Marble Table Base with the Story of Jonah in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, August 2007

Marble Table Base with the Story of Jonah
Roman; found in 1876 at Tarsos (modern Tarsus in Southern Turkey)
Carved early 300s

Accession # 77.7

This table base, part of a table for funerary feasts held at gravesites, displays an Old Testament story (Jonah 1:12- 2:10) and features a rare detailed depiction of a Roman merchant ship. Jonah is swallowed by a ketos, a legendary sea-monster of the classical world. Tarsos, the birthplace of Saint Paul, was an important Christian city. The story of Jonah was probably meant to be a foretelling of the Resurrection of Christ, as is indicated in the Gospel of Matthew (12:40).

Text from the Metropolitan Museum of Art label.