next to one another on the
left. The second girl raises her right hand toward him. Both hold small black
objects in their left hands, at waist level. The man wears a chlamys, and
probably is nude under it. The painting is far from clear, since its condition
is bad but what is left of the color in the region of the torso is the same as
the head, arms, and legs, and there is no outline of a tunic hem. Therefore, he
must be nude. If true, this painting reveals that the Galatian habit of at
least partial nudity continued in Ptolemaic Egypt. In the upper left are
several looped lines which have been explained as a double looped Fillet with
two hanging ends, and which could well be that. Such fillets are not often seen
on the Alexandrian stelai, but there is another clear example from the Shatbi
cemetery.
The background is grav. The flesh of the man is peach color with a
violet shadow line on the under side of the arm. His chlamys is bright blue.
Both little girls wear long pink robes with a fold line and an outline at the
right in red-violet. The girl at the left has a light blue panel
from the waist
to the knees on the side of her dress. The other girl has a similar panel but
the paint is gone from
it. The hair of all three is brown. The looped ribbons in the
upper left are red and blue.
In spite of the inscription it is not a woman but a man who is
represented in the sunken panel: a soldier in a chlamys and perhaps a tunic.
The painting is not clear enough to be sure about the tunic. In his left hand
he holds a large oval shield and, in his right, a lance which rests on the
ground and makes an oblique line upward.
The surface of the painting is almost entirely gone. What remains
visible today is the drawing in sanguine, a reddish color in the background and
ground area, brown skin, and white chlamvs. One can no longer make out the
color of the area where the tunic would be or the shield.
The inscription reads: Ailearatos, son of Aidosotis, a Galatian
On the sunken panel of this stele too a soldier is painted. He wears a chlamys, may be nude under it, and has a helmet on his head. In his left hand he holds a large oval shield which covers half of his body and in his lowered right hand a spear. The surface of the painting is almost entirely gone There is no evidence of paint on the background. The skin is tinted in an orangish color. Since the same color also occurs in the area where a tunic is expected, it is possible that he is nude under the chlamys, but again the painting is not clear enough to tell. One cannot make out the color of chlamys or shield.
The painting in the sunken panel represents a soldier similar to
the one in Number 8, Plate II.He wears a cloak which falls to his feet. In his
left hand he holds a large oval shield and in his upraised hand
a spear.
No surface at all is left on this stele, only faint traces of the
drawing in sanguine
The soldier painted on the sunken panel wears a tunic, probably a
cuirass, and a chlamys. He holds a lance in his raised right hand. His shield,
which seems to be round and reaches almost to his waist, is on the ground to
the left, presumably standing on the ground and leaning on the wall behind.
There is no evidence of paint on the background. The ground area
seems to be gray. The skin sanguine. The shield is drawn in pale yellow
The base into which the slab is set is modern. The soldier painted
on the sunken panel wears a tunic and chlamys and holds a spear in his right
hand. A round shield rests on the ground at his feet.
The color that is left is almost all ochre, with a yellowv-ochre
background, dark vellowv-ochre on the chlamys, and light ochre on the tunic.